Hot August Night

Infobox Album |
Name = Hot August Night
Type = live
Artist = Neil Diamond


Released = 1973, 2007 (reissue)
Recorded = 1972
Genre =
Length =
Label = MCA, Universal
Producer =
Reviews = *"Rolling Stone" (favorable) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/neildiamond/albums/album/260390/review/6068158/hot_august_night link]
* Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hiftxqr5ldse]
Last album = "Moods"
(1972)
This album = "Hot August Night"
(1973)
Next album ="Jonathan Livingston Seagull"
(1973)

Hot August Night is a 1972 double album by Neil Diamond. ("Hot August night" is also the opening lyric in Diamond's 1969 single, "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show".) It is a recording of a Diamond concert on Thursday August 24, 1972, one of ten sold out concerts that Diamond performed that month at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewin calls Hot August Night "the ultimate Neil Diamond record ... [which] shows Diamond the icon in full glory."

The album has become a great success for Diamond, and in Australia, it spent 29 weeks at number 1 on the album charts during 1973 & 1974, a feat only reachieved thirteen years later by John Farnham's hit album "Whispering Jack" in 1986-87, and Delta Goodrem with her Sony BMG-based album "Innocent Eyes" in 2003. This figure was surpassed in the 1980s by Dire Straits with their album Brothers in Arms spending 34 weeks at number one on the album charts.

It was the number one charting album in Australia for the 1970s, entering the Australian album charts in late 1972 and was still charting in the top 20 in 1976. It re-entered the Australian top 10 in 1982.

Track listing

Disc 1:
# "Prologue"
# "Crunchy Granola Suite"
# "Done Too Soon"
# "Dialogue"
# "Solitary Man"
# "Cherry, Cherry"
# "Sweet Caroline"
# "Porcupine Pie"
# "You're So Sweet"
# "Red, Red Wine"
# "Soggy Pretzels"
# "And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind"
# "Shilo"
# "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon"

Bonus tracks:
* "Walk On Water" - (previously unreleased, bonus track)
* "Kentucky Woman" - (previously unreleased, bonus track)
* "Stones" - (previously unreleased, bonus track)

Disc 2:
# "Play Me"
# "Canta Libre"
# "Morningside"
# "Song Sung Blue"
# "Cracklin' Rosie"
# "Holly Holy"
# "I Am... I Said"
# "Soolaimon" / "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show"

Personnel

* Neil Diamond - vocals and guitar
* Richard Bennett - guitar
* Danny Nicholson - guitar
* Emory Gordy, Jr. - guitar and vibraphone
* Alan Lindgren - keyboards
* Reinie Press - bass
* Dennis St. John - drums
* Jefferson Kewley - percussion
* String section - Sidney Sharp, Philip Candreva, Paulo Alencar, Baldassare Ferlazzo, Robert Lipsett, Haim Shtrum, Ron Folsom, Henry Ferber, Hyman Goodman, William Henderson, John DeVoogdt, Wilbert Nuttycombe, Jay Rosen, Walter Wiemeyer, Shari Zippert, Ralph Schaeffer, Tibor Zelig, Walter Rower, Salvatore Crimi, Richard Kaufman, David Turner (violins), Linn Subotnick, Philip Goldberg, Sven Reher, Myron Sandler, Marilyn Baker, Samuel Boghossian (violas), Jesse Ehrlich, Jerome Kessler, Raymond Kelley, Nathan Gershman, Alice Ober, Giacinto Nardulli (violoncelli), Timothy Barr, Jess Bourgeois, Don Bagley (bass violins)

Orchestra conducted by Lee Holdridge

Chart positions

succession box
before = "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player" by Elton John
title = Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
years = May 21 - June 3 1973
June 25 - July 8 1973
July 30 - November 25 1973
December 24 1973 - January 27 1974
February 25 - March 17 1974
after = "Houses of the Holy" by Led Zeppelin