Few songs inspire sing-alongs like Neil Diamond's 1969 classic "Sweet Caroline." And I have every intention of gleefully crooning along with thousands of others when he performs the pop gem tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum.Yeah, I'm a big Diamond fan and super stoked about tonight! (By the way, look for my review to be posted here shortly after the show wraps.)
Smirk if you must, but "Sweet Caroline," like the national anthem, never gets old. During our college years, my friends and I would routinely get wasted at O'Brien's Pub on N. Dale Mabry in Tampa. On the weekends, there was usually a cover band on stage, or just a dude with a guitar, and "Sweet Caroline" always got requested and played. To a person, everyone in the room would raise their glasses and belt out the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Especially after a couple rounds of Irish Car Bombs. Good times. Damn, good times.
This scene posted below from the 1996 Ted Demme film Beautiful Girls — one of my all-time faves, by the way — perfectly captures the blissful feeling of singing "Sweet Caroline" with friends at a pub after a round of shots.
What's your best "Sweet Caroline" moment?
