''His 12 Greatest Hits'' is a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...

, issued in 1974 on the MCA record label. As the title suggests, it contains twelve songs from Neil's catalogue. The album contains songs from his tenure with

Uni Records Uni Records (short for the label's legal name Universal City Records and rendered as UNI) was a record label owned by MCA Inc. The brand, which long featured a distinctive UNi logo, was established in 1966 in music, 1966 by MCA executive Ned Tanen ...

, from 1968 to 1972. After Neil had returned to

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, his earlier works were reissued on MCA Records, which was the parent company of Uni Records which had folded in the early 1970s.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Neil Diamond. Side one # "

Sweet Caroline "Sweet Caroline" is a song written and performed by American singer Neil Diamond and released in May 1969 as a single with the title "Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good)". It was arranged by Charles Calello, and recorded at Americ ...

" (Live) - 4:15 # "

Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show ''Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show'' is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, released in 1969. Four months after the title cut became a #22 hit, Diamond recorded and released a new single, " Sweet Caroline", ...

" - 3:26 # " Shilo" - 2:59 # "

Holly Holy "Holly Holy" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond with instrumental backing provided by the American Sound Studio house band in Memphis. Released as a single on October 13, 1969, it was a successful follow-on to " Sweet Caroline", reachi ...

" (Live) - 5:40 # "Brooklyn Roads" - 3:39 # "

Cracklin' Rosie "Cracklin' Rosie" is a song written and Sound recording and reproduction, recorded by Neil Diamond in 1970, with instrumental backing by Los Angeles session musicians from the The Wrecking Crew (music), Wrecking Crew, including Hal Blaine on drums ...

" - 3:00 Side two # " Play Me" - 3:49 # "

Done Too Soon "Done Too Soon" is a song written, composed and performed by Neil Diamond, and released on his 1970 album ''Tap Root Manuscript''. Listed as track 4 on side one of the album, it was jointly arranged by Marty Paich and Lee Holdridge and jointly prod ...

" - 2:45 # "Stones" - 3:03 # "

Song Sung Blue "Song Sung Blue" is a 1972 in music, 1972 hit song written and recorded by Neil Diamond, inspired by the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 (Mozart), Piano Concerto #21. It was released on Diamond's album ''Moods (Neil Diamond alb ...

Alternate versions

Of the album's twelve songs, only ten were presented in their original studio versions. "Holly Holy" and "Sweet Caroline" were live recordings, taken from the live album ''

Hot August Night ''Hot August Night'' is a 1972 live double album by Neil Diamond. The album is a recording of a Diamond concert on August 24, 1972, one of ten sold-out concerts that Diamond performed that month at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. This also mar ...

''. On the 1985 CD release of ''His 12 Greatest Hits'', the studio versions appeared instead (but both songs were remixed and "Holly Holy" was a different version with a different vocal for a good part of the song), but a later reissue in 1993 reinstated the live versions of these two tracks.

Follow up

In 1982,

released ''12 Greatest Hits, Volume II'', a follow-up to this album. It contains songs from the years 1973-1981.

Charts & Certifications

The album reached number 29 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart. It was certified gold by the RIAA in 1974 and earned quadruple platinum status in 1993 for sales of four million units in the US.

Album

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1974 greatest hits albums Neil Diamond compilation albums MCA Records compilation albums