Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor.
Neil Diamond was born into a Jewish Russian-Polish family, the son of a dry-goods merchant. He grew up in several homes in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, attending Erasmus Hall and Abraham Lincoln High Schools. At Erasmus Hall, he took part in SING! and sang in the school choir with Barbra Streisand, who then spelled her name “Barbara.” At Lincoln, the school from which he received his high school diploma, he was a member of the fencing team. He later attended NYU on a fencing scholarship, specializing in épée. In a live interview with TV talk show host Larry King, Neil Diamond explained his decision to study medicine. He said: “I actually wanted to be a laboratory biologist. I wanted to study. And I really wanted to find a cure for cancer. My grandmother had died of cancer. And I was always very good at the sciences. And I thought I would go and try and discover the cure for cancer.” However, during his senior year a music publishing company made him an offer he could not refuse to write songs for $50 a week and this started him on the road to stardom.
Diamond spent his early career as a writer in the Brill Building, and had an early success writing “I’m a Believer”, “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow),” and Love to Love which were recorded by The Monkees. There is a popular misconception that Diamond wrote and composed these songs specifically for the “Pre-Fab Four.” In reality, Diamond had written, composed and recorded these songs to release himself, but the cover versions were released before his own. The unintended, but happy, consequence of this was that Diamond began to gain fame not only as a singer and performer, but also as a songwriter. “I’m a Believer” was the Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966. Other notable artists who covered early Neil Diamond songs were Elvis Presley, who interpreted “Sweet Caroline” and “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”, the English hard rock band Deep Purple which interpreted “Kentucky Women”, Lulu, who covered “The Boat That I Row”, and Cliff Richard, who released versions of “I’ll Come Running”, “Solitary Man”, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”, “I Got The Feelin’(Oh, No, No), and “Just Another Guy”.
Shilo
In 1973 Neil Diamond released a song about a child with an imaginary friend that is the only person he could count on throughout his life. When everyone else failed or deserted him, Shilo would always be there.
This version of Shilo is from a classic performance from the 1960s and each time someone posts it on YouTube, it will always disappear after about two weeks.
http://djallyn.org/media/Shilo.flvYoung child with dreams
Dream every dream on your own
When children play,
Seems like you end up alone
Papa says he’d love to be with you
If he had the time
So you turn to the only friend you can find
There in your mindShilo when I was young,
I used to call your name
When no one else would come,
Shilo you always came and we’d playYoung girl with fire,
Something said she understood
I wanted to fly
She made me feel like I couldHeld my hand out, I let her take me
Blind as a child
All I saw was the way
That she made me smile
She made me smileShilo when I was young,
I used to call your name
When no one else would come,
Shilo you always came and you’d stayHad a dream and it filled me with wonder
She had other plans
“Got to go” said she’d know I’d understand
I understandShilo when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come….
Break