Solitary Man (song)

"Solitary Man"
Cover to 1970 re-release
Single by Neil Diamond
from the album The Feel of Neil Diamond
B-side	"Do It" (1966 release) "The Time Is Now" (1970 re-release)
Released	April 4, 1966
Format	7-inch
Recorded	February 1966
Genre	Soft rock
Length	2:27
Label	Bang
Writer(s)	Neil Diamond
Producer(s)	Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich
Neil Diamond singles chronology
"At Night" (1963) "Solitary Man" (1966) "Cherry, Cherry" (1966)

"Solitary Man"
Single by Chris Isaak
from the album San Francisco Days
B-side	"Wicked Game"
Released	1993
Genre	Rock
Length	2:37
Label	Reprise
Writer(s)	Neil Diamond
Chris Isaak singles chronology
"San Francisco Days" (1993) "Solitary Man" (1993) "Somebody's Crying" (1995)

"Solitary Man"
Single by HIM
from the album And Love Said No: The Greatest Hits 1997–2004
Released	March 2004
Format	CD single, DVD single, 7" vinyl
Recorded	2004
Genre	Rock (see HIM's genre)
Producer(s)	HIM
HIM singles chronology
"The Sacrament" (2003) "Solitary Man" (2004) "And Love Said No" (2004)

"Solitary Man" is a 1966 hit song written, composed, and originally recorded (in February 1966) and released by Neil Diamond. It has since been covered many times by such artists as Billy Joe Royal, B.J. Thomas, Jay and the Americans, T. G. Sheppard, Gianni Morandi, The Sidewinders, Chris Isaak, Johnny Cash, Johnny Rivers, HIM, Crooked Fingers, Cliff Richard, Ólöf Arnalds and Theuns Jordaan.

Recorded in February 1966 and Initially released on Bang Records in April 1966, "Solitary Man" was 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 track had become a minor hit rising to #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:

have been closely identified with 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, Diamond himself would tell interviewers in the 2000s, "After four years of Freudian analysis, I realized I had written 'Solitary Man' about myself."