Diamond reveals `Caroline' inspiration
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 smash hit "Sweet Caroline."
"I've never discussed it with anybody before — intentionally," the 66-year-old singer-songwriter told The Associated Press on Monday during a break from recording. "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 Caroline Kennedy's 50th birthday party.
Diamond was a "young, broke songwriter" when a photo of the president's daughter in a news 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.
"It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration," he said. "I'm happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy."
The enduring hit recently reappeared on the singles chart, thanks in part to the Boston Red Sox. "Sweet Caroline" is played at every home game.
"I think they consider it good luck," Diamond said, adding that the Red Sox have become his favorite baseball team.
The tune's return to the charts leaves Diamond "speechless," he said. "That song was written 40 years ago, so I am just overwhelmed by the fact that it has returned and that, more importantly, people have taken it into their hearts for so many years."
Diamond is now at work on a new album, his second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin.
"We're both very excited about it," Diamond said. "I think it's going to be one of my best ever."
Foo Fighters take off to the Great White North
Fresh off a sold-out UK outing, the Foo Fighters are resting up for their 2008 North American tour, which now includes a run through Canada.
The Grammy-winning rockers, who previously announced a half-dozen shows in the southern and eastern US in the new year, recently added a gig in Rosemont, IL, and eight dates across several Canadian provinces. The trek is scheduled to kick off Jan. 23 in Dallas and currently stretches through March 30. Details are listed below.
The US concerts are currently on sale, with the exception of the Rosemont date, which goes up Dec. 1. The Canadian shows will go on sale to the general public beginning this Friday (11/23), and fans who register for the Foo Fighters' email list via the band's website can access pre-sale tickets beginning tomorrow (11/21).
The band is supporting its sixth studio effort, "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace," which snagged the No. 3 spot on The Billboard 200 when it dropped in September. Lead single "The Pretender" continues to top the modern rock chart after 15 weeks. That song and the Foo Fighters' latest single, "Long Road to Ruin," are streaming at the group's MySpace page.
The album marks the first time the Foos have worked with producer Gil Norton since 1997's double-platinum seller "The Colour and the Shape," which was recently remastered and reissued as a 10th anniversary deluxe edition with six bonus tracks.
"Echoes" follows the Foo Fighters' 2005 double-album, "In Your Honor," which comprises a disc of aggressive hard rock and one of more delicate acoustic tracks. That platinum-selling set spawned the No. 1 mainstream- and modern-rock hit "Best of You" and led to the band's biggest-selling tour to date, according to a press release.
January 2008
23 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
25 - Memphis, TN - FedExForum
26 - Nashville, TN - Municipal Auditorium
February 2008
18 - Worcester, MA - DCU Center
21 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Spectrum
24 - Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena
25 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena
March 2008
17 - Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre
19 - Ottawa, Ontario - Scotiabank Place
20 - London, Ontario - John Labatt Centre
22 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
25 - Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre
27 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Credit Union Centre
28 - Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place
30 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Pacific Coliseum
Wii is most-wanted widget in wintertime
NEW YORK - Each holiday season, a couple hard-to-find toys send parents hunting from store to store. And, each season, they're soon forgotten: Has your Elmo gotten any tickles lately?
But this year, it looks like the gift everybody is looking for is the same as last year: the Nintendo Wii.
A year after its launch, the small video game console sells out almost immediately when it reaches stores, even after Nintendo Co. has ramped up production several times.
"Right now, if you work at it, it's not too hard," said John Lawrence, of Fort Worth, Texas, who bought a Wii a few weeks ago for his 9-year-old grandson. It took him some online sleuthing to find one at a local GameStop.
"People have not gotten into the Christmas shopping mode. Once people get into that mindset, this is going to be an impossibility as it was last year," Lawrence said.
With the Wii, Nintendo set out make a console that would entice people who were not hardcore gamers, and it has succeeded. Janet Presti stood an hour in line at the Nintendo World Store in New York on Tuesday last week to get a Wii for her three children, but it wasn't just for them.
"I played it at my sister's house and I loved it," she said. Her household already has three game consoles: an Microsoft Xbox 360, a Sony PlayStation 2 and a Nintendo GameCube.
The Wii responds to the user moving the wand-like wireless controller, while other consoles are controlled by a confusing array of buttons and joysticks. It also comes with an array of casual, nonviolent games that appeal to adults.
Sony and Microsoft have cut the prices of their consoles this fall, but continuing demand for the Wii has meant Nintendo hasn't had to.
Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs at Nintendo of America, said the console was "priced right from the beginning." A look at eBay shows that Kaplan may be wrong: New Wii systems are selling about $100 above the $250 store price.
Some of the demand for Wiis results from trouble in the toy industry, as well as the gadget's cross-generational appeal.
"No one is buying toys right now because of the recalls," said Gerrick Johnson, a toy industry analyst at BMO Capital Markets.
First, toys were recalled because of lead paint and dangerous magnets. Then, Aqua Dots — colored beads that were making their way to must-have status — were pulled because they were coated with a chemical that turned into the date-rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate if swallowed.
"It's really unfortunate for the toy industry, because the lead issue was starting to subside, was getting off the front page ... and then along comes this, which is totally outrageous," Johnson said.
"Whoever thought that there'd be a day when parents say 'Don't play with your dangerous toys, go play with your video games'?" he asked.
The console has been a tremendous boost for Nintendo, which lost out to Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. in the last generation of game consoles. In the quarter ended Sept. 30, it more than doubled its sales to $6.1 billion from a year earlier, just before the launch of the Wii. It sold 5.5 million Wiis in the U.S. since it went on sale on last Nov. 17.
The stock market now values Nintendo at $75 billion, compared to $48 billion for Sony, which has six times the revenue.
Nintendo has increased the pace of production, but acknowledges that it won't be able to satisfy holiday-season demand.
"It's brand new technology, so you can't build it on just any line," said Nintendo's Kaplan.
In an interview last week, Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer said the Wii shortages were "a little fortuitous," and indicated that the PlayStation 3 was poised to benefit from the situation. U.S. sales of the console doubled to 100,000 per week soon after an Oct. 18 price cut, he said.
The issue of demand outstripping supply has dogged Nintendo with the DS handheld game as well, which launched in 2004.
"We've been struggling since launch to keep inventory — we finally have enough of that," said Kaplan.