On April 20, 2013, Boston walked back into Fenway Park with a heavy heart. It was the first home game since the Marathon bombing. The city was tired, scared, and still trying to breathe again.
Far away in Los Angeles, Neil Diamond was watching the news. In the middle of the night, he made a choice. At 4:00 a.m., he and his wife got on a plane, paid their own way, and flew to Boston. No big plan. No press tour. He simply showed up at Fenway about an hour before the game and asked, “Can I sing in the eighth inning?”
When that moment came, he walked onto the field in a Red Sox cap. The words to “Sweet Caroline” started, and something shifted. After that day, “Sweet Caroline” sales jumped nearly 600 percent. Neil Diamond gave every penny of those royalties to help the bombing victims through One Fund Boston.
For one inning, it became Boston’s heartbeat.
Neil Diamond lit up Fenway Park in 2013
You can even hear Neil fighting the stadium echo, slightly out of sync with the speakers because he is singing live and pushing through it anyway. Most powerful of all are the faces in the crowd—some crying, some hugging, some just swaying and shouting “So good! So good!” like their lives depend on it.
Neil Diamond honors Boston after Marathon Bombings – 4/20/2013 (Sweet Caroline)
The story goes back to 1997, when a stadium staff member, Amy Tobey, quietly played “Sweet Caroline” for a friend who had just named her baby Caroline. Fans reacted, the moment stuck, and by 2002 Red Sox executive Dr. Charles Steinberg had locked it in as an 8th-inning ritual because of how it could flip the mood of the entire park.
You also learn the truth behind the “Caroline” myth. For years people believed it was written for Caroline Kennedy. Neil Diamond even sang it to her on her 50th birthday. Later, he admitted the song was inspired by his wife, Marsha, but he needed a three-syllable name for the melody.