Neil Diamond’s most iconic song reached only as high as #4 on the Billboard charts, but ‘Sweet Caroline’ has undoubtedly been played more often than any of his other hits, and probably more often than most songs ever written.

Written in a hotel room in a couple of hours and recorded in a Memphis studio in 1969, ‘Sweet Caroline’ is now a karaoke and piano bar staple and a sports stadium standard on par with Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You.’ The Boston Red Sox, in particular, have adopted this song as their official anthem and play it during the eighth inning of every home game.

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I took last week off from blogging to allow time for the 40th birthday cruise my wife and I took on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas. I’ll kick this week off with a short video from the cruise.

Cruise ships offer so many options for entertainment and relaxation but it’s funny how — just like in our regular lives — we tend to zero in on a just a few. In our case, it was the Schooner Bar, where each night an Australian pianist named Paul O’Shea set up shop.

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