Neil Diamond - Early Career

Neil Diamond’s first recording contract was billed as "Neil and Jack", an Everly Brothers type duo, where Diamond appeared with a high school friend, Jack Packer. They recorded two unsuccessful singles, "What Will I Do" b/w "You Are My Love at Last" and "I'm Afraid" b/w "Till You've Tried Love" both released in 1962. Later in 1962, Diamond signed with the Columbia Records label as a solo performer. Columbia Records released the single "At Night" b/w "Clown Town" in July, 1963. Despite a tour of radio stations, the single failed to make the music charts. Billboard Magazine gave an excellent review to "Clown Town" in their July 13, 1963 issue, predicting it would be a hit. Unfortunately sales were disappointing and Columbia dropped Diamond from their label. Soon after that, Diamond was back to writing songs on an upright piano above the Birdland Club.

Diamond spent his early career as a songwriter in the Brill Building. His first success as a songwriter came in November, 1965 with the song "Sunday and Me" performed by Jay and the Americans, which was a top 20 hit on the Billboard Charts. Greater early success as a writer followed with "I'm a Believer", "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)," and "Love to Love" which were all recorded by The Monkees. There is a popular misconception that Diamond wrote and composed these songs specifically for the "Pre-Fab Four." In reality, Diamond had written, composed and recorded these songs to release himself, but the cover versions were released before his own. The unintended, but happy, consequence of this was that Diamond began to gain fame not only as a singer and performer, but also as a songwriter. "I'm a Believer" was the Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966. Other notable artists who recorded early Neil Diamond songs were Elvis Presley, who interpreted “Sweet Caroline” as well as “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”, Mark Lindsay, former lead singer for Paul Revere & the Raiders, also covered "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind", the English hard rock band Deep Purple which interpreted “Kentucky Woman”, Lulu, who covered “The Boat That I Row”, and Cliff Richard, who released versions of “I’ll Come Running”, “Solitary Man”, "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon", “I Got The Feelin’"(Oh, No, No), and “Just Another Guy.”