When you had been Neil Diamond in 1979, day by day was a “September Morn” – a day filled with timeless love and grand, romantic gestures. “September Morn” marks an period the place Diamond was the king of pop romance. Sure, he was nonetheless recording upbeat tracks and infrequently releasing them as singles; however the dramatic ballads had turn out to be his actual calling card. The music wasn’t an enormous hit on the time of its launch, solely reaching #17 when he frequently hit the Prime Ten, nevertheless it’s since turn out to be one in all his most enduring tracks. Some issues are clearly constructed to final.
Neil Diamond within the Nineteen Seventies
“September Morn” additionally put the capper on Diamond’s most stressed, and arguably most attention-grabbing, decade. Certainly, his 70s started with the discharge of Faucet Root Manuscript, an album that took the unheard-of step of fusing his model of pop with conventional African music, a superb 15 years earlier than Paul Simon bought an analogous concept. On the time, Diamond was very a lot a part of the singer-songwriter motion, although he nonetheless had a little bit of the rock ‘n roll rebel in him. (Check the eye-grabbing cover of 1972’s dwell album Scorching August Evening, or play its scorching model of “Cherry, Cherry” in the event you don’t imagine me.)
The following spherical of modifications started when he switched labels from MCA to Columbia: He’d now be aiming for a extra grown-up viewers, phasing the rock parts out of his sound, and infrequently making a artistic leap – like his first album for the label, a symphonic soundtrack based mostly on the pop-philosophy phenomenon Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The primary Columbia hit, “Longfellow Serenade,” served as a bridge between his considerate acoustic fashion and the lusher ballads to come back. There was, nonetheless, a serious sidetrip earlier than he dedicated to balladry: In 1976, Diamond shocked all people by hooking up with one in all his extra unlikely followers, Robbie Robertson of The Band, who produced the autobiographical idea album Stunning Noise. Diamond went on to seem with The Band on The Final Waltz, and didn’t change his fashion a bit. This earned him loads of derision from the hipsters, however Diamond had the final snicker by way of the Robertson-produced hit single “Don’t Think….Feel,” one in all his sprightlier and extra pleasant tunes.
It was one other producer, nonetheless, who helped Diamond actually discover his path within the mid-’70s. This was Bob Gaudio, who knew just a few issues about making hit data – having written and produced dozens of them for his former group, the 4 Seasons. Gaudio got here aboard for 1977’s I’m Glad You’re Right here With Me Tonight, the place the balladeer Neil got here ahead in earnest. The primary single, “Desiree,” was a throwback to his earlier upbeat fashion, however one other music on the album would show extra vital: “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” was a ballad so emotive that Barbra Streisand instantly coated it, and quite a few radio stations created their very own mash-ups by splicing the 2 variations collectively. These proved such a sensation that the 2 then recorded a correct duet model, and it hit massive, changing into Diamond’s first Quantity One since “Song Sung Blue” in 1972.
September Morn
“September Morn” was the third in a streak of ballad hits, following “Flowers” and “Forever in Blue Jeans.” Most of those data had been made by the identical core crew, with Gaudio producing and Diamond’s common highway band taking part in backup. “September Morn” additionally launched one other necessary collaborator, the French singer/actor Gilbert Becaud. Like Diamond, Becaud was identified for giving energetic performances. Becaud was identified to his followers as “Monsieur 100,000 Volts.” He was additionally 13 years Diamond’s senior and hailed from a special period of pop; he’d written for Marlene Dietrich and composed the 1961 pop customary, “What Now My Love.” His collaboration with Diamond was short-lived however productive, starting with “September Morn” and yielding 5 songs for Diamond’s model of The Jazz Singer.
For “September Morn,” Diamond put a brand new lyric to Becaud’s tune, taking off from the music’s autumnal really feel. The distinction between the 2 songs is telling: Becaud’s tune, “C’est en septembre,” just isn’t a few relationship however a basic reflection on the modifications that the month brings. The translated lyrics learn partly, “The olive trees lower their arms, the grapes get red noses, and the sand has become cold in the white sun. Serious bathers and seasonal workers return to their real jobs, and the manger figurines will be sculpted before Christmas.” It’s poetic for certain, however not fairly the stuff that US chart smashes are fabricated from.
Examine that to Diamond’s lyric, which addresses the permanence of affection in phrases which can be haunting, common, and only a bit tragic. The singer’s ex-love seems earlier than him – whether or not within the flesh or in a dream is rarely made clear – and prompts a reverie about what that they had collectively and what’s left: “Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play, September morning still can make me feel that way.” There’s additionally a delicate reference to a earlier Diamond hit when he tells her, “Look at what you’ve done – why, you’ve become a grown-up girl.” In fact, he as soon as informed one other woman that she’d be a girl quickly.
Everybody who purchased the “September Morn” single bought a shock: The flipside was a rework of the Diamond-penned Monkees basic “I’m a Believer,” full with metal drums, a lightweight samba rhythm, and some new lyrics. That wasn’t the one left-field monitor on the September Morn album, which additionally had covers of Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” and Lloyd Value’s “Stagger Lee” – each among the many few full-fledged disco tracks Diamond ever reduce. His model of “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” (the Gaudio music initially finished by a solo Frankie Valli) was extra trustworthy, save for its outstanding use of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” guitar lick.
The music’s legacy
“September Morn” claimed a everlasting place in his followers’ hearts, and in his personal coronary heart as nicely. When requested to carry out on brief discover in 1985 at The White Home for a dinner honoring Prince Charles and Princess Diana, “September Morn” was one in all his two songs. Diamond additionally included the music when he got here out of retirement to carry out at a profit present in his honor on the MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment in Las Vegas in March 2020. It was one in all solely seven songs that he carried out that evening.
Diamond, in fact, had many extra hits, going sturdy with the ballad streak till 1982’s E.T.-inspired “Heartlight.” Gilbert Becaud remained a beloved performer in France till his demise in 2001. And Bob Gaudio made historical past by bringing the 4 Seasons to Broadway with Jersey Boys. After the huge success of that venture, he returned in 2021 with the one doable follow-up: The Neil Diamond musical, A Stunning Noise.
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