Neil Diamond / Noah Wyle On ‘The Pitt’

This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. In the new film Song Sung Blue, Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson play a couple who form a Neil Diamond tribute band. You know, Neil is special, and I just want everyone to get that feeling I get when I listen to America and Forever Blue jeans. Sweet Caroline.

Sweet Caroline, yeah, but I'm never gonna be the real McCoy. I mean, I I don't really look like Neil. I don't even really sound like Neil. And I'm I gotta be Neil, but I've just gotta be me, too. Yeah, you don't want to be a Neil Diamond impersonator, you want to be a Neil Diamond interpreter.

I was looking for the right way to say it, and you just came right out and said a Neil Diamond interpreter. Today we're going to listen to our interview with Neil Diamond. In the 1960s he started out writing songs for a music publishing company, hoping someone would record them. He wrote the monkeys hit I'm a Believer, but it was Diamond himself who made most of his own songs famous. Here's a sampler.

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