Hot August Night is a 1972 live double album byNeil 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 TheGreek Theatre in Los Angeles. This also marks the first album released by the newly formedMCA Records (a merging of theUni,Kapp, andDecca labels).[2]
Diamond later released three live "sequel" albums,Hot August Night II (1987),Hot August Night/NYC (2009), andHot August Night III (2018), as well as theLove at the Greek live album, issued in 1977.
Hot August Night was the number one charting album in Australia for the 1970s, entering the Australian album charts in late 1972 and still charting in the top 20 in 1976. It was thenumber 1 album of 1973 and thenumber 3 album of 1974.[5] 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.[6] During the 1991-92 chart-run it was listed on the chart as 14 x Platinum.[7] 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.[8][9] Based on accreditation levels since 1983, it also equates to a 700,000 sales milestone. However, becauseARIA 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 1970's albums likeHot August Night, the conservative estimates may be falling short.[3] In 1996, MCA Managing Director Paul Krige estimated that cumulative sales ofHot August Night in Australia have exceeded one million units.[10]
In a contemporary review forRolling Stone, music criticLester Bangs calledHot 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".[14]
In a retrospective review,Allmusic editorStephen Thomas Erlewine calledHot August Night "the ultimate Neil Diamond record ... [which] shows Diamond the icon in full glory."[11]Rob Sheffield, writing inThe 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".[13]
The album's name was referenced in the season 7 finale forMystery Science Theater 3000. While watching the scene inLaserblast where a corrupted Billy Duncan is killed by an alien,Mike Nelson makes a riff by saying "Neil Diamond: Hot August Nights."
All tracks are written by Neil Diamond, except "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" on the 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition which was written byRandy Newman.
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)
^abDale, David (July 12, 2007)."The music Australia loved".smh.com.au. Sydney Morning Herald. RetrievedDecember 27, 2016.
^"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.ISSN0006-2510.
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