Neil Leslie Diamond was born in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn,
New York City, on January 24, 1941. His father, Akeeba "Kieve" Diamond,
was a dry-goods merchant. Both he and wife Rose were Jewish immigrants
from Poland. The Diamond family temporarily relocated to Cheyenne,
Wyoming, because of Kieve Diamond's military service during World War
II. During their time in Wyoming, Neil fell in love with "singing
cowboy" movies on matinée showings at the local cinema. After the end
of World War II, Neil and his parents returned to Brooklyn. He was
given a $9 acoustic guitar for a birthday gift, which began his
interest in music. At age 15 Neil wrote his first song, which he titled
"Here Them Bells".
At Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, Neil sang in the 100-member
fixed chorus, with classmate
Barbra Streisand, although the two
would not formally meet until over 20 years later. Neil and a friend,
Jack Packer, formed a duo singing group called Neil & Jack, and they
sang at Long Island's Little Neck Country Club and recorded a single
for Shell Records. The record failed to sell, however, and the duo soon
broke up.
In 1958 Neil entered New York University's pre-med program to become a
doctor, on a fencing scholarship. Medicine did not catch his interest
as much as music did, though, and he dropped out at the end of his
junior year, only 10 credits shy of graduation. He Diamond went to work
for Sunbeam Music on Manhattan's famous Tin Pan Alley. Making $50 a
week, he worked at tailoring songs to the needs and abilities of the
company's B-grade performers. Finding the work unrewarding, Neil soon
quit. Renting a storage room in a printer's shop located above the
famed Birdland nightclub on Broadway, Neil began to live there and
installed a $30 piano and a pay telephone, and set about writing his
songs his own way.
A chance encounter with the songwriting/record producing team of
Jeff Barry and
Ellie Greenwich led to a contract with
Bang Records. In 1966 he recorded his first album, featuring hit
singles such as "Solitary Man" and "Cherry, Cherry". That same year
Diamond appeared twice on
Dick Clark's
Bandstand (1952) TV musical variety
show. Also, The Monkees recorded several
songs to which he wrote the music, including "I'm a Believer" which was
a hit in 1967. A number of TV appearances followed, including singing
gigs on
The Mike Douglas Show (1961),
The Merv Griffin Show (1962)
and een a dramatic part as a rock singer on an episode of
Mannix (1967). Filling a musical void
that existed between Frank Sinatra and
Elvis Presley, Diamond found wide
acceptance among the young and old with his songs, but endured
criticism that his music was too middle-of-the-road.
Diamond split with Bang Records in 1969, and signed a contract with
California's Uni label, for which he recorded his first gold records.
In 1970 he introduced British rock star
Elton John in his first Stateside appearance
at Hollywood's Troubador nightclub. In December 1971 Diamond signed a
$5-million contract with Columbia Records, which led to more recording
contracts and live concert appearances. In 1972 Diamond took a 40-month
break from touring, during which he agreed to score the film
Die Möwe Jonathan (1973).
Although Diamond's soundtrack for that film earned him a Grammy Award,
it was a box-office failure. Despite having worked with an acting coach
since 1968, and talk of a five-picture acting contract with Universal
Studios, Diamond remained inhibited by shyness of being in front of a
camera. He turned down acting roles in every movie contract he was
offered (among them was Bob Fosse's
Lenny (1974) and
Martin Scorsese's
Taxi Driver (1976)). However, he did
appear as himself with Bob Dylan,
Joni Mitchell and
Neil Young in the 1978 documentary
The Band (1978). He appeared
at the 1977 Academy Awards where he presented Barbra Streisand the
Oscar for Best Song.
In the summer of 1976, on the eve of three Las Vegas shows, Diamond's
house in Bel Air was raided by the police because they received an
anonymous tip that there were drugs and weapons stored there. The
police found less than an ounce of marijuana. To have the arrest
expunged from his recored, Diamond agreed to a six-month drug aversion
program. In 1977 he starred in two TV specials for NBC. He had a cancer
scare in 1979, when a tumor was found on his spine and had to be
surgically removed, which confined him to a wheelchair for three
months. During his recuperation he was given the script for the lead
role in a planned remake of the early sound film
Der Jazzsänger (1927). Signing a
$1-million contract to appear as the son of a Jewish cantor trying to
succeed in the music industry, Diamond was cast opposite the legendary
Laurence Olivier and Broadway actress
Lucie Arnaz. Despite the almost universally
negative reviews of the film, it grossed three times its budget when
released late in 1980. In 1981 Diamond's hit single, "America", which
was part of the film's soundtrack, was used on news broadcasts to
underscore the return of the American hostages from Iran.
Aware of his lack of acting talent, Diamond never acted in movie roles
again, aside from making appearances as himself. A movie fan, he
collaborated on writing the scores of many different soundtracks, which
can be heard in such films as
Die Kaktusblüte (1969),
Pulp Fiction (1994),
Beautiful Girls (1996),
Donnie Brasco (1997),
Bringing Out the Dead - Nächte der Erinnerung (1999)
and many more. He continues to occasionally perform in concerts and
write a vast catalog of music which is recored by both him and other
artists.
