Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond has been a pop music star since the mid-1960s, writing and singing hit songs such as "Kentucky Woman" (1967), "Song Sung Blue" (1972) and "Love on the Rocks" (1980). A hired-gun songwriter in the early 1960s, he wrote the Monkees' 1967 hit "I'm a Believer" around the time he began his own recording career. On the strength of a string of hits, Diamond became one of the best selling performers of the 1970s. His devoted fan base carried him through the 1980s and in the 1990s he was rediscovered by a new generation of retro-loving pop fans. He has released several albums of live performances and many collections of his greatest hits, and composed soundtracks for movies includingJonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) and The Jazz Singer (1980, with Diamond also starring in film). His 2005 album 12 Songs was hailed as a return to his early days of songwriting glory and was the basis for one of the top grossing tours of the year. He followed up with 2008's Home Before Dark -- his first album to debut at the top of Billboard's charts. Diamond's other hits include: "Cherry, Cherry" (1966); "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" (1967); "Red, Red Wine" (1968); "Sweet Caroline" (1969); "Cracklin' Rosie" (1970); "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (1978, first solo and later a duet with Barbra Streisand); and "America" (1981).

Extra credit: Diamond songs that were hits for others include "Red, Red Wine" by the U.K. group UB40, and "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" by Urge Overkill (from the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction)... Diamond announced in 2007 that a childhood photo of Caroline Kennedy inspired him to write the hit tune "Sweet Caroline."