Not that Neil Diamond cares what I have to say, but it will make me feel better to get this off my chest.

Dear Neil,

I’m sorry. I used to think your songwriting was weird and your vocal style was loungey.

I firmly believed this for about 42 years, and only changed my mind last fall when I was forced to learn your music for a Neil Diamond tribute show I got hired to play on trumpet.

My bad.

Sincerely,

Todd

I do have reasons for why I wasn’t on board with Diamond. I’ll share them with you, but fair warning, they aren’t what I’d call “super legit”.  But, they are reasons nonetheless.

Back in the fall of 1982, I was an awkward 8th grader at Wheatland Middle School who had mixed feelings about his English teacher.  On the one hand, she was a good teacher and a nice lady.  On the other hand, she was very emotional and “in touch with her feelings”; a combo that immature boys like me just couldn’t deal with.  Sometimes when she told stories, my only thought was, “Geez lady- calm down”!

Also during that autumn of ’82, the classic movie E.T. came out.  Neil Diamond had written a song called “Heartlight”, that was directly inspired by the movie.  In fact, I thought it was officially connected to the movie until I fact-checked myself while writing this piece.

Anyway, “Heartlight” was everywhere.  You couldn’t go more than a few days without hearing it somewhere.  The radio was polluted with it.

I hated it.  I thought it was sentimental and lame.

I wasn’t into the E.T. movie either. I thought that was sappy and lame too.

My family had attempted to go see the film, but our car broke down on the way to the theater and we missed it.  By the time we made our second trip to the theater a week later, E.T. was extremely bloated with hype.  

Leaving the theater, I was underwhelmed by the film and sick of hearing about it all the time.

And that schmaltzy, sucky “Heartlight” song made it worse.

Ok, back to 8th grade English.  Shortly after finally seeing E.T., I was sitting in class when my super sappy teacher told us her experience of waking up that morning. The story went something like this:

Her curtains were closed when she woke up, but she could see a bit of morning light creeping in around the window edges.  She turned on the radio and caught her favorite song, “Heartlight”, already in progress.  That in itself made for a great morning, but when she opened the curtains, the full glory and warmth of the sun rushed into the room, blending with the music to fill her heart with joy and beauty.  She was moved to tears.

Hearing this story, I was moved to gag.  From what I could tell, so were most of the other guys in the class.  The girls, on the other hand, were tearing up right along with my teacher, as she relived her morning glory.

That story put me over the edge.  I was fed up with E.T. and everything connected to it.

I was mad at E.T., “Heartlght”, the guy who wrote it, all of his music, and my English teacher.

I forgave the English teacher, but for some reason, held on to the other stuff for 42 years! Or so I thought….

In the meantime, I was liking Neil Diamond songs without realizing it.

Sweet Caroline– sort of liked it.

Red Red Wine– loved it (the UB40 version– I was an 80’s kid).

I’m A Believer– cool!

You Don’t Bring Me Flowers– a little too mature for me at the time but it drew me in.

Then, last summer I got the call to play Diamond: The Neil Diamond Tribute at Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, PA.  I started listening to the stuff with a mind forced open by necessity.  It’s harder to play music you don’t like, so if I was going to dislike it, I at least needed to give it a fair trial first. 

But 42 years changes a person.  I found that I appreciated Diamond’s unique songwriting and unmistakable vocal style. I began to understand why so many people love his music.  

By the end of the show’s week long run, I had Diamond songs in my head 24/7 and I didn’t mind it at all.  Since then, I’ve even chosen to listen to his music for pleasure several times!  

Turns out letting go of all that 8th grade nonsense really gave me a new perspective.

Sorry Neil! I’m on board now, but I still can’t stand that “Heartlight” song.

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