Sweet Caroline

About Sweet Caroline

"Sweet Caroline" is a pop song written and performed by Neil Diamond and officially released on September 16, 1969, as a single. There are three distinct mixes of this song. The original mono 45 mix had a loud orchestra and glockenspiel compared to the stereo version on the Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show LP. The third version was a remix found only on the initial CD release of Neil Diamond's "His 12 Greatest Hits". This version has the orchestra mixed down very noticeably and has the background vocals mixed up. It has a longer fade as well. The song reached #4 on the Billboard chart and eventually went platinum for sales of one million singles.

In the fall of 1969, Diamond performed "Sweet Caroline" on several television shows. It later reached #8 on the UK singles chart in 1971. In a 2007 interview, Diamond revealed after many decades that the inspiration for "Sweet Caroline" was President John F. Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, who was eleven years old at the time. Diamond sang the song to her at her 50th birthday celebration in 2007.

Sweet Caroline is popular at sporting events, and is played at most notably at every Boston Red Sox home game during the middle of the eighth inning. It has also been played at Nashville Sounds home games, Auburn University, University of Pittsburgh, Boston College, Penn State, Ohio State, Texas Christian University,New York Giants, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals (during the visiting team's first pitching change, usually in the 6th inning or later), Brooklyn Cyclones Brevard County Manatees, San Jose Giants, Portland Beavers, Greenville Drive, University of Mississippi,University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University baseball games, and University of North Carolina, University of South Carolina,University of Wyoming and Florida State University sporting events, as well as University of Kansas, Michigan State University, Davidson College,Union College, Brevard College Charlotte Bobcats, and Washington State University basketball games, as well as New York Jets home games, UMass Amherst hockey games, Green Bay Blizzard,University of Wisconsin and Iowa State University football games and Bowling Green State University football and hockey games including the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, and Florida Panthers. Indiana University recently started playing it at their basketball games. The University of Central Florida (UCF) started playing Sweet Caroline at their baseball games, usually in the 7th inning. The Washington Glory of National Pro Fastpitch also play Sweet Caroline during their games.