The Feel Of – NEIL DIAMOND***

Solitary Man/Red Rubber Ball/La Bamba/Do It/Hanky Panky/Monday Monday/New Orleans/Someday Baby/Oh No No (I’ve Got The Feelin’)/I’ll Come Running/Love To Love/Cherry Cherry

The Feel Of was the debut album from Neil Diamond who would pen some of the most memorable pop songs from the late sixties/early seventies. Includes the US top twenty hit singles Cherry Cherry and I Got The Feelin’. (US:137)

“He does have some wonderfully transcendent moments here, and not just on the hits. Solitary Man, Cherry Cherry and Oh No No (I've Got The Feeling) are familiar to most fans, but Love To Love and Someday Baby also show some of the power and range that Diamond would be able to muster more effectively as he moved towards his prime years.”

“As a debut effort, it has some flaws that one would expect; not all of Diamond’s originals were jewels, and he would find some finer nuances to his singing in short order. But when his songwriting and singing were on target, which was well over half the album, this was one of the better pop/rock releases of 1966, as well as a kind of transitional work in a singer/songwriter mould.”

“It is worth noting that before Diamond deteriorated into his 'spandex and spangles' incarnation in the late 70s he released many great, experimental and progressively maturing rock albums after 1966.”

“Where this album shines, it absolutely dazzles, but where it flounders, it really stumbles. It shows that when Neil Diamond was writing and recording his own stuff, he was on excellent form for this, his hastily assembled debut, but I can live without the cover versions.”

“Neil Diamond started out as a songwriter only. When he decided to record his own songs he hit an early home run with his smash hit Cherry Cherry. There was such a demand for a full length album that this was thrown together in one recording session. Neil hadn't written enough songs so he had to resort to including some mediocre cover songs to complete this album.”