Sweet Caroline

For the Prison Break episode, see Sweet Caroline (Prison Break episode).

"Sweet Caroline"
Song

"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.

At sporting events

Sweet Caroline is popular at sporting events, and is played at Auburn University, Boston College, Penn State, Ohio State, Texas Christian University, Boston Red Sox, New York Giants, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, Washington Nationals, Brevard County Manatees, San Jose Giants, Portland Beavers, University of Mississippi and Vanderbilt University baseball games, and University of North Carolina and Florida State University sporting events, as well as University of Kansas, Michigan State University, Davidson 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 Universty of Central Florida (UCF) started playing Sweet Caroline at their baseball games, usually in the 7th inning.

The song began being used as a victory song for the New York Rangers during the 2005-2006 season when head coach Tom Renney would play it in the locker room following victories. Shortly thereafter, the song began being played at Madison Square Garden by the PA System at the end of games that the Rangers were winning. However, during that season there were a few times in which the song was played prior to the end of the game with the Rangers in the lead. Some of those even resulted in the Rangers eventually losing the game. Shortly after that, the song began only being played if a game was out of reach for the opponent or after the game.

The song is usually sung by supporters of English football team Arsenal and Northern Ireland fans where it is heard at Windsor Park before the match, at half time and after the final whistle is blown.

"Sweet Caroline" is the official club song at Brunton Park, home of Carlisle United FC of Football League One, where it is played as the players make their entrance; it is a fan favourite in Cumbria and was chosen by fan vote. In the past two seasons it has also been often used at Hereford United away matches, which is always started by a group of fans known as the 'Fun Bus'.

In the 2005/2006 English Football season "Sweet Caroline" was adopted by the players of Reading Football Club. For many fans of Reading FC it evokes memories of the record breaking season of 05/06 when Reading scored 106 points to walk away with the Coca Cola Championship title.

At the annual Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, which draws large numbers of tourists to the city, "Sweet Caroline" is amongst the few songs which are hailed as anthems of the major sporting event/festival. The entire stadium tends to burst into simultaneous song during the chorus when the song is played during breaks between games.

In Australia the song is recited at St. John's College, University of Sydney after sporting events and at formal dinners where the residents wear academic attire.

Sweet Caroline and the Boston Red Sox

The song got its start at Fenway Park thanks to Amy Tobey, who was the ballpark’s music director from 1998 to 2004. She was responsible for choosing the music to be played between innings and picked Sweet Caroline simply because she had heard it played at other sporting events.

At first, Tobey played the song at random games sometime between the seventh and ninth innings, and only if the Red Sox were ahead. Tobey considered the song a good luck charm and it soon became something the fans anticipated.

But it wasn’t until 2002, when John W. Henry's group bought the Boston Red Sox, that Sweet Caroline become an official Fenway tradition. That’s when the new ownership requested that Tobey play the song during the eighth inning of every game.

Today Megan Kaiser is the person who chooses the between innings songs at Fenway Park, with the 8th inning exception.

Kaiser did add a slightly new touch to the playback of Diamond’s tune, as she turns off the sound during the most popular parts of the song. Red Sox fans know the words by heart now so they don’t need much help with the lyrics, and the song has become an important part of the ballpark atmosphere.

The sing-along gained fame in a sequence of the 2005 movie Fever Pitch. In the karaoke and sing-along versions, the chorus has fans singing "Sweet Caroline..." with the fans imitating the music to "Oh, oh, oh! Good times never seemed so good" followed by the chant of "So good, so good, so good!" The next line goes "I've been inclined..." with the "Oh, oh, oh!" tag repeated.

On April 8, 2008 during the Red Sox' first home game of the 2008 season, a new video of Diamond performing the song was unveiled as part of the opening day activities. In the video Diamond was wearing a Red Sox jacket.

Covers

• In his February 1970 shows at the International, Elvis Presley first sang "Sweet Caroline", it was so popular, the song remained in his set list for many years.

• In 1970, Anthony Armstrong took the song into the Top 40 of the country charts. In 1972, Bobby Womack took it into the Top 20 of the R&B charts {#16). A number of other artists have recorded covers, including Andy Williams, Bobby Goldsboro, Elvis Presley, the Ventures, Ray Conniff, Boots Randolph, Frank Sinatra, Guster, and Waylon Jennings.

• In the 1996 film Beautiful Girls, Timothy Hutton leads a sing-along performance of the song in a Massachusetts bar.

• In Ireland, in December 2001, a dance version by Dustin the Turkey reached number one in the singles charts, his last number-one hit to date. It was also covered by the punk music band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their album Have a Ball. "Sweet Caroline" has also been covered by Reggae group Bunny Rugs & The Upsetters in 1974 on their album To Love Somebody.

• 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 (10 September and 12 September 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, Nevada.

• During U2's PopMart Tour, U2's guitarist The Edge performed several karaoke versions of "Sweet Caroline".

• The song was covered by The Railbenders, a Denver-based hard-country band on their 2003 release Segundo.

• Angelo Venuto recorded a techno version of the song.

• Bobby Darin performed the song live, but at a slower, more dramatic tempo. This cover is available on the HYENA DVD Bobby Darin- Seeing Is Believing.

• Jonathan Coulton often performs the song with Paul and Storm as part of his encore.

• According to the album literature of 1996's In My Lifetime, Diamond came up with the famous A6 chord (used in the "...hands, touching hands" portion of the song) in the song in a hotel room one night.

• On season 7 of American Idol, top 5 contestant David Archuleta performed this song the night Neil Diamond mentored the contestants.

• Joe Dolan recorded a cover shortly before his death.

In entertainment

• The song served as the opening theme for Caroline Rhea's short-lived 2002 talk show. The audience often sang along with the song as well.

• The song was heard as Detroit Tigers' manager Jim Leyland's ringtone in a December 2007 press conference.

• The song was sung by David Archuleta, a contestant on season 7 of American Idol. On that night, Diamond performed one of his newer songs from his new album.