After Neil Diamond had signed a deal with the MCA Records label of Universal Pictures' parent company, MCA Inc., whose label was then called the Uni Records label in the late 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles, California in 1970. His sound mellowed, with such songs as "'Cracklin' Rosie," "Sweet Caroline," "Holly Holy," and the country-and-western tinged "Song Sung Blue," which reached #1 on the Hot 100. "Sweet Caroline" was Diamond's first major hit after his slump. Neil Diamond recently admitted in 2007 that he had written "Sweet Caroline" for Caroline Kennedy after seeing her on the cover of Life Magazine in an equestrian riding outfit. It took him just one hour, in a Memphis hotel, to write and compose it. The 1971 "I Am...I Said" was a top five hit in both the U.S. and UK, and was his most intensely personal effort to date, taking upwards of four months to complete.
In 1972, Diamond played ten sold-out concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. During the performance on Thursday, August 24, which was recorded and released as the live double album Hot August Night, Diamond said: "Thank you people in the audience that pays. Tree people out there, God bless you, I'm singing for you too." His reference was to the people hiding and listening from the trees on the hills surrounding the theatre. A few weeks later, in the fall of 1972, Diamond performed a series of one-man concerts on 20 consecutive nights at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. Every one of these reportedly sold out, and the small (approximately 1,600-seat) Broadway theater provided an intimate concert setting not common at the time. Hot August Night demonstrates Diamond's skills as a performer and showman, as he reinvigorated his back catalogue of hits with new energy. Many consider it his best work; critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls Hot August Night “the ultimate Neil Diamond record ... [which] shows Diamond the icon in full glory.” The album has become a classic. It was remastered in 2000 with three additional tracks not included in the original release (Walk on Water, Kentucky Woman and Stones). In Australia, it spent a remarkable 29 weeks at number 1 on the music charts; in 2006, it was voted #16 in a poll of favourite albums of all time in Australia. Also, in 1976 Neil Diamond's final concert of his 1976 Australian Tour (The "Thank You Australia" Concert) was broadcast over Channel 9 Australia to 36 television outlets nationwide on March 6, 1976 and remains the most popular and most watched music event ever broadcast in Australia. It also set a record for the largest attendance ever at the Sydney Sports Grounds. The 1977 concert Love At The Greek, a return to the Greek Theatre, includes a version of "Song Sung Blue" with duets with Helen Reddy and Henry Winkler a.k.a. Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli of Happy Days.
In 1973, Diamond hopped labels again, returning to the Columbia Records label with a lucrative new million-dollar-advance-per-album contract. His first project, released as a solo album, was the soundtrack to Hall Bartlett's film version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The film received hostile reviews and did poorly at the box-office. The album grossed more than the film did. Richard Bach, author of the best-selling source story, disowned the film. Both Bach and Diamond sued the film’s producer. Diamond felt the film butchered his score. Despite the shortcomings of the film, the soundtrack was a success, peaking at number 2 on the Billboard albums chart. The film score would also earn Diamond a Golden Globe, a Grammy Award (for "Skybird"), and an Oscar nomination. Diamond often includes a Jonathan Livingston Seagull suite in his live performances (as he did in his 1977 "Love at The Greek" concert). In 1974, Diamond released the album Serenade, from which the songs "Longfellow Serenade" and "I've Been This Way Before" were released. The latter had been intended for the Jonathan Livingston Seagull score, but was completed too late for inclusion.
In 1976, he released Beautiful Noise, produced by The Band's Robbie Robertson. On Thanksgiving night, 1976, Neil made an appearance at The Band's farewell concert, The Last Waltz. He performed one song, "Dry Your Eyes," which he had jointly written and composed with The Band's Robbie Robertson, and which had appeared on what was then his most recent album, Beautiful Noise. In addition, he joined the rest of the performers onstage at the end in a rendition of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released."
In 1977, Diamond released an album titled I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight, which included the selection "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." He had composed its music and collaborated on its lyrics with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. The song was covered by Barbra Streisand on her album Songbird, which led Gary Guthrie, then Program Director at WAKY Radio in Louisville, Kentucky, to combine the two recordings in a virtual duet. The popularity of the virtual duet motivated Diamond and Streisand to record the real thing, which was a number one hit in 1978 and became his third song to top the Hot 100 to date. His last 1970s album was September Morn, which included his newly-recorded version of I'm a Believer. It and Red Red Wine are the two best-known selections of his authorship and composition to have had other artists make them more famous than his own versions.
In February 1979, "Forever in Blue Jeans", an up-tempo song by Neil Diamond which was co-written with his guitarist Richard Bennett was released as a single by Columbia. It taken from the previous year's Neil Diamond album You Don't Bring Me Flowers.
According to Cotton Incorporated "Neil Diamond might have been right when he named his 1979 #1 hit “Forever in Blue Jeans”: 81% of women are planning their next jeans purchase to be some shade of blue." The song, needless to say, has been used to promote the sale of blue jeans, most notably Will Ferrell, impersonating Neil Diamond singing, for The Gap. Ironically, Diamond himself did radio ads for H.I.S. brand jeans in the 1960s, more than a decade before he sang this song.
