Best Karaoke Song of All Time! Sweet Caroline

Posted by: bigtunelover on: May 27, 2009

In: Uncategorized
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I know what you’re thinking. Your thinking “how is it possible that a couple of posts back we were talking about the Irish punk tune Drunken Lazy Bastard by The Mahones. Then it was an acoustic album of the Mexican band Maná performing Cuando Los Angeles Lloran. Somehow we also squeaked in a new funky-ish reggae like band from London called Will And The People singing their new kick ass song “Knocking”. Today, you click on your Life of Tunes bookmark (you know the one that you have placed under each bookmark folder so as not to miss it when you’re looking for it) the page loads and the Life of Tunes keeper is… drum roll please – Neil Diamond! Did he say Neil Diamond? How is that possible?

I’ll tell you how it’s possible. It’s possible because if you are honest with yourself and you are not concerned about what others think about you and you just open your mind and listen and feel; music speaks to you only on an emotional level. It’s not something you decide or control. Sure you can pick a CD up because everyone else is picking that CD. You can listen to it enough times that it starts to feel familiar and in the back of your mind in order to fit into your preconceived music ideas you basically force yourself to like it. That’s the exact opposite of what I am referring to here. We all have these songs in our history, some of us fight it and pretend they aren’t there and others are willing to put themselves out there a bit.

Neil Diamond’s “Moods” album was the first album that I ever really discovered. As a young child I listened to its songs over and over again, singing along to songs like Song Sung Blue and Play Me. I remember thinking while examining the front cover of Moods, “how is it possible that our couch upholstery managed to make it into Mr. Diamond’s wardrobe trailer?”

Today however we are not going to discuss Moods. Instead we are going to examine without a doubt the most loved karaoke song of all time – Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. A great song in its own right it has since been featured in one of my favorite movies, Beautiful Girls, released in 1996. Sweet Caroline has also been covered by Elvis Presley, The Ventures, Ray Coniff, Waylon Jennings and Frank Sinatra to name a few. It was released as a single on its own and then later added to late editions of the Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show album.

Sweet Caroline just makes me smile, plain and simple. The chorus known by all just begs to be sung and the commonly known “ba-ba-ba” in place of the horns when singing along is universally accepted as a hornless horn section. Listen to the original tack below and then watch the groovy live performance in video. Sing along at the top of your lungs. Who cares what your co-workers think. As a matter of fact, get everyone to gather around your desk and belt it out as a group. It will be the greatest team building exercise conceivable.