Not only did the Sixties mark the last time the England football team held a major tournament trophy aloft, it was also the decade that gifted the world Sweet Caroline, the karaoke classic that 60,000 England were belting out in euphoria at Wembley stadium last night.
Released by US pop legend Neil Diamond, now 80, in 1969, the lilting pop song, about how a mystery woman named Caroline transformed a summer, has been given new life after England fans began singing it in the earliest matches of the tournament.
However, it’s not the first time Diamond’s song, which he once claimed to have penned in ‘half-an-hour’ in a Memphis hotel room, has been adopted by sports fans, with the Boston Red Sox famously using the tune as there unofficial ballpark anthem and English clubs including Aston Villa also partial to a match sing-a-long.
‘Good times never felt so good!’ The England players joined a rousing rendition of Sweet Caroline at Wembley following the team’s tense 2-1 victory over Denmark to win a place in the final on Sunday
England fans erupt into a post-victory rendition of Neil Diamond’s classic pop song, which is a karaoke favourite but has also been adopted by sports clubs on both sides of the pond
A Diamond tune! The singer, now 80 and based in Colorado, penned the pop song in a Memphis motel room in the late Sixties
The Boston Red Sox have famously adopted the tune with fans of the US baseball team regularly singing it at their Fenway Park stadium – in April 2013, following the Boston Marathon bombings, Diamond performed the song in front of crowds at the stadium
Official Wembley DJ Tony Perry tweeted on June 29th that he’d ‘had to make a call at full time. What to play after 3 Lions’ – referencing Frank Skinner and David Baddiel’s 1996 hit.
After plumping for Diamond’s hit, he explained he heard the ‘match director in my ear: “let em have it, the world’s been closed for 18 months.”
Fast-forward to England’s latest win, a tense 2-1 victory over Denmark to grab a place in the final on Sunday, in a stadium properly packed for the first time since the pandemic began, and Sweet Caroline somehow managed to upstage Skinner and Baddiel’s Three Lions on a Shirt as the song of choice when Dutch referee Danny Makkelie blew the final whistle.
The 80-year-old American singer wished England luck for the semi-final clash with Denmark, saying on ITV: ‘Hi Gareth, Neil Diamond here and I am wishing you the best for the semi-finals. I’ll be watching from the mountains of Colorado singing Sweet Caroline along with all of you. Good luck England!’
When Diamond first released the song, written in a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, in May 1969, it spent 14 weeks on the US chart peaking at number 4, and made it to number 8 on the UK charts.
Diamond has revealed he but couldn’t get the name of his sweetheart at the time – Marcia Murphy (pictured with the star) to fit into the song and had to look elsewhere for a name that worked
Inspired by the Kennedys? Diamond told the Today programme in 2014 that he’d remembered seeing a photo of Jackie and John F Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, then aged 7, on her pony, which inspired him to use the name Caroline
Massachusetts favourite: Diamond pictured singing Sweet Caroline during a game between the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 20, 2013, just five days after the Boston Marathon terrorist attack
The singer told the baseball club’s website the song ‘somehow had a connection to the spiritual nature of people’s lives’ Pictured Current Red Sox star Christian Vazquez
ROY KEANE WENT TO A NEIL DIAMOND GIG – AND HAD A ROW
Pundit Roy Keane revealed his love for Sweet Caroline and a hilarious anecdote about rowing with a woman at a Neil Diamond concert after the singer’s message to the England team was shown in the build-up to the match.
Roy Keane admitted he was a huge fan of Neil Diamond before England’s clash against Denmark
‘He’s brilliant,’ Keane said. ‘About 10 years ago, but I ended up arguing with the woman next to me. She kept singing all the songs out quite loud so I had a bit of trouble that night, but brilliant concert.’
While there’s no reference to sport in it, Diamond’s lyrics ‘good times never felt so good’ means that dozens of sports teams on both sides of the Pond have used it to celebrate wins on the pitch.
The Boston Red Sox famously adopted the tune with fans of the US baseball team regularly singing it at their Fenway Park stadium.
After the tragedy of the Boston Marathon Bombings in 2013, Diamond turned up at the stadium to sing Sweet Caroline to fans at the first match following the terrorist attack.
He told the baseball club’s website the song ‘somehow had a connection to the spiritual nature of people’s lives.’
Diamond told the Today programme in 2014 that he wrote the song for his ex wife Marcia Murphy, but had to change the name because her name wouldn’t fit with the tune.
Instead, he used the Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, then 7, as inspiration after seeing a family photo of her with her pony.
He said: ‘I couldn’t get Marcia into the three-syllable name that I needed, so I had Caroline Kennedy’s name there from years ago in one of my books.’
On this side of the Atlantic, the song has also been a regular blasted around football grounds and was previously heard before in big boxing fights in the UK.
Yesterday, the Cold Stream Guards played the tune in the gardens of Clarence House. apparently at the personal instruction of the Prince of Wales.
The Band of the Coldstream Guards played in support of the England men’s team’s quest to reach their first major tournament final since 1966 at Clarence House yesterday
The soldiers, in their pristine bright red tunics and bearskin hats, stood in the sunshine at the heir to the throne’s London base
The royal invited the Band of the Coldstream Guards to play instrumental versions of the rousing Euro 2020 anthems at his London residence on Tuesday in support of the men’s team’s quest to reach their first major tournament final since 1966.
The soldiers, in their pristine bright red tunics and bearskin hats, stood in the sunshine at the heir to the throne’s London base, trumpeting out the melodies on their brass instruments.
Still time to practise! Sweet Caroline: The lyrics in full
We know all the words! England stars sang along with the crowd on Wednesday evening
Where it began, I can’t begin to knowing
But then I know it’s growing strong
Was in the spring
And spring became the summer
Who’d have believed you’d come along
Hands, touching hands
Reaching out, touching me, touching you
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I’ve been inclined
To believe they never wouldBut now I
Look at the night and it don’t seem so lonely
We filled it up with only two
And when I hurt
Hurting runs off my shoulders
How can I hurt when holding you
One, touching one
Reaching out, touching me, touching you
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I’ve been inclined
To believe they never would
Oh no, no
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
Sweet Caroline
I believe they never could
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good