Neil Diamond reveals inspiration for ‘Sweet Caroline’

Published 11:26 pm Tuesday, November 20, 2007

LOS ANGELES — Neil Diamond held onto the secret for decades, but he has finally revealed that President Kennedy’s daughter was the inspiration for his hit “Sweet Caroline.”

“I’ve never discussed it with anybody before — intentionally,” the 66-year-old singer-songwriter said Monday. “I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday.”

He got his chance last week when he performed the song via satellite at her 50th birthday party.

Diamond was a “young, broke songwriter” when a photo of the president’s daughter in a magazine caught his eye.

“It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony,” Diamond recalled. “It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there.”

Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, Tenn., he would write the words and music in less an hour.