Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon

Diamond wrote this one for the ladies, which made up most of his fan base. David Wild wrote in his book He Is...I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond, "When Diamond first recorded the slow, seductively sensitive song in 1967, it solidified his growing connection with his female fan base, many of whom are apparently still following him all these years later, even if they are no longer properly addressed as 'girl.' Diamond has said that the song was written for all those teenaged girls who would show up at his earliest tour dates and vocally express their tremendous support."

An early Neil Diamond song, "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" was part of his second album, Just For You, produced by his New York City songwriting compatriots Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich (among the hits they wrote: "Be My Baby" and "Hanky Panky"). It climbed to #10 in America, giving him his biggest hit since "Cherry, Cherry" a year earlier. Diamond was just getting started, but "Girl" is a great example of how fearless he was as a songwriter, willing to incorporate unusual sounds and lyrics yet still give them pop appeal.

In 1994 a cover by the alternative rock band Urge Overkill was used in Quentin Tarantino's movie Pulp Fiction, appearing in a famous scene where Uma Thurman's character plays the song on a reel-to-reel tape machine and sings along to it before snorting heroin, which nearly kills her - she's revived by an adrenaline shot to the chest administered by her minder, played by John Travolta (movie fact: to get the shot, Tarantino had Travolta jerk the needle away from Thurman's chest, then reversed it in post). Diamond, who is very protective of his songs, initially refused to let Tarantino use it because he hated the violent script. He was probably glad he relented. The movie was a huge hit and the soundtrack sold over 3 million copies. It put Diamond back on the cultural radar after a period when his hits had dried up, and certainly boosted his cool factor. Urge Overkill's version reached #59 in America and #37 in the UK, and Diamond's back catalogue got a huge bump in sales.