Hot August Night
live
ArtistNeil Diamond
Coverhot_august_night.jpg
VenueGreek Theatre, Los Angeles, California
GenreRock
Length93:05
LabelMCA
ProducerTom Catalano
Prev year1972
Next year1973

Hot August Night is a 1972 live double album by Neil Diamond.[1] The album is a recording of a Diamond concert on August 24, 1972, one of ten sold-out concerts that Diamond performed that month at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Diamond later released three live "sequel" albums, Hot August Night II (1987), Hot August Night/NYC (2009), and Hot August Night III (2018), as well as the Love at the Greek live album, issued in 1977.

Australian reception

Hot August Night is one of the biggest selling albums of all time in Australia,[2][3] where it spent 29 weeks at number 1 on the album charts during 1973 and 1974. This makes it equal 5th for the most weeks at number 1, tying with Delta Goodrem's 2003 album Innocent Eyes.

Hot August Night was the number-one charting album in Australia for the 1970s, entering the Australian albums chart in late 1972 and still charting in the top 20 in 1976. It was the number 1 album of 1973 and the number 3 album of 1974.[4] It re-entered the Australian top 10 in 1982, then had another chart run in 1991–92, peaking at number 19 on the February 16, March 1 and March 8, 1992 charts.[5] During the 1991-92 chart-run it was listed on the chart as 14× Platinum.[6] Based on album accreditation levels used until 1983, it equates to a 700,000 sales milestone. When the album re-entered the albums chart in 2014, it was listed as 10× Platinum.[7][8] Based on accreditation levels since 1983, it also equates to a 700,000 sales milestone. However, because ARIA was only formed in 1983 and record companies have not reported complete record sales records to them, sales are an estimation only and in the case of 1970s albums like Hot August Night, the conservative estimates may fall short.[2] In 1996, MCA Managing Director Paul Krige estimated that cumulative sales of Hot August Night in Australia have exceeded one million units.[9]

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, music critic Lester Bangs called Hot August Night a "fine presentation of the entire spectrum" of Diamond's work and praised its music as "great, pretentious, goofy pop" with a melodramatic, "hymn-like feeling".[10]

In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Hot August Night "the ultimate Neil Diamond record ... [which] shows Diamond the icon in full glory."[11] Rob Sheffield, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), dubbed the album "the triumph of Neilness" and said that its music is slightly more "lax" than his studio recordings, but "festive".[12]

Personnel

  • Neil Diamond – vocals and guitar
  • Richard Bennett – guitar
  • Emory Gordy Jr. – guitar and vibraphone
  • Lee Holdridge – orchestra conductor
  • Jefferson Kewley – percussion
  • Alan Lindgren – keyboards
  • Danny Nicholson – guitar
  • Reinie Press – Bass
  • Linda Press - Background Vocals
  • Dennis St. John – Drums
  • String section – Sidney Sharp, Philip Candreva, Paulo Alencar, Baldassare Ferlazzo, Robert Lipsett, Haim Shtrum, Ron Folsom, Henry Ferber, Hyman Goodman, William Henderson, John DeVoogdt, Wilbert Nuttycombe, Jay Rosen, Walter Wiemeyer, Shari Zippert, Ralph Schaeffer, Tibor Zelig, Walter Rower, Salvatore Crimi, Richard Kaufman, David Turner (violins), Linn Subotnick, Philip Goldberg, Sven Reher, Myron Sandler, Marilyn Baker, Samuel Boghossian (violas), Jesse Ehrlich, Jerome Kessler, Raymond Kelley, Nathan Gershman, Alice Ober, Giacinto Nardulli (violoncelli), Timothy Barr, Jess Bourgeois, Don Bagley (bass violins)

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1972–75)Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[13]1
Chart (1991–92)Peak
position
Chart (2012–2014)Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart (1973)Position
US Billboard 200[14]12
Chart (1974)Position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[13]3
Chart (1975)Position
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[15]4
Chart (1976)Position
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[16]17

References

  1. ^ Diamond, Neil. Hot August Night (album). MCA records. MCA 2-8000.
  2. ^ Dale, David (July 12, 2007). "The music Australia loved". smh.com.au. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  3. ^ "They love Diamond in Australia: Los Angeles - Neil Diamond's two-record set, Hot August Night, has sold in excess of $2 million in Australia, reports Lee Armstrong, MCA's international vice president. The label estimates that one in every 35 persons in Australia owns a copy in some musical form. The LP is distributed in Australia by Astor, which recently received a licence of the year award from MCA's president Mike Maitland." Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. November 16, 1974. p. 10. ISSN 0006-2510
  4. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  5. ^ Position 21, 138th week: Hot August Night - Neil Diamond, 14× Platinum "ARIA Albums Chart", November 24, 1991
  6. ^ Position 41, 145th week: Hot August Night - Neil Diamond, 14× Platinum "ARIA Album Chart". January 12, 1992.
  7. ^ "The ARIA Report - ARIA Top 100 Albums – Week Commencing 27th October 2014". ARIA. Archived from the original on 2014-10-30.
  8. ^ "Research into the Top 200 Highest Selling Albums in Australia". Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  9. ^ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. June 29, 1996. p. 10. ISSN 0006-2510
  10. ^ Bangs, Lester (March 15, 1973). "Neil Diamond: Hot August Night". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 29, 2009. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
  11. ^ Thomas, Stephen. "Hot August Night - Neil Diamond". AllMusic. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  12. ^ Sheffield, Rob et al. (November 2, 2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. 4th ed. Simon & Schuster. pp. 233–4. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  13. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  14. ^ "Billboard 200 Albums - Year-End". Billboard. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  15. ^ "Top Selling Albums of 1975 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  16. ^ "Top Selling Albums of 1976 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand. Retrieved November 8, 2021.