By writing poems for girls he was attracted to in school, he soon learned it often won their hearts. ĭiamond also used his newly-developing skill at writing lyrics to write poetry. He adds that his attraction to songwriting was the 'first real interest' he had growing up, besides helping him release his youthful 'frustrations'. 'And the next thing, I got a guitar when we got back to Brooklyn, started to take lessons and almost immediately began to write songs,' he said. Seeing the widely recognized singer perform, and watching other children singing songs for Seeger that they wrote themselves, had an immediate effect on Diamond, who then became aware of the possibility of writing his own songs. When he was 16, and still in high school, Diamond spent a number of weeks at Surprise Lake Camp, : 21 a camp for Jewish children in upstate New York, when folk singer Pete Seeger performed a small concert. For his 16th birthday, he received his first guitar. We hung out in the front of Erasmus High and smoked cigarettes.' After his family moved he then attended Abraham Lincoln High School, and was a member of the fencing team. : 155 They were not close friends at the time, Diamond recalls: 'We were two poor kids in Brooklyn. In Brooklyn he attended Erasmus Hall High School and was a member of the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club along with classmate Barbra Streisand. He grew up in several homes in Brooklyn, having also spent four years in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where his father was stationed in the army. His parents were Rose (née Rapaport) and Akeeba 'Kieve' Diamond, a dry-goods merchant. On the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, he has had eleven No. 1 singles: 'Cracklin' Rosie', 'Song Sung Blue', 'Longfellow Serenade', 'I've Been This Way Before', 'If You Know What I Mean', 'Desiree', 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers', 'America', 'Yesterday's Songs', 'Heartlight'.ĭiamond was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family descended from Russian and Polish immigrants. Additionally, he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and in 2011 was an honoree at Kennedy Center.

His songs have been covered internationally by performers from a variety of musical genres.ĭiamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. With 38 songs in the Top 10, he is the second most successful artist in the history of the Billboard Adult Contemporary Top 10 charts. One of the world's best-selling artists of all time, he has sold over 135 million records worldwide since the start of his career in the 1960s. Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor.

Neil diamond top rated live performer