Sweet Caroline: The meaning behind Neil Diamond’s 1969 song

Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” could be heard across England following the Lionesses’s success at the Euro 2022 final.

In recent years, the song has been adopted as an unofficial anthem of the country’s sporting success, most recently making an appearance after England’s women’s team beat Germany 2-1 at Sunday (31 July) night’s final.

The competition marked the first time either England team had won a major tournament since 1966, with “Sweet Caroline” being sung throughout.

Diamond’s track was first released in 1969 under the name “Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good)”.

While the track may have taken on new meaning in a sporting context, its inspiration initially remained hidden for many years.

However, in 2007, Diamond said that he wrote the song for John F Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, who was 11 years old at the time the song was released.

The inspiration was a photo of Caroline that Diamond saw in a magazine while he was staying in a Memphis hotel.

“I’ve never discussed it with anybody before – intentionally," Diamond said. “I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday.

“It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony. It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there.”

Diamond finally let known the song’s subject after performing the track at her 50th birthday.

“It was a No 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration,” he said.

“I’m happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy.”

Diamond later said in a 2014 interview that he actually chose Caroline while hunting for a three-syllable name to fit in a song he’d written about his Marcia, his wife from 1969 to 1996.

Caroline now works as an international ambassador, in July taking on the position of the US ambassador to Australia under Joe Biden’s administration.

She previously was the US ambassador to Japan under Barack Obama.