"Song Sung Blue" is a 1972

1972 in music

-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...

 song written and recorded by Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond

Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....

. The song was released off his album, Moods and later appeared on many of Diamond's live and compilation albums.

It was his second #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 chart in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, after 1970

1970 in music

- Events :*January 3**Davy Jones announces he is leaving the Monkees**Former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett releases his first solo album The Madcap Laughs....

's "Cracklin' Rose". The song spent twelve weeks in the Top 40. In addition, "Song Sung Blue" spent seven weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary

Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks

The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...

 chart. In addition, the song made the pop chart in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, reaching #14 on the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. The song has become one of Diamond's standards, and he often performs this song during concerts.

"Song Sung Blue" was nominated for two Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

s in 1973

Grammy Awards of 1973

The 15th Grammy Awards were held on March 3, 1973, and were the first to be broadcast live on CBS, after the first two ceremonies were on ABC. CBS has been the TV home for the Grammy Awards ever since. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1972...

, Record of the Year

Grammy Award for Record of the Year

The Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. It has been awarded since 1959.-History:The honorees through its history have been:*1959-1965: Artist only.*1966-1998: Artist and producer....

 and Song of the Year

Grammy Award for Song of the Year

The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...

. Both awards that year were won by Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...

's rendition of Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...

's song, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is a 1957 folk song written by British political singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who was later to become his wife. At the time the couple were lovers, although MacColl was married to someone else. MacColl and Seeger included the song in their...

".

Diamond described "Song Sung Blue" in the liner notes to his 1996 compilation album, In My Lifetime, as a "very basic message, unadorned. I didn't even write a bridge

Bridge (music)

In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...

 to it. I never expected anyone to react to "Song Sung Blue" the way they did. I just like it, the message and the way a few words said so many things."

The song inspired the title of a 2008 documentary about a Neil Diamond impersonator who was married to a Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...

impersonator.