When will Neil Diamond return to hot august night?
For Neil Diamond, a hot August night has a different meaning than it might for anyone else. In 1972, the veteran music star debuted one of pop music’s seminal albums with “Hot August Night,” which captured one of the 10 sold-out concerts he performed that year at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre. He revisits that triumph – and much of that music – in the new CBS special “Neil Diamond: Hot August Night: NYC” Friday at 8 p.m. Culled from four shows the Grammy Award winner staged a year ago at Madison Square Garden, the hour spans Diamond hits from “Cherry, Cherry” to “America.” Diamond also takes a personal trip back to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up. Diamond recently reflected on the special, which gets a DVD release in a longer form the same day. Why do another “Hot August Night”?It was now or never, as far as I was concerned. I have not had a full-length document done of my concert; I did not think anything could capture it, but I went ahead with this, and I’m glad that I did. T
“Hot August Night/NYC,” which is being sold exclusively at Wal-Mart properties, was filmed and recorded at New York’s Madison Square Garden during Diamond’s four-night run there a year ago. The DVD features the entire 26-songs performance as well as a documentary, “Welcome Home Neil,” in which Diamond visits his childhood haunts in Brooklyn. CBS is airing a one-hour special culled from the DVD at 8 p.m. ET on Friday.
