Neil Diamond’s ‘I Am… I Said’ Soundtracks Volkswagen Super Bowl Ad
The song appeared on the singer’s 1971 album ‘Stones.’
Neil Diamond’s “I Am… I Said” soundtracks a new Volkswagen Super Bowl ad. The commercial features Volkswagen throughout history, culminating in the unveiling of the company’s brand-new electric vehicle. Check the full clip out below.
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The classic track came from therapeutic writing sessions and a period of introspection for Diamond. He referred to this in a 2008 interview, telling Mojo that the song “was consciously an attempt on my part to express what my dreams were about, what my aspirations were about, and what I was about. And without any question, it came from my sessions with the analyst.” The song also expressed the views of an artist who felt lost between the worlds of New York and Los Angeles.
The song was first featured on Diamond’s Stones LP. After debuting on the American chart on November 13, 1971, the album hit the UK bestsellers on December 11 of that year.
Listen to the playlist Not Sweet Caroline, which celebrates some of Neil Diamond’s biggest hits.
Stones was only Diamond’s third LP to make the UK countdown, but on both sides of the Atlantic, its success was fueled by the aforementioned powerful hit single “I Am…I Said,” to this day one of the strongest entries in his entire songbook.
When Stones arrived, it opened with “I Am… I Said,” which had climbed to No.4 in both the US and UK. Elsewhere on the album, Diamond largely chose to interpret his contemporaries and other favorites. He took Roger Miller’s 1966 hit “Husbands and Wives” down to a reflective tempo and remade the work of such songwriting royalty as Joni Mitchell (“Chelsea Morning”), Leonard Cohen (“Suzanne”), and Randy Newman (“I Think It’s Going To Rain Today”).
