She's the Real 'Sweet Caroline'

Neil Diamond says JFK's daughter inspired his famous song
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 20, 2007 4:20 PM CST

Neil Diamond ended decades of mystery about his most famous song by confessing to JFK’s daughter that she’s the “Sweet Caroline” in question—and then serenading her via satellite at her 50th birthday bash. “I’ve never discussed it with anybody before,” says Diamond, who got inspired after seeing a photo of young Caroline in a magazine, the AP reports.

"It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," says Diamond, young and penniless at the time. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there." The song, now 40 years old, has re-emerged on the charts—largely due to its popularity at Red Sox games. (More Neil Diamond stories.)

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