Sweet Caroline Tradition

The beloved Fenway Park tradition that unites Red Sox fans every game.

The song 'Sweet Caroline' has been played at Fenway Park, home of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox, since at least 1997 and in the middle of the eighth inning at every game since 2002.

Quick Facts

Song title: Sweet Caroline
Artist: Neil Diamond
Performance time: Middle of the eighth inning (at every game since 2002)
Location: Fenway Park, Boston
Key lyric chorus: Good times never seemed so good

Lore & Background

On opening night of the 2010 season at Fenway Park, the song was performed live by Diamond himself. Several days after the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013, Neil Diamond led the crowd at Fenway Park in a rendition of the song. The New York Yankees showed their support for the city by playing the song over Yankee Stadium's loudspeakers the day after the incident. Sales of the song surged nearly 600 percent in the week after the bombings, to 19,000 copies, up from 2,800 the week before. Diamond said that he would donate his royalties from those sales to the One Fund Boston charity to help the people affected by the bombings.

Did You Know?

The song was written and performed by Neil Diamond and released as a single on May 28, 1969.
It reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1969.
In 2019, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.