A previously unreleased Neil Diamond song ‘The Ballad of Saving Silverman’ has been officially released.
Neil Diamond recorded the song for the 2001 movie starring Jack Black, Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn and … Neil Diamond. In the movie the guys for a Neil Diamond tribute band and after a series of twists and turns to stretch the movie out to movie length, Neil Diamond pops up at the end.
Diamond wrote the song for the movie but never presented it to the producers. “I didn’t ask anybody about it or tell anybody about it, but I wrote this song while we were doing the movie,” Diamond says. “I liked it a lot, but I thought maybe [the movie] needed a little something from the heart, rather than being clever.”
In the end, ‘I Believe in Happy Endings’ was used. The movie also featured Diamond’s ‘Cherry Cherry, Hello Again’ and ‘Holly Holy’.
After the movie came out, Diamond played the song for director Dennis Dugan, who said he would have likely used the song if he’d known about it, “but it was already too late,” Diamond says, “and I just kept it in my drawer for safekeeping until now.”
‘The Ballad of Saving Silverman’ will be included on Neil Diamond’s upcoming 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition 6CD retrospective. The collection will feature 115 tracks, 15 previously unreleased and include a hard cover book.
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