Do you know what song was played at every Boston Red Sox home game for more than a decade?
For Boston, it’s a song that unites the city, the one track everyone knows and loves. Yes, it’s “Sweet Caroline,” Neil Diamond’s huge hit song—and just look at what happens when a busker starts playing it at the subway. “Sweet Caroline” was released in 1969 and has become a huge success ever since.
In 2013, the popular American singer-songwriter decided to donate the song’s royalties to One Fund Boston after the Boston Marathon bombing.
Decades later, the song is still part of a regular rotation of songs during sports events.
It has been played at Fenway Park since at least 1997, and on the opening night of the 2010 season, Diamond even performed it himself. In 2019, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
As this video shows, music creates a sense of unity.
The video takes us to a red line station on Park Street in Boston. There is a huge crowd of people, and you can also see a man with the guitar in one corner.
He’s also got a mic and looks very comfortable as if he was a regular performer at that spot.
The subway becomes his stage as he performs Diamond’s signature song. A few words in and one man in the audience throws his hands in the air and starts singing along.
The man is not even looking at the performer—he’s waiting for his transportation to come.
Even so, the song stops him right in his tracks!
Suddenly inspired but what’s happening, the whole crowd joins in!
Seconds later, the whole crowd sings together with the song they love so much!
Anyone who says that musicals are unrealistic and that people don’t just randomly break out into song should look at this video!
If anything is ever guaranteed to bring people together, it’s music. We hope that someone tipped the man generously for putting on such a great show! Seeing everyone so moved like this is incredible. Not a single person remained indifferent to the performance—you can see people of all ages swaying to the rhythm of “Sweet Caroline” and adding a little extra spark to it.
This is the kind of wholesome content of the world, out there fr everyone to enjoy it.
More than 10 million YouTube viewers certainly did, and the video got thousands of likes. What we loved most is that the singer wanted to entertain everyone—you can hear it in his voice!
When the audience started jamming with him, it only made him sing with even more passion!
During the coronavirus pandemic, Diamond has changed the song’s lyrics a bit.
As hilarious as it sounds, some of the words were switched to “Hands… Washing hands… Don’t touch me… I won’t touch you.” It certainly makes sense in the times of social distancing!
Even so, we have to mention that the song’s inspiration was the daughter of late President John F. Kennedy.
Diamond revealed that the story years after the song became a hit. No matter what its origins, it’s an incredible song that people will love forever.
Check out this awesome spontaneous performance by clicking the link below:
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