Cherry Cherry
Neil Diamond
1966

And speaking of legends, let’s just stay roughly in that era for one of the greats. Neil. Freaking. Diamond. I think given what he ultimately became — the glittery tops, the cougars swooning over his every move, the over-the-top schmaltz — it’s sometimes easy to forget that this guy was a legitimate artist who had some crazy good songs. Who influenced a lot of other bands! Like the Romantics’ What I Like About You (#96 on the list!) has a very similar chord structure to this little number, just revved up because that was 1980 and this was 1966.

And that voice. Oh man. You can just hear the "everywhere around the worrrrrrld! They're comin' to ‘Merica!!" and you don't need a backing track, you just know exactly what that sounds like. It's so distinctive that you know that part in U2's "One" where Bono sings, "you asked me to enter, and then you made me crawl"? Yeah, listen to that word "crawl" next time and it's as though Neil crashed the song for a note. (Full credit to Trent for pointing that out to me years ago.) My parents listened to a lot of Neil when I was a kid and I can spot that voice for miles.

Many of you know that “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” — Neil’s smash 1978 duet with Barbara Streisand — is my go-to karaoke song. I sing both parts, I require two microphones, it’s a hit (there’s a video floating out there somewhere; also true story: I sang Neil’s “Hello Again” to Tiffany just moments before proposing; fortunately there is no video of that). But in the “drive for show, putt for dough” vernacular, give me “Cherry Cherry” all day as the money song. This is such a simple ditty — just three chords! — but it’s super infectious. It’s the song that has you tapping on that steering wheel from the opening lick and getting you out of your chair to boogie, baby. That dum-dum, da-da dum-dum-da-dum-dum piano groove at the chorus. I know a lot of folks would play it safe and go with "Sweet Caroline" or something else, but Cherry Cherry is where it's at, friends.

My only regret with Neil is that Parkinson's took his career before I got a chance to see him live. But every time I get an itching for it there's always "The Jazz Singer" -- 26% on Rotten Tomatoes!

Other Songs Considered:
Forever In Blue Jeans, Hello Again, Sweet Caroline