Cherry, Cherry

by

Neil Diamond

Album: The Feel Of Neil Diamond      Released: 1966

US Chart: 6     

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Diamond wrote this with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who worked with him after he signed with Bang Records. Barry and Greenwich were part of the Brill Building songwriting community, and had written many major hits, including "Be My Baby" and "Chapel Of Love." They mentored Diamond early in his career and helped him create this Pop nugget, which helped make him a star.

This started out with a guitar lick Diamond came up with that caught Barry's ear. He and Greenwich loved it and encouraged Neil to finish the song.

In an interview with Melody Maker, Jeff Barry said that this song was originally "Money, Money," but that he and Bang records owner Bert Berns convinced Diamond to make it lighter and more teen-friendly. They were on to something with the original title: In 1968, Tommy James and The Shondells released Mony Mony.

Ever notice that there's no drums in this song? That's because the version you hear was intended as a demo, with hand claps providing the drum beat. Diamond recorded the demo with Barry and Greenwich on backing vocals and Artie Butler on piano and Hammond organ. When they recorded the song in an official session complete with horns and drums, they couldn't capture the exuberance of the demo. The drum and horn version was included on Diamond's 1996 anthology In My Lifetime.

When this became a hit, Diamond's songs were in demand. This led to The Monkees recording of Diamond's "I'm A Believer," which was the biggest hit of 1967. (thanks to David Wild, author of He Is...I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond, for all above)

Ellie Greenwich was not just a premier league songwriter, she was a fine backing singer too and she and Jeff Barry often did the backing vocals for the songs they wrote. Neil Diamond recalled to Rolling Stone her contribution to this song: "Ellie was the best background singer ever. She did all the background parts on my early Bang records, 'Cherry Cherry,' 'She Got the Way to Move Me,' 'Kentucky Woman' — all of those records were Jeff and Ellie. They just had this great knack of singing all kinds of background parts and they were great at it. She invented the background parts to 'Cherry Cherry.'"

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Comments:

Ellie Greenwich died on August 26 2009, Neil Diamond not only lost a talented songwriter and background singer but also a wonderful friend. R.I.P. Ellie and thanks for music.
- Teresa, Mechelen, Belgium

Don, you forgot about something else by Neil Diamond: "Thank the Lord For the Night Time". Its similarity to "Cherry, Cherry" was probably intentional, for they're by the same artist. As for "What I Like About You" by the Ramones, I have no idea how intentional, if at all. The most subtle similarity I know is a note collection in both "I Go Crazy" by Paul Davis & "Babe" by Styx.
- Drew, B\'ham, AL

I always get a kick out of it when two very different songs nevertheless have a similar line, rhythm, or chord progression. I started playing The Ramones' "What I Like About You" on the guitar, and my brother started singing "Cherry, Cherry." Good music is good music, whatever the context.
- Don, Phoenix, AZ

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