Again: Neil Diamond Hits Home Run With “Sweet Caroline”

Neil Diamond

Sales of Neil Diamond's 1969 classic "Sweet Caroline" are up an astounding 597% this week in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, according to Billboard. Diamond was on hand last week for the Red Sox's first game at Fenway since the attack to perform the song during its traditional 8th inning airing for the team.

Nielsen SoundScan posted that Diamond sold 19,000 tracks this week, 2,800 tracks the previous week, with a total of 1.75 million tracks to date. The song, which has been an incredible source of pride and joy for Boston since it became a Fenway tradition a decade ago, was played in honor of Boston at various games since the tragedy -- including the Sox's arch rivals, the New York Yankees.

Neil Diamond explained that having early pop success almost came at the cost of finding his true voice as a singer-songwriter.

In 2011, Neil Diamond revealed that the daughter of President John F. Kennedy -- Caroline Kennedy -- was the inspiration behind the song, telling The Associated Press: "I've never discussed it with anybody before -- intentionally. I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday. 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. . . It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony. It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

"Sweet Caroline" was originally released on May 17th, 1969 on Diamond's Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show album. It was issued as a single a little over a month later and eventually peaked at Number Four on the Billboard Hot 100.

Diamond will donate royalties from "Sweet Caroline," a top-5 hit that has been played at every Boston Red Sox home game for more than a decade, to the charity supporting victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Sweet Caroline at Yankee Stadium 4/16/13 to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Classy gesture by the Yankees and Yankee fans.