January 24

 Neil Leslie Diamond's Birthday
 
 

In 1966 Neil Diamond was signed by Bang Records to record his own songs, and soon the hits came,with "Solitary Man," "Cherry, Cherry," and "Kentucky Woman." In 1970,  Neil signed with MCA Records and recorded "Sweet Caroline," "Holly Holy," "Cracklin' Rosie," and "Song Sung Blue."  In 1973, he  signed with Columbia Records for a million-dollar-advance-per-album contract.. He then wrote the score for the film version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture . This was followed by several hit albums including I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight (1977) which included "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" which was was covered later by Barbra Streisand  on Songbird (1978).n and became Neil's third song to top the Hot 100.

The success of  "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" resulted in a planned film with Streisand which had financing problems and fell through. So Neil opted instead for a remake of Al Jolson's film The Jazz Singer (1980) which bombed so badly that Neil became the first-ever winner of a Worst Actor Razzie Award,  In 1981. Diamond's hit single, "America", which was part of the film's soundtrack, was used on news broadcasts to underscore the return of the American hostages from Iran and became the theme song for the Michael Dukakis 1988 presidential campaign.  Neil never acted again but collaborated on writing the scores for such films as Pulp Fiction (1994), Beautiful Girls (1996), Donnie Brasco (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Although his  record sales began to drop the in 1980s, his concert tours continued to be big draws. 

On March 14, 2011, Neil was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and  performed "Sweet Caroline" - inspired by former US. President's John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline - as he walked among the audience. He also sang  "Cherry, Cherry" and "I Am ... I."  While inducting his fellow singer/songwriter, Paul Simon suggested that Neil had to wait 25 years after the release of "Cherry, Cherry" in 1966 because of  "Six words. 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore,'" Paul explained that it was "A really beautiful love song sung with one of the greatest voices of the twentieth century, Barbra Streisand. Unfortunately, if it's Barbra Streisand, I'm afraid it's not rock and roll. Not even close. Which is a tough break for Neil, because Barbra doesn't care. She's got Oscars and all that stuff. If he did it with Elton John, it's a rock classic. It could go on the Simon and Garfunkel Valentine's album."

We picked a birthday dessert for Neil based on his classic "Cherry, Cherry" called Cherry Clafoutis.  A clafoutis is a classic baked French dessert of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick custard-like batter and served lukewarm. Enjoy it while watching the concert film Neil Diamond: Hot August Night/NYC (2009) which features "Cherry, Cherry."
 

Cherry Clafoutis

 

Ingredients
 
2 cups of black sweet cherries, pitted
2 TB of slivered almonds
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 TB of brown sugar
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, sifted
1/8 tsp of salt
1 cup of whole milk
2 tsp  Amaretto -
1&1/2 tsp vanilla extract
powdered sugar for dusting
 

Instructions
 
1. Preheat the oven to 350º F.
2. Butter and lightly flour a 9X9 or 10X7 baking dish. Toss in the cherries and slivered almonds.
3. Whisk the eggs, sugars, salt, and flour together until smooth.
4. Add the milk, Amaretto (or almond extract, if using), and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Pour into the baking dish.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Place on a wire rack to
   cool. When cool dust the clafoutis with powdered sugar.

Serves 6.

 

© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes