Song Sung Blue (WORD)
Song Sung Blue (PDF)
YOU CAN PLAY ALONG IN THE SAME KEY AS NEIL DIAMOND!
"Song Sung Blue" was a No. 1 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week, in the week of July 1, and it spent twelve weeks in the top 40. It was Diamond's second No. 1 hit in the U.S., after 1970's "Cracklin' Rosie", and to date his last solo No. 1 song (he had a No. 1 duet with Barbra Streisand in 1978, with "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"). In addition, "Song Sung Blue" spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song has become one of Diamond's standards, and he often performs it during concerts. Diamond described "Song Sung Blue" in the liner notes to his 1996 compilation album, In My Lifetime, as a "very basic message, unadorned. I didn't even write a bridge to it. I never expected anyone to react to "Song Sung Blue" the way they did. I just like it, the message and the way a few words said so many things."
"Song Sung Blue" was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1973, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Both awards that year were won by Roberta Flack's rendition of Ewan MacColl's song, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. He received a Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. In 2011, he was an honoree at the Kennedy Center Honors, and he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
The song inspired the title of a 2008 documentary about a Neil Diamond tribute performer who was married to a Patsy Cline tribute performer. The documentary was in turn adapted into a feature film of the same name, directed by Craig Brewer and starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson and released in theatres on December 25, 2025.