Initially released in April 1966, Solitary Man lyrics and music was Neil Diamond’s debut single as a recording artist. The song lyrics describe the disappointment and resolutions associated with young romantic failure. However, the song has also been used to describe Neil Diamond himself . . . . .
Enjoy This Video of Solitary Man Lyrics by Neil Diamond
Lyrics are Below the Video, So Sing Along if You Like
Solitary Man Lyrics
Melinda was mine ’til the time
That I found her
Holding Jim
And loving him
Then Sue came along, loved me strong
That’s what I thought
Ya, me and Sue
But that died too
Don’t know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man
Solitary man
I’ve had it to here
Bein’ where love’s a small word
Part-time thing
Paper ring
I know it’s been done
Havin’ one girl who’ll loves you
Right or wrong
Weak or strong
Don’t know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man
Solitary man
Don’t know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man
Solitary man
Solitary man
Solitary man
Some Interesting Facts About Solitary Man Lyrics and Neil Diamond
“Solitary Man” is a 1966 hit song written, composed, and originally recorded and released by Neil Diamond. It has since been covered many times by a number of other artists.
Initially released on Bang Records in April 1966, “Solitary Man” was Neil Diamond’s debut single as a recording artist, having already had moderate, but accidental, success as a songwriter for other artists; their versions of the songs he had already written and composed were released before his own versions of them were.
By July, the song had become a minor hit rising to Number 55 on the U.S. pop singles chart. It would then be included on Diamond’s first album, The Feel of Neil Diamond, released in August 1966.
While nominally about young romantic failure, lines in the lyrics that read:
Don’t know that I will
But until I can find me
A girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am–
A solitary man…
Solitary man.
have been closely identified with Neil Diamond himself, as evinced by a 2008 profile in The Daily Telegraph: “This is the Solitary Man depicted on his first hit in 1966: the literate, thoughtful and melodically adventurous composer of songs that cover a vast array of moods and emotions…” Indeed, Neil Diamond himself would tell interviewers in the 2000s, “After four years of Freudian analysis, I realized I had written ‘Solitary Man’ about myself.”
“Solitary Man’s” dynamic melody, matched with the melancholic universality of its lyrics, would make the song an attractive target for later interpretations.
After Neil Diamond had renewed commercial success with Uni Records at the end of the decade, Bang Records re-released “Solitary Man” as a single and it reached #21 on the U.S. pop charts in summer 1970. 
Neil Diamond originally recorded two versions of the song, as he later did with “Cherry, Cherry.” One version had his harmonic vocal track on the refrain of the song, along with accompaniment by a wordless female chorus. The other version was him singing the song alone, without his prerecorded harmony or the female chorus.
On such live albums as Gold: Recorded Live at the Troubadour, Hot August Night and some subsequent recordings, Diamond altered the lyrics to “then you came along” from the original “then Sue came along.”
In a 2005 Rolling Stone retrospective, Dan Epstein wrote, “‘Solitary Man’ remains the most brilliantly efficient song in the Diamond collection. There’s not a wasted word or chord in this two-and-a-half minute anthem of heartbreak and self-affirmation, which introduced the melancholy loner persona that he’s repeatedly returned to throughout his career.”
References:
Pete Paphides (2006-04-07). “I’ll be what I am. A solitary man”. The Times. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
