''The Jazz Singer'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

by Neil Diamond from 1980, which served as the soundtrack album to the 1980 remake of the film ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...

''. The soundtrack was released in November 1980 originally on Capitol Records, instead of his then-usual Columbia Records, because the film was produced by

EMI Films EMI Films was a British film studio and distributor. A subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief conne ...

, owned by the parent company of the label for which the soundtrack was released. The soundtrack was re-released in February 1996 on Columbia Records in the United States and

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

elsewhere. After Diamond signed with Capitol Records, this album was reissued by Capitol globally in 2014. The film's reviews were negative, earning Diamond the first Razzie for Worst Actor at the

1st Golden Raspberry Awards The 1st Golden Raspberry Awards were held on March 31, 1981, at John Wilson's living room alcove to recognize the worst the film industry had to offer in 1980. Each category included as many as ten nominees; the maximum was lowered to five the f ...

, but made a modest profit at the box office, grossing almost double its budget. However, its soundtrack was a huge success and became Neil Diamond's biggest selling album in the United States, selling over 5 million copies there and reaching #3 on the pop albums chart. This would mark the second time a Neil Diamond soundtrack outperformed the movie it came from (after ''

Jonathan Livingston Seagull ''Jonathan Livingston Seagull'', written by American author Richard Bach and illustrated with black-and-white photographs shot by Russell Munson, is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homi ...

''). Three songs from the album became top ten hits on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streamin ...

, with " Love on the Rocks", " Hello Again" and " America" reaching Nos. 2, 6, and 8, respectively.

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

Personnel

* Neil Diamond – guitar, lead vocals * Richard Bennett – acoustic and electric guitars * Doug Rhone – guitar, backing vocals * Alan Lindgren – synthesizers, pianos, orchestra arrangements and conductor (1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11) * Tom Hensley – keyboards, pianos, orchestra arrangements and conductor (5, 7, 12) * Reinie Press – bass * Dennis St. John – drums, music director * Vince Charles – percussion * King Errisson – percussion * Assa Drori – concertmaster * Jimmy Getzoff – concertmaster * Sid Sharp – concertmaster * John Rosenberg – orchestra contractor * Bob Gaudio – vocal arrangements * Donny Gerard – backing vocals * Marilyn O'Brien – backing vocals * Linda Press – backing vocals, vocal arrangements * H.L. Voelker – backing vocals * Luther Waters – backing vocals *

Oren Waters Oren Waters is an American vocalist best known for his work with the backup singing group The Waters, his siblings: Luther, Maxine and Julia. As an ensemble, Waters has been a part of 260 gold and over 100 platinum albums with artists ranging from ...

– backing vocals * Choir – Timothy Allan Bullara, Jeremy C. Lipton, Dale D. Morich, Yoav Steven Paskowitz, Boyd H. Schlaefer, Mark H. Stevens, David Teisher and James Gregory Wilburn

Production

* Producer – Bob Gaudio * Production Coordination – Beatrice E. Marks and Alison Zanetos * Production Assistant – Rita Zak * Recording Engineer – Andy Bloch * Assistant Engineers – Bill Benton, David Bianco, Jack Crymes, Brad Gilderman, Mark Eshelman, Larry Rebhun and Rick Ruggieri. * Recorded at Arch Angel Studios and Record Plant (Los Angeles, CA);

Sunset Sound Recorders Sunset Sound Recorders is a recording studio in Hollywood, California, United States located at 6650 Sunset Boulevard. Background The Sunset Sound Recorders complex was created by Walt Disney's Director of Recording, Tutti Camarata, from a colle ...

and

Cherokee Studios Cherokee Studios is a recording studio facility in Hollywood founded in 1972 by members of 1960s pop band The Robbs. Cherokee has been the location of many notable recordings by such artists as Steely Dan, David Bowie, Journey, The Cars, Foreign ...

(Hollywood, CA); Dawnbreaker Studios (San Fernando, CA). * Mixed by Ron Hitchcock * Mastered by Mike Reese,

Doug Sax Doug Lionel Sax (April 26, 1936 – April 2, 2015) was an American mastering engineer from Los Angeles, California. He mastered three of The Doors' albums, including their 1967 debut; six of Pink Floyd's albums, including ''The Wall''; Ray Charl ...

and Lois Walker at The Mastering Lab (Los Angeles, CA). * Art Direction and Design – David Kirschner * Contributing Artwork – Michael Donaldson, David Kirschner, Ron Larson, John Squire and Jan Weinberg. * Photography – Larry Barbier * Equipment – Ed Lever / Canyon Recorders

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jazz Singer, The Neil Diamond soundtracks Film soundtracks 1980 soundtrack albums Capitol Records soundtracks Columbia Records soundtracks Albums produced by Bob Gaudio Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders Single-artist film soundtracks