Sweet Caroline: lyrics to Neil Diamond song and why nation is urged to sing hit on the Queen’s Jubilee weekend

Listeners to Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 breakfast show elected Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline as the song for the whole nation to sing for the Queen’s Jubilee.

People are being urged to sing the rock classic on 5 June to pay tribute to the Queen’s 70 years of service and to bring everyone together, as well as marking Thank You Day 2022.

This comes as part of a Radio 2 campaign to get the nation singing with the help of the Together Coalition, who organised last year’s Thank You Day when NHS workers were praised for their work through the pandemic.

Organisers hope to get 10 million people singing the “uplifting and happy” anthem over the bank holiday weekend.

What is the song about?

Sweet Caroline was released in the UK in 1971 and reached number eight in the charts by selling 1.2 million copies.

The 53-year-old hit has since become a disco classic and is often adopted by fans of sports teams such as the Boston Red Sox or the English football team - it became the anthem at last summer’s Euro 2020 tournament.

Neil Diamond wrote the song for his second wife Marcia Murphey in 1969, but realised he needed a three-syllable name to fit in with the lyrics. Caroline was chosen after the singer-songwriter saw a picture of John F Kennedy’s daughter Caroline in a US magazine.

What have the organisers said?

Host of the Radio 2 breakfast show Zoe Ball said that other songs such as Queen’s We Are The Champions and Paul McCartney’s We All Stand Together, were elected to be the Jubilee anthem, but Diamond’s classic emerged as the clear favourite.

She said: “It is a song of togetherness…We’re hoping that loads of grassroots music groups and choirs and school bands and brass bands will learn the song and perform it too.

“We really want to encourage the whole country to come together.”

Brendan Cox, co-founder of the Together Coalition, stated that the singalong says thank you for the “millions of tiny individual acts of kindness that make our communities the special places they are.

“Music is a great way of bringing people together, and [Sweet Caroline] is a fantastic song. We’ll be doing everything we can to get Sweet Caroline ringing out all over the country on 5 June.”

What are Sweet Caroline’s lyrics?

In order for the nation to sing together, here are the words you will need to know:

Verse 1

Where it began, I can’t begin to knowing

But then I know it’s going strong

Was in the spring

And spring became the summer

Who’d have believed you’d come along

Bridge

Hands, touching hands

Reaching out, touching me, touching you

Chorus

Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good

I’ve been inclined

To believe they never would

Verse 2

But now I

Look at the night and it don’t seem so lonely

We filled it up with only two

And when I hurt

Hurting runs off my shoulders

How can I hurt when holding you?

Bridge

One, touching one

Reaching out, touching me, touching you

Chorus

Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good

I’ve been inclined

To believe they never would

Oh no, no

Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good

Sweet Caroline

I believe they never could

Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good