"Love on the Rocks" is a song written by Neil Diamond and Gilbert Bécaud that appeared in the 1980 movie The Jazz Singer and was performed by Diamond on the soundtrack album to the film. It was also released as a single and reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in January 1981. The song also made it to #3 on Billboard's US Adult Contemporary chart.[2][3]Billboard rated it as the #26 pop single overall for 1981.[4] It performed less well in the UK, reaching only #17.[5]
"Love on the Rocks" was one of five collaborations between Diamond and Bécaud for The Jazz Singer.[6] It began as "a bit of a lark", a "reggae-tinged" number called "Scotch on the Rocks" for Bécaud's drink of choice.[6] (A demo recording of this version was released on Diamond's career retrospective In My Lifetime in 1997.) The writers saw its potential and it was rewritten as a more serious ballad.[6]
In The Jazz Singer, English actor and singer Paul Nicholas, playing a loutish Billy Idol-like singer, performs a punk/new wave version of the song to the chagrin of Diamond's character, Jess Rubin.[7]
Billboard critic Vicki Pipkin called "Love on the Rocks" a "powerful ballad in true Diamond style."[8]Billboard also called the song "one of Diamond's more powerful readings" and "a beautiful ballad featuring Diamond's patented smoky vocals."[9][10]Record World said it has "enough drama and tension in each line to fill an entire album."[11] Neil Diamond biographer Laura Jackson describes the lyrics as taking "a sometimes cynical look at a man who is trapped in a relationship and is disillusioned with life."[3]Allmusic critic Johnny Loftus calls it a "lite FM favorite" and "classic, raw-throated Neil."[12] Author T. Mike Childs rated it as a "terrific" ballad.[13]Pittsburgh Press music editor Carl Apone claimed that Diamond was at his best in The Jazz Singer in the songs "Hello Again" and "Love on the Rocks."[14]
Soon after the release of the Diamond recording, "Love on the Rocks" was covered by Millie Jackson on her 1981 album Just a Lil' Bit Country, and Gladys Knight performed the number on the Tom Jones show, a rendition released on the album Great Solo Performances by Guest Artists from the Tom Jones Show, Vol. 1 in 1997.[25] Co-writer Bécaud recorded the song in French as L'Amour est mort on his 1981 eponymous album.[26]The Darkness paid tribute to Neil Diamond's "Love on the Rocks" with their own 2003 song "Love on the Rocks with No Ice."[27]
^"Neil Diamond". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
^ abcWild, David (2008). He Is... I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond. Da Capo Press. p. 151. ISBN9780306817847.
^Goldsmith, Melissa U. D.; Willson, Paige A.; Fonseca, Anthony J. (2016). "The Jazz Singer". The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 164. ISBN9781442269873.
