“I’d become involved in an anti-drug programme in New York. So in my mind I had to write that song. But oh, it was terrible! It was laughed at”: The crazy song that Neil Diamond wishes he hadn’t written

Neil Diamond.

Neil Diamond knows a thing or two about songwriting. In his vast discography are some of the greatest pop songs of all time: Sweet Caroline, Solitary Man, Cracklin’ Rosie, Song Sung Blue, Beautiful Noise, Forever In Blue Jeans, Love On The Rocks and Hello Again.

But there is one song he would prefer to forget. He wrote and recorded it in the late ’60s – and it has embarrassed him ever since.