"Sweet Caroline" is a pop song written and performed by Neil Diamond and officially released on September 16, 1969, as a single. It was later released on December 9, 1972 as a part of Diamond's Hot August Night album. 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 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.^[1]

In the autumn 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 the inspiration for "Sweet Caroline" was President John F. Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, who was eleven years old at the time.^[2][3] Diamond sang the song to her at her 50th birthday celebration in 2007.^[4]

As of July 2011, the song has sold 1,377,000 digital downloads.^[5]

On December 21st, 2011 in an interview on the CBS Early Show, Diamond attributed the name Caroline to Caroline Kennedy. He said that a magazine cover photo of her as a young child on a horse with her parents in the background created an image in his mind, and that the rest of the song came together about five years after seeing the picture.

At sporting events [link]

"Sweet Caroline" is popular at sporting events. Boston's Fenway Park has played the song since at least 1997, and it has been played at every game in the middle of the eighth inning since 2002 by the influence of Amy Tobey, a production agent responsible for the audio played over the park's loudspeakers. "She had noticed 'Sweet Caroline' was used at other sporting events, and she decided to send the sweetness over the Fenway speakers."^[6] On opening night of the 2010 season at Fenway Park, the song was performed (albeit abridged) by Diamond himself. It is also played at sporting events at the University of Pittsburgh.^[7] The song is also played during television timeouts of Davidson College men's basketball games and gained national attention during the school's 2008 run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.^[8]

Cover versions [link]

• The most popular cover of this song was by the King of Rock himself, Elvis Presley, in the album "That's the Way it is".
• Victor Wood covered this song in the album Mr. Lonely.
• Bobby Womack covered this song in his 1972 album Understanding
• Frank Sinatra recorded a big band cover of "Sweet Caroline" for his 1974 LP Some Nice Things I've Missed.
• The third full length release from the punk band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, entitled "Have a Ball", released July 29, 1997, features a punk-rock cover of "Sweet Caroline".
• In November 2001, Dustin the Turkey took the song to number one on the Irish Singles Chart.
• Cover versions of this song are popular in Apres Ski events, especially in Austria with versions by artists such as DJ Ötzi.
• Glee covered the song in their first season episode 'Mash-Up'

Live cover performances [link]

• In his February 1970 shows at the International, Elvis Presley sang "Sweet Caroline." It was so popular, the song remained in his set list for many years. On the first released version from the On Stage album Presley introduced it, saying "A guy recorded a song last year. It's a beautiful song and the guy's name is Neil Diamond. I'd like to sing it for you now." Another live version from August 1970 was released in the movie Elvis: That's the Way It Is. On August 21, 1970, Presley sang the song live in concert at the Las Vegas International Hotel as Neil Diamond sat in the audience; Presley later introduced Diamond and fooled around with one line of Holly Holy.
• In September 2004, Jimmy Buffett included "Sweet Caroline" in a medley with "Why Don't We Get Drunk" during both of his Fenway Park shows (September 10/12, 2004) stating, "Never again will those songs be played together in one medley at Fenway Park."
• Dave Matthews Band followed suit and performed "Sweet Caroline" at Fenway Park on July 8, 2006 and again on March 24, 2007, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
• On season 7 of American Idol, runner-up David Archuleta performed this song the night Neil Diamond mentored the contestants.
• Tripod (band) covered the song at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2002.
• In their 2009 World Tour, the American pop rock band the Jonas Brothers performed a cover of the song.
• On an episode of the musical sitcom Glee, the character of Noah Puckerman (Mark Salling) performs a cover of the song.
• In 2010, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper performed a cover of the song at the Conservative Party of Canada Christmas party, in tribute to his wife Laureen.

Parodies [link]

In 2011, the song was parodied by The Fringemunks to recap Fringe episode 3.17, "Stowaway."^[9]

Appearances and references in other media [link]

• The song was often played in tribute to the offshore radio station Radio Caroline in documentaries about the radio station, such as The Story of Radio Caroline by former Radio Caroline DJ Ted Payne.
• The song is mentioned in the song "Pop In G" by Oregon based rock band Heatmiser off their 1996 album Mic City Sons.
• The song is performed in Ted Demme's 1996 film "Beautiful Girls".
• The song was used as the intro theme to Caroline Rhea's daytime talk show, with the audience often singing along.

References [link]