Songfacts®:

• Musically, Neil Diamond based "Song Sung Blue" on Mozart's "Piano Concerto no. 21." It's probably the bounciest hit inspired by the classical composer.
  
  In 2020, released an orchestral version on his album Neil Diamond With The London Symphony Orchestra, Classic Diamonds.
• A "song sung blue" is a sad song - weeping like a willow, as Diamond sings. And as Elton John later confirmed, sad songs can say so much. Sing along to "Song Sung Blue" and you'll be feeling good by the end.
  
  It's one of Neil Diamond's iconic songs and a live favorite, but he didn't think much of it when he wrote it. "This is one to which I never paid too much attention," he told his biographer, David Wild. "A very basic message, unadorned. I didn't even write a bridge to it... I had no idea that it would be a huge hit or that people would want to sing along with it."
• "Song Sung Blue" was a #1 hit in July 1972, Neil Diamond's second chart-topper, following "Cracklin' Rosie."
  
  He didn't think the song had hit potential, but Russ Regan, who ran Diamond's record label, Uni, was a believer, telling Neil it would be his "biggest copyright ever." Said Diamond, "Although the lyric says everything I wanted it to say, there's not much meat to it, but it turned out to be a major, major copyright."
• Other artists to record this song include Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Wayne Newton, and the Scottish Punk band Altered Images.
• Song Sung Blue is the name of a 2008 documentary about Mike Sardina and his wife Claire, who formed a Neil Diamond tribute duo called Lightning & Thunder. Their story was made into a 2025 film, also titled Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as the duo.
  
  Neil Diamond supported both films and was honored by Lightning & Thunder's tribute. The films also got help from Eddie Vedder, who gave Lightning & Thunder a lot of exposure when he brought them on stage to perform at a Pearl Jam show in 1995. Vedder helped convince Neil Diamond to let his songs be used in the first film; for the 2025 movie he agreed to license the Pearl Jam song "Alive," which is part of the narrative.