Bridget's House of Soul

Helping you discover the music in your soul as I help you to connect to the music you love! ❣️ What do YOU want to learn? What kind of music appeals to YOU?

After four decades of music making, I've decided to share my knowledge with others....but not in the traditional way you might expect from a music teacher...I want my lessons to be student-led. I am not the teacher for you if you or your child intends to pursue a classical career...but I can teach you some piano...and I can teach you some voice...and I can teach you how to read music...no matter w

04/30/2026

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04/30/2026

So, today the song, "Cracklin' Rosie" by Neil Diamond came on in the car and of course, I immediately started singing along! But it had been awhile since I sang these lyrics and suddenly, I flashed back 56 years ago to 1970 when I was just 12 years old...ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS that I was belting out a song ABOUT A PR******TE! LOLOL

(In my defense, I did grow up in a very sheltered life in a little town on the coast of Washington, but STILL! How did I not realize this, 68 year old Bridget is asking herself! 🤪)

ANYWAY, when I got home, I decided to look more closely at the song and here is what I found! Enjoy!

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"Cracklin' Rosie" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond in 1970, with instrumental backing by Los Angeles session musicians from the Wrecking Crew, including Hal Blaine on drums, Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass, Al Casey on guitar and Gene Estes on percussion – arranged by Don Randi.

The song was included on Diamond's album 'Tap Root Manuscript'. In October 1970, the song became Diamond's first American No. 1 hit within the Billboard Hot 100 and his third to sell a million copies. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 17 song of 1970.

Song meaning
Married to a catchy and dynamic melody and arrangement, the lyrics suggested to some a devotion to a pr******te:

Oh, I love my Rosie child —
You got the way to make me happy.
You and me, we go in style...
Cracklin' Rose, you're a store-bought woman
But you make me sing like a guitar hummin' ...

The stories about how Diamond was inspired to write the song are apocryphal. "Crackling Rosé" is the name of an inexpensive sparkling wine once produced by Andres Wines of British Columbia, Canada, which was popular among the Indigenous population. One story suggests that Diamond heard a story about a native Canadian tribe while interviewing in Toronto, Canada—the tribe had more men than women, so the lonely men of the tribe would sit around the fire and drink their wine together—which inspired him to write the song.

Biographer Rich Wiseman interviewed Diamond's bass player, Randy Ceirley, who remembered the song originating from a Toronto student newspaper reporter who interviewed Diamond in 1970:

"And this girl came down from a local paper, a college paper or something, and was trying to interview Neil. Somehow she had gotten in. And I think the only reason she had gotten in was she was cute and bubbly . . ."

"And Neil used to have a trick he pulled on interviewers, which was . . . he would end up interviewing them. He started doing this to [her]. 'What goes on around here?' And I sat and watched . . ."

"Somehow the conversation got around to these Indian reservations—and the ratio of like one woman to 100 men. And Neil said, 'How do these guys spend the weekend?' 'Oh, they go out with Rose.' 'Who?' 'Cracklin' Rose.' He said 'What?' And she said, 'They go down to the store and buy a bottle of Cracklin' Rosé wine and get mashed—that's their weekend. And their girlfriend is Cracklin' Rose.' And I saw a look in Neil's eye. I knew there was a song coming."

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Cracklin' Rosie Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupCracklin' Rosie · Neil DiamondTap Root Manuscript℗ 1970 Geffen RecordsReleased on: 1972-01-01Producer: Tom Catala...

Wedding Song (There Is Love) [Remastered Version]

04/15/2026

He wrote it in one hour. He gave away every penny it ever made. And it became the most beloved wedding song in America. In 1969, Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary was asked to write a song for his bandmate's wedding. He sat in his basement studio, picked up his guitar, and prayed. Then he picked up a pencil. For the next hour, words came as if they had been waiting. He didn't feel like he was composing. He felt like he was transcribing.

Paul Stookey changed one word after his wife warned him: "They'll think you're presuming to be God." He replaced "I am" with "He is." The song became "Wedding Song (There Is Love)." He sang it once at the ceremony, assuming it would never be heard again. Then audiences demanded it .

When he recorded it for his solo album in 1971, it hit Billboard Top 40. But Stookey faced a dilemma: he believed the song had been given to him, not created by him.

So he did something extraordinary. He established the Public Domain Foundation—a charitable trust to receive every royalty the song would ever generate as a composition. He kept nothing .
Over the decades, that foundation has distributed millions of dollars to soup kitchens, children's programs, hospitals, and music education. Every time "Wedding Song" plays at a wedding, the money goes to charity. Stookey has turned down The Tonight Show and countless wedding invitations.

His answer is always the same: "It's not my song. It belongs to every bride and groom who ever had a good friend strum a guitar at their wedding" .

Into every songwriter's life comes a song whose source cannot be explained by personal experience. Paul Stookey wrote it in one hour. He gave it all away. And more than 50 years later, that hour of work is still blessing strangers on the most important day of their lives .

Wedding Song (There Is Love) [Remastered Version] Provided to YouTube by Rhino/Warner RecordsWedding Song (There Is Love) [Remastered Version] · Noel Paul StookeyThe Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary℗ 1971 W...