Neil Diamond – America (US 7″ Single)
Posted by DjPaulT on 2nd July 2010
BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1980
1980 Front Cover
I thought it would be fun to kick of the Independence Day holiday weekend, with this patriotic gem from 1980. As far as i know I don’t think that the 7″ version has appeared on CD i’m sure someone will let me know if I am wrong. Even though the song was not a big club hit it is a classic from the 80′s and deserves it’s place here.
“America” (also known as “They’re Coming To America” or “Coming To America”) is the name of a patriotic song written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond, released in 1980 as part of the The Jazz Singer soundtrack album. The song was a hit single in 1981, reaching number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although the single version was a studio recording, it sounds live because of crowd overdubs in the song.
The song’s theme is a positive interpretation of the history of immigration to the United States, and seems to take place both during the early 1900s wave as well as in contemporaneous times. Formed of Diamond’s typical combination of powerful melody, dynamic arrangement, and bombastic vocal, it ends with an interpolation of the traditional patriotic song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”. In Diamond’s concerts, the song is a very popular number both home and abroad, with a large United States flag often displayed from the rafters on cue to the lyric, “Every time that flag’s unfurled / They’re coming to America.”
The song has since been used in a number of contexts, including as a theme song for Michael Dukakis’s 1988 Presidential campaign, because of its immigrant theme. Neil Diamond sang it at the rededication of the Statue of Liberty on the occasion of its one hundredth anniversary.
A Saturday Night Live sketch, featuring Will Ferrell as Diamond, explains the song as an expression of the singer’s “massive” hatred of immigrants.
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Diamond modified the lyrics to “America” slightly during live performances. Instead of “They’re comin’ to America,” towards the end, it became “Stand Up for America.”
Despite the song’s patriotic message, it was included on a list of songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
It was the second song played on the first broadcast day for Z100 New York on August 3, 1983.
DISCOGS LINK
RELEASE/PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Label: Capitol Records
Catalog#: 4994
Format: Vinyl, 7″, Single
Country: US
Released: 1980
Genre: Pop
Style: Soft Rock
Credits: Producer – Bob Gaudio
Written-By – N. Diamond*
SIDE A
(A) America (7″ Edited Version) 3:27
SIDE B
(B) Songs Of Life 3:31
Written By – G. Becaud
CLEANING AND GRADING INFO
US 7″ Housed In A Picture Sleeve.
Vinyl Grade: Near Mint.
Vinyl cleaned using a VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine and Gruv Glide.
FLAC INFORMATION
All vinyl rips are recorded in full 24bit 96khz resolution and then resampled to 16/44 and encoded from wave to FLAC Lossless level 8.
FLAC files can be played using Foobar2000 media player and it’s free!
What Is FLAC?
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Media Used:
Vinyl 7″ Single
From My Personal Collection.
Artwork Scanned from Original 12″ Single @ 600 dpi
With Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
Edited and Restored Using Adobe Photoshop CS4
HARDWARE USED
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super 20
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
SOFTWARE USED
Audition 3.0:
Recording (32bit/96kHz float using ASIO drivers)
*Manual removal of remaining clicks
*Editing and splitting of tracks
*DC bias correction
CLICKS REMOVED USING CLICKREPAIR
DeClick Level: 10 DeCrackle: Off
Converted Wav to very high quality Mp3/320 kbps using dBpoweramp 13.1
PW: burningtheground
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Tags: America, Neil Diamond
Posted in Neil Diamond | 2 Comments »