Singer/songwriter Neil Diamond brings us today’s classic song of the day, “Holly Holy.” Released as a single in October of 1969, this one went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on the Cash Box Top 100, and and #3 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
Neil Diamond recorded “Holly Holy” at American Sound Studio in Memphis. Backing musicians were the house band, the Memphis Boys, including Reggie Young on guitar, Bobby Emmons on keyboards, Tommy Cogbill on bass. and Gene Chrisman on drums. Cogbill and Tom Catalano produced the track and Lee Holdridge arranged the gospel choir and string section.
“Holly Holy” was a song that compared a man’s relationship with his woman in deeply spiritual terms. In Neil’s own words:
“What I tried to do was create a religious experience between a man and a woman, as opposed to a man and a god.”
Which is exactly what he did, helped in no small part by the the gospel choir. It follows on the heels of the equally evangelical “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show,” released earlier in the year, where Neil assumed the guise of a fire-and-brimstone preacher. Both songs were recorded in Memphis using the same producers and musicians. (They recorded “Sweet Caroline” at the same very productive sessions.)
And for today’s daily bonus video of the day, here’s Neil Diamond performing “Holly, Holy” on the November 30, 1969, episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. Not sure about those dancers, though…
