"This Diamond Ring" is a 1965 song written by

Al Kooper Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. ...

, Bob Brass and

Irwin Levine Irwin Jesse Levine (March 23, 1938 – January 21, 1997)
- accessed April 11, 2012 was an American songwriter, who co-wrote ...

. The original demo was sung by

Jimmy Radcliffe James Radcliffe (November 18, 1936 – July 27, 1973) was an American soul singer, composer, arranger, conductor and record producer. Biography James Radcliffe was born in New York City. He released such singles as "My Ship is Coming In", a so ...

. It was first released as a single by Sammy Ambrose on Musicor #1061, then by Gary Lewis & the Playboys on Liberty #55756. Lewis' version charted first, number 101 on the January 2, 1965, Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart. Both versions charted on January 9, Lewis still at number 101 and Ambrose at number 117. Ambrose dropped off the chart at that point, but Lewis made number 65 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart the next week (January 16) and his version continued to climb until it reached number 1 on February 20, 1965.

Gary Lewis & the Playboys version

According to David Brackett,

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

' vocals were heavily supported by

Ron Hicklin The Ron Hicklin Singers were a group of Los Angeles studio singers contracted and organized by Ron Hicklin. They are mostly known as the real singers behind the background vocals on The Partridge Family recordings. In Los Angeles studio circles i ...

's overdubs. The session drummer was

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

Joe Osborn Joseph Osborn (August 28, 1937 – December 14, 2018Leon Russell Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...

played keyboards and arranged the music. The song was produced by

Snuff Garrett Thomas Lesslie Garrett (July 5, 1938 – December 16, 2015) known as Snuff Garrett or Tommy Garrett, was an American record producer whose most famous work was during the 1960s and 1970s. Early years Garrett was born in Dallas, Texas, United ...

. Lewis has denied claims that the Playboys did not play on the record, and says that not only was the band largely self-contained, but the Wrecking Crew session musicians only came to do overdubs or solos. Although it has been his biggest commercial success as a songwriter, Al Kooper has reportedly stated many times that he was unhappy with the record. He originally hoped the song would be recorded by a group like

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...

and based on the original demo of the song as recorded by

. Kooper would later re-visit the song, recording a

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

y version for his 1976 album ''

Act Like Nothing's Wrong ''Act Like Nothing's Wrong'' is the seventh solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Al Kooper, recorded and released in 1976. Background After the release of his sixth studio album '' Naked Songs'' in 1973, Kooper took time off from ...

.''

Charts

Other versions

Alvin and the Chipmunks Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks or simply The Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for novelty records in 1958. The group consists of three s ...

covered the song for their 1965 album ''

Chipmunks à Go-Go ''Chipmunks à Go-Go'' is an album by Alvin and the Chipmunks and David Seville, released by Liberty Records in 1965, again in 1982, and on compact disc in 1990. Early pressings of the album incorrectly list the song "Sunshine, Lollipops and Ra ...

''. *

Billy Fury Ronald Wycherley (17 April 1940 – 28 January 1983), better known as Billy Fury, was an English singer, musician, songwriter, and actor. An early star of rock and roll, he equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s and spent 332 week ...

recorded a cover which was included on the 1965

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

album ''14'', also known as ''

The Lord's Taverners Charity Album ''The Lord's Taverners Charity Album'' is the title usually given to an LP album produced by Decca Records in 1965, featuring fourteen artists under the Decca label (Decca LK 4695). Decca itself advertised the album under the name of ''14 Great Art ...

''.

References

{{Authority control 1965 songs 1965 singles Gary Lewis & the Playboys songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Songs written by Irwin Levine Liberty Records singles