The Very Best of Neil Diamond - The Original Studio Recordings - tracklist

Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings proudly announce the release of The Very Best of Neil Diamond - The Original Studio Recordings on Tuesday, December 6, 2011.

The new long-awaited definitive single disc compilation of 23 best-loved hits and signature tracks from America's quintessential singer-songwriter is the first Neil Diamond collection to draw from the artist's complete studio discography.

The Very Best of Neil Diamond - The Original Studio Records includes his first pop chartings as a writer/performer for Bang Records in the mid-1960s; his spectacular career-defining hits for Uni/MCA (1968-1972); music from 1980's The Jazz Singer (his 5x platinum-selling soundtrack album on Capitol Records) and studio essentials from a long-running association with Columbia Records that began in 1973 with the Jonathan Livingston Seagull soundtrack album and runs through a pair of Rick Rubin-produced albums: 12 Songs (2005) and Home Before Dark (which became Neil's first Number 1 album on the Billboard 200 in 2008).

Also included is "Recollections," a revelatory set of liner notes penned by Neil especially for this collection, providing anecdotal detail and behind-the-scenes point-of-view insight into each of the songs.

In his reflections on "Hell Yeah," the track that closes the album, he writes, "'Hell Yeah' is an affirmation of a lifetime spent devoted to music and my attempt to find a personally satisfying life for myself beyond the music. I have that life now but it was a much harder job than I thought possible. Still, well worth all the years and all the tears."

In closing his "Recollections" for The Very Best of Neil Diamond - The Original Studio Recordings, Neil says, "I wish I could personally thank the hundreds of musicians, arrangers, and engineers who, along with the producers, spent long days and nights in studios around the country to make these recordings vibrate and thrill. As a songwriter I can only humbly bow down and thank them all from the depths of my heart for giving wings to my dreams."

Across a musical career spanning nearly five decades, Neil Diamond has sold more than 125 million albums worldwide, with a remarkable track record of 16 Top Ten albums, and 37 Top Ten singles. A Grammy Award-winning artist, Neil Diamond has been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award. Among Diamond's many other honors, he has received a Golden Globe Award, 12 Grammy nominations and was named the 2009 MusiCares Person of the Year.

Neil Diamond, a 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, was recently announced as a 2011 Kennedy Center Honoree and will be part of the 85th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The Very Best of Neil Diamond - The Original Studio Recordings:

1. Forever In Blue Jeans
2. Beautiful Noise
3. Love On The Rocks
4. Cherry, Cherry
5. I Am…I Said
6. Sweet Caroline
7. Cracklin' Rosie
8. Play Me
9. I'm A Believer
10. Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon
11. Holly Holy
12. Solitary Man
13. Song Sung Blue
14. You Don't Bring Me Flowers
15. Hello Again
16. Red, Red Wine
17. If You Know What I Mean
18. Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
19. Pretty Amazing Grace
20. Kentucky Woman
21. Shilo
22. America
23. Hell Yeah

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