Most people know “Sweet Caroline” as background music at games or parties. In this 2012 live performance from a famous open-air theater in Los Angeles, you see what it becomes when the man who wrote it leads the whole crowd himself. It feels less like a concert and more like an entire city singing one song with one voice.
You can see the years on his face, but not in his voice. At 71, his baritone is still strong and warm. He sings the verses like a story told to an old friend, then hits the chorus with the power of a man who knows this song belongs to millions of people, not just to him.
The real magic is the crowd. Thousands of people on their feet, hands in the air, yelling every “So good! So good! So good!” like their lives depend on it. When he reaches “Hands, touching hands / Reaching out, touching me, touching you,” he turns to them, and for a moment the whole place feels like one big family.
Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline (Live At The Greek Theatre / 2012)
That roar at the Greek in 2012 is the finished story, the moment “Sweet Caroline” belongs to everyone in the crowd. But the song itself started in a very quiet place. Years earlier, Neil Diamond was alone in a motel room, thinking about a single photograph of a young girl on a pony. Out of that small, private spark came the melody the whole world now sings.
Neil Diamond On Writing Sweet Caroline | TODAY
And then there is the night in Boston. By April 2013, “Sweet Caroline” has already gone from a quick idea in a motel room to a giant singalong in Los Angeles. But at Fenway Park, just days after the Boston Marathon bombings, it becomes something else. Neil flies in overnight, steps onto the field with no rehearsal, and sings along with the old recording over the stadium speakers.