{"id":1489,"date":"2007-11-22T08:44:18","date_gmt":"2007-11-22T08:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/11\/diamonds-caroline-is-a-kennedy.html"},"modified":"2007-11-22T08:44:18","modified_gmt":"2007-11-22T08:44:18","slug":"diamonds-caroline-is-a-kennedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/11\/diamonds-caroline-is-a-kennedy.html","title":{"rendered":"Diamond’s ‘Caroline’ is a Kennedy? Sweet…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jfkhorsesm.jpg\"
\nNow a staple at karaoke bars, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” has been plaguing–oops, I meant “entertaining”–music fans for years. Forty years, actually. (Which is how long the Jews wandered, post-Egypt, in the desert before reaching the Holy Land. But I digress.)
\nBut the song’s inspirational origins are now revealed, as Diamond announced to the Associated Press (as reported in Yahoo! News<\/a>) that he was inspired by a photo of then ten-year-old Caroline Kennedy suited up in her riding gear. Lest this sound creepy, let us allow Mr. Diamond to explain himself:<\/p>\n

[…] “It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there.” Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, Tenn., he would write the words and music in less an hour.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nDiamond made the big revelation (about the song) when he performed it via satellite to Caroline Kennedy on her 50th birthday.<\/p>\n

“It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration,” he said. “I’m happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The moral of the story? I guess a 26-year-old singer being inspired by the 10-year-old First Daughter doesn’t have to be creepy, especially when you explain it 40 years later. But here’s the thing: I always thought this song was about Caroline Kennedy. Is there anyone who thought it was another Caroline? If he wanted to hide it, he should have done like the Beatles: “Hey Jules,” inspired by Julian Lennon, was deemed incomprehensible and became, for aesthetics’ sake, “Hey Jude.” (Which can’t possibly be misconstrued.)
\n(Photo is of JFK, Caroline, and John-John with Caroline’s pony, Macaroni, which was a gift from LBJ. From PresidentialPetMuseum.com<\/a>, which will tell you everything you need to know about Presidential Pets.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now a staple at karaoke bars, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” has been plaguing–oops, I meant “entertaining”–music fans for years. Forty years, actually. (Which is how long the Jews wandered, post-Egypt, in the desert before reaching the Holy Land. But I digress.) But the song’s inspirational origins are now revealed, as Diamond announced to the Associated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"yoast_head":"\nDiamond's 'Caroline' is a Kennedy? Sweet...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/11\/diamonds-caroline-is-a-kennedy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Diamond's 'Caroline' is a Kennedy? Sweet...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now a staple at karaoke bars, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” has been plaguing–oops, I meant “entertaining”–music fans for years. Forty years, actually. (Which is how long the Jews wandered, post-Egypt, in the desert before reaching the Holy Land. But I digress.) 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