Neil Diamond – “Beautiful Noise” Live

Nothing But Beautiful Noise!

“Beautiful Noise” is a track written by Neil Diamond and included in his tenth studio album of the same title. It was his third album under Columbia Records which was released in 1976. It received four out of five stars from Allmusic and it topped the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart in 1976. It was different from what people are used to hearing from Neil which was refreshing and delightful at the same time.

Neil Diamond told Q magazine July 2008 that he wrote this song to convince Robbie Robertson, the guitarist with The Band, to produce his album. He explained: “We knew each other peripherally: we both lived in Malibu. But I wanted to write a song to convince him to work with me. I was at a hotel in New York with my two little girls. We were on the fourth floor, the windows were wide open, and right beneath us on Fifth Avenue there was a Puerto Rican parade going by. The music was amazing, full of rhythm and joy. My daughter Marjorie said, ‘What a beautiful noise, Daddy.’ Boom! I had the title, I wrote the song and when I played it to Robbie he liked it.” Robbie Robertson went on to produce the album for which this song became the title track.

Though he was widely popular singing classic and timeless love songs, Neil has proven to be versatile as he goes for something unique but still receives positive reception. When he signed up for Columbia, it was for $5 million which was record-breaking. This album received gold status and this particular track is among Neil’s greatest hits.

Beautiful Noise marked a radical departure in production, style, arrangements and compositional diversity for Diamond. It was billed at the time of its release as something of a “comeback” album for the artist, and did mark a new and highly productive phase of his recording and touring career.