‘Cherry Cherry’: First Bite Of The Top Ten For Neil Diamond

The first chart bite of the Top 40 cherry for Neil Diamond arrived in America on September 10, 1966. In the days when he’d been making his name as a songwriter for others, and taking faltering commercial steps as an artist in his own right, “Cherry Cherry” gave him his first appearance in that upper echelon of Billboard’s Hot 100, on its way to his Top 10 debut.

Diamond had first appeared in that chart a few weeks earlier with “Solitary Man,” which made it as high as No.55 in its initial ten-week run. In the summer of 1970, with Diamond far better known by then, it reappeared and got to No.21. But “Cherry Cherry,” written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich in their pacy, strumming mid-1960s style, charted in August 1966 and rose 54-39 en route to a No.6 peak.

A personal favorite

Although it wasn’t one of his own songs, Neil clearly retained plenty of fondness for “Cherry Cherry,” performing it on his celebrated 1972 live album Hot August Night. It even became a Top 40 US single from that record the following spring. On the original, Greenwich herself sings prominently on the choruses, on a track that’s strongly reminiscent of Barry’s productions for new TV sensations of the era, The Monkees – which is no coincidence, as one of those productions was Diamond’s classic composition “I’m A Believer.”

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Neil followed “Cherry Cherry” with a string of solid US hits in his own name, including the Top 20 entries “I Got The Feelin’ (Oh No)” and “You Got To Me.” They were followed by a No.10 hit in his home country that international audiences would be much more familiar with on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack a generation later, the brooding and atmospheric “Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon.”

Buy or stream “Cherry Cherry” on Neil Diamond 50 – The 50th Anniversary Collection.