The Jazz Singer | 
 enlarge | Artist: Neil Diamond
Label: Sony
Category: Music
Buy New: $15.00
New (2) Used (7) from $1.14
Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 53486
Format: Soundtrack
Media: Audio Cassette
UPC: 074646756942
EAN: 0074646756942
ASIN: B000002BIC
Release Date: February 20, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: CASSETTE, 14 SONGS 1. America 2. Adon Olom 3. You Baby 4. Love on the Rocks 5. Amazed and Confused 6. On the Robert E. Lee 7. Summerlove 8. Hello Again 9. Acapulco 10. Hey Louise 11. Songs of Life 12. Jerusalem 13. Kol Nidre/My Name Is Yussel 14. America (Reprise)
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| Tracks:
| • | America - Neil Diamond, Diamond, Neil | | • | Adon Olom - Neil Diamond, Traditional | | • | You Baby - Neil Diamond, Diamond, Neil | | • | Love on the Rocks - Neil Diamond, Becaud, Gilbert | | • | Amazed and Confused - Neil Diamond, Bennett, Richard | | • | On the Robert E. Lee - Neil Diamond, Becaud, Gilbert | | • | Summerlove - Neil Diamond, Becaud, Gilbert | | • | Hello Again - Neil Diamond, Diamond, Neil | | • | Acapulco - Neil Diamond, Diamond, Neil | | • | Hey Louise - Neil Diamond, Becaud, Gilbert | | • | Songs of Life - Neil Diamond, Becaud, Gilbert | | • | Jerusalem - Neil Diamond, Becaud, Gilbert | | • | Kol Nidre/My Name Is Yussel - Neil Diamond, Traditional | | • | America (Reprise) - Neil Diamond, Diamond, Neil |
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| Customer Reviews:
 His Name is Yussel Rabinovich November 22, 2008
Eric B. Gordon (Indianapolis, IN (USA))
Recently, I purchased a new copy of The Jazz Singer 1980 motion picture soundtrack. The music on this CD has been in my ears since my year of birth (the same year as the film). Being less than a year old when it came out, it was one of the first records my parents exposed me to, likely the first one by Neil Diamond.
My memory goes back to age three if not earlier, and the music from The Jazz Singer and Neil's solo follow-up, On the Way to the Sky were already engrained pretty firmly into my conscience. (Subsequently, I was exposed to Heartlight, the Love at the Greek concert album, I'm Glad You're Here with Me Tonight, and His 12 Greatest Hits I & II. What initially slipped by me for a few years was that The Jazz Singer was actually a soundtrack album. Sometime when I was probably four years old, my parents tuned into Home Box Office, and we watched part of the film. I remember going into a saloon in Lake George, NY with my family that summer and fearing that a fight would break out like the one in the nightclub scene.
It wasn't until I was ten or eleven years of age when my father rented the film for me on VHS. I watched it obsessively, which is a habit I haven't managed to break to this day. I got a real kick out of Neil's contrastic performance of "Love on the Rocks" against the Keith Lennox character. The most moving parts were the hitch-hiking montage ("Songs of Life"), the reunion scene between Jess Rabinovich and Molly Bell ("Hello Again") and the magnificent reconciliation moment between Jess and his father ("My Name is Yussel"). Being born into a Jewish family and considering many choices I've made in life, the conflicts of interest between Jess and his father hit truly close to home. (Even before I came of age, I fostered a silent fear that my own father would one day disown me the way Cantor Rabinovich disowned Jess.) And, from what I've learned about Neil's life, the Jess character could only have been better portrayed by someone like Michael Landon. His acting is hardly wooden; he barely needed to act.
As a college-educated adult, I eventually came to re-embrace Neil's music with more of an analytical mind. Aside from learning to recognize the Guild guitars he played in the film (and the Ovation guitars he used during the 70's), I also made an effort to study the keyboard rigs used by Alan Lindgren and Tom Hensley. (I've long been interested to know which instruments they used during Love at the Greek; sounds like a Steinway piano, Fender Rhodes, two organs, Mellatron and an Oberheim synthesizer to me.)
Aside from their prowess as keyboard players, I was also quick to identify Alan and Tom's prowess as orchestral arrangers, especially Alan. The orchestration for "America" falls easily in line with Leonard Bernstein's renditions of Aaron Copeland compositions like "Hoedown" and "Fanfare for the Common Man." And, his composition with Neil, "Hello Again" establishes Alan as a composer/arranger on par with contemporaries like James Newton-Howard. As much as I'd love to meet Neil Damond himself, I'd also like to meet Alan Lindgren, Tom Hensley and guitarists Richard Bennett & Doug Rhone.
Okay, I'll bite. As much as I love the film and its music, I've got one point of hindsight criticism. When The Jazz Singer was filmed, Neil Diamond was thirty-nine years of age. As far as I could tell, no effort was made to make the Jess Rabinovich character seem younger. In the real world of showbiz, a thirty-nine-year-old Jess Rabinovich would probably have been crucified for trying to become a star that late in life.
Jazz Singer November 3, 2008
Marilyn Parker (USA)
I love this movie! Neil Diamond sings his hit songs to the story of a Jewish Cantor who wants to be a professional singer. Lucie Arnaz stars , also which saw her in very few films. But it is a great story and great acting.
 Still great after all these years October 24, 2008
Gini Tucker (Mississippi)
Some of Neil's best-- Hello Again, America, Love on the Rocks and Songs of Life-- vintage classics!
The Jazz Singer October 10, 2008
B. Daniels (East Coast)
Drive to work with this, almost everyday! Love it!!
Will buy from seller again!
TERRIFIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! August 3, 2008
Stefan B. Gaylord (Orlando,Fl)
NEIL DIAMOND ALWAYS SOUNDS BRAND NEW WHENEVER I LISTEN TO HIS MUSIC, HE IS A TRUE NATURAL..............................
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