{"id":660705,"date":"2026-05-09T23:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660705\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T23:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:02:16","slug":"neil-diamond-on-writing-the-monkees-hit-im-a-believer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/660705\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil Diamond on writing the Monkees’ hit \u201cI’m a Believer\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a slow start to his recording career, Neil Diamond began breaking through in 1966, placing \u201cSolitary Man\u201d at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 and then landing his first Top 10 hit with \u201cCherry, Cherry\u201d (number six) just three months later.<\/p>\n

He also had a number one hit that year \u2014 just not as a performer. Diamond wrote \u201cI\u2019m a Believer,\u201d which the Monkees took to the top of the charts.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe head of my record company was very angry \u2014 I\u2019d given away a number one hit \u2014 but I was thrilled,\u201d Diamond told us some years ago. \u201cSee, I was a songwriter, first and foremost. I kind of reluctantly became a recording artist, you know? I wanted to write songs and have other people record them \u2026 but nobody would record my stuff, so I had to sing the songs myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That reluctance came after a difficult apprenticeship. During an eight-year stretch in the early \u201960s, Diamond was fired by five different songwriting houses.<\/p>\n

The Monkees – I’m a Believer HD – YouTube
\n\"The<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo having the Monkees get the number one was as good as if I had recorded it, honestly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Having the Monkees get the number one was as good as if I had recorded it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2014 Neil Diamond<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Diamond \u2014 who recorded a version of the song for his 1967 album Just for You \u2014 considered \u201cI\u2019m a Believer\u201d to be a country song when he wrote it; he envisioned country music star Eddy Arnold recording it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would be a great song for him,\u201d Diamond noted. Music executive Don Kirshner, who knew Diamond from New York\u2019s Tin Pan Alley and was working with the Monkees\u2019 TV producers, steered it to the group instead.<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of great songs from great songwriters,\u201d recalls the Monkees\u2019 Micky Dolenz<\/a>, who sang lead on \u201cI\u2019m a Believer.\u201d \u201cCarole King and Gerry Goffin, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Neil Sedaka, Carole Bayer Sager\u2026 Neil Diamond. It was the best of the best. You had to pinch yourself when you got these songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond \u2014 who also wrote \u201cLook Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)\u201d for the Monkees \u2014 pitched \u201cI\u2019m a Believer\u201d to the Fifth Estate as well; the group included it on its 1967 album Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead.<\/p>\n

The guitarist performed the song faithfully in concert for decades but revisited it on his 2010 covers album Dreams, treating it as \u201ca very gentle, reflective ballad,\u201d played with acoustic guitar<\/a> accompaniment. The approach he said \u201copened the song up completely. It opened my eyes about exploring that direction with some of the other songs as well \u2026 That\u2019s what keeps it exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Diamond went on to score 38 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of popular music\u2019s most iconic performers, sequined shirts and all. He has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has received a Kennedy Center Honor and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.<\/p>\n

He stopped touring in 2018 after announcing a Parkinson\u2019s disease diagnosis and has largely stepped back from music since, making only rare public appearances \u2014 although he did support A Beautiful Noise, the 2022 stage musical based on his life.<\/p>\n

Now Diamond is re-emerging, somewhat. This week saw the release of Wild Heart, his first album of new songs since Melody Road in 2014. The material actually dates back to Home Before Dark (2008), his chart-topping second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin<\/a> (Beastie Boys, Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers).<\/p>\n

Rubin \u2014 fresh off his American Recordings work with Johnny Cash \u2014 first teamed with Diamond on 12 Songs in 2005. Using a small circle of players that included Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers\u2019 Mike Campbell<\/a> and Benmont Tench, Billy Preston, Jellyfish\u2019s Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Beck guitarist Smokey Hormel, Rubin pushed Diamond toward a stripped-down, live-in-the-room approach. Campbell, Tench and Hormel returned for Home Before Dark.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Neil\n<\/p>\n

Diamond performs on the BBC in 1971 (Image credit: Tony Russell\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

\u201cI did listen to a bunch of the artists that Rick produced,\u201d Diamond said at the time, \u201cbut there were a lot of early things that Rick liked that he wanted me to hear. We set up a meeting at his place, sat down and listened to music and chatted \u2026 every week for maybe six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for the most part what Rick played were my early records \u2014 things I hadn\u2019t heard or thought about in decades. It was an interesting learning experience to go back to my old material and get a fresh take on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubin\u2019s goal was simple: strip the music down to Diamond\u2019s voice, guitar and the song itself. Diamond initially resisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t played guitar on my records since \u2018Cherry, Cherry\u2019 and \u2018Kentucky Woman,\u2019 thinking there were other guitar players who could do it much better,\u201d he said. \u201cPretty much every day I would argue that point with Rick. But he wouldn\u2019t hear of it. He wanted my voice and my playing, as unadorned and truthful and minimalist as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Neil\n<\/p>\n

Performing at the 24th annual Keep Memory Alive benefit for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, March 7, 2020. (Image credit: Denise Truscello\/Getty Images for Keep Memory Alive)<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Diamond to come around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree or four recordings into this thing I realized he was absolutely right and began to enjoy the playing and singing experience. I realized I could perform my music with the simplicity of just my voice and guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil was real excitable. He\u2019d come in with a song he wrote the night before and say, \u2018That\u2019s great, that\u2019s great \u2026 Oh wait, maybe I\u2019m just suffering from new-song euphoria.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Campbell<\/p>\n

Tench remembers the sessions fondly, noting that the musicians had to \u201ctwist Diamond\u2019s arm a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the songs are just wonderful and he\u2019s a great guy and really fun to be with \u2014 and obviously he\u2019s a great songwriter,\u201d Tench said. One night during the Home Before Dark sessions, Diamond asked the band to stay late. Campbell agreed on one condition: \u201cSure, if you\u2019ll play \u2018Cherry Cherry\u2019 with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we played \u2018Cherry Cherry\u2019 with Neil,\u201d Tench recalled, \u201cand that was a treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell remembers the sessions just as fondly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of fun,\u201d he says. \u201cNeil was real excitable. He\u2019d come in with a song he wrote the night before and say, \u2018That\u2019s great, that\u2019s great \u2026 Oh wait, maybe I\u2019m just suffering from new-song euphoria.\u2019 He had a great sense of humor and was really supportive of the players, and he had a lot of stories about the old days. We had a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a slow start to his recording career, Neil Diamond began breaking through in 1966, placing \u201cSolitary Man\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-660705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}