B-side "Porcupine Pie" Format 7" (45 rpm) Label Uni 55346 | Released 1972 Genre Pop Writer(s) Neil Diamond | |
"Play Me" is a 1972 song by Neil Diamond from his album Moods. The song, the first single from Moods, was recorded in February 1972 in Los Angeles. It was released as a single in May 1972 and peaked at #11 in the United States in September of that year. It was listed by Billboard as #27 of his best 30 songs.
Contents
The "catchy pop-rock" song, a medium-tempo waltz, features broken chords played on the acoustic guitar, courtesy of Diamond's long-time collaborator Richard Bennett. Bennett had played on a few songs on Diamond's 1971 album Stones; Moods was his first full album with him, and he played on every Diamond album until 1987 and toured with him for 17 years.
Female praise
"Play Me" is an audience favorite, especially, it seems, among women, who carry signs that read "Neil, Play Me" to his performances and scream "me, me, me" when he plays the tune, described as "an entreaty to romance". Along with "Love on the Rocks" and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", it is one of the "baritone ballads" that have "60-year-old women erupting in girlish screams"; it makes female audience members shriek and swoon. According to Melissa Ruggieri, writing for Media General about a 2008 concert, "Diamond [at age 67] also still possesses the ability to charm, even though he didn't need to do much except wiggle his prominent eyebrows at women in the crowd to elicit schoolgirl-like squeals—'Play Me,' in particular, had a bizarre aphrodisiac effect."
Singer/songwriter Mary Lee Kortes, while performing it in 2000 in New York, suggested that she had lost her virginity to the song. Nancy Sinatra said, "'Play Me' is my favorite [Neil Diamond] song, because it is sexy."
Critical acclamation
It is widely praised by critics and musicians as well; it is among the top-ten favorite songs of American writer and critic David Wild. Wild was especially fond of the lines "You are the sun, I am the moon, / You are the words, I am the tune, / Play me," and other writers have cited the lines as well. Diamond himself has referred to those lines, for instance in an apology to a 2008 Columbus, Ohio, audience, for performing with a raspy voice while suffering from acute laryngitis.
Lyrical criticism
The song also has its detractors, and "Play Me" is not the only Diamond song criticized by some for its lyrics. Janice Kennedy said the song was "an exercise in fingernail-on-blackboard painfulness: 'Song she sang to me, song she brang to me.'" American humorist Dave Barry also cited those lines, claiming that they made him like the song. Martin Pearson also criticised that line, commenting "Ugh! It's "brought", you horrible little American!"