Neil Diamond‘s twenty-sixth album, 12 Songs, was a “testing of the waters” album as he began working with producer Rick Rubin, who would stay on for his next release, Home After Dark. For the album, Rubin pulled together some of the same musicians used for Johnny Cash’s American releases, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench.
12 Songs was a collection of songs written by Diamond, including “Delirious Love,” featuring backing vocals by Brian Wilson, which was included on a special limited edition release of 12 Songs.
“It sounded like a thousand angels coming into this music,” said Diamond of Wilson’s vocals on the track, the only collaboration between the two. “I called him up and said, ‘I love this. Would you like me to come over and clean your house or something?”’
Once on board, Wilson recorded his vocals for the song within three hours in a studio by himself. “It took me three hours, and I worked real steady all by myself,” said Wilson. “Neil wasn’t there. When he heard it, he told me it sounded angelic. I was a fan of Neil Diamond’s. I thought his song,’ Kentucky Woman,’ was great, and I also liked ‘Thank The Lord For The Nighttime.’”
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Diamond’s lyrics revolve around the madness of love.
Pretty soon we were takin’ it serious
Me and you underneath a mysterious spell
Nothin’ I could do and it suddenly felt like a bolt out of hell
I’m tellin’ you
To the sound of the beat I was hanging on
Like a powerful truth, it was banging on me
Wouldn’t let me go
Like a shot in the dark she was hot like a spark
I only know
Neither one of us trying to hold it down
Neither one of us taking the middle ground
Wasn’t how to make sense we were thinkin’ of
Just the two of us bent on delirious love
Me and you being spent on delirious love
Through the two never collaborated again, on November 14, 2004, Wilson and Diamond appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform “Delirious Love.”
“Brian Wilson wasn’t just a co-founder of The Beach Boys,” read a statement on Diamond’s social media following Wilson’s death at 82 in 2025. “He was a visionary who reshaped American music with his heart, harmony, and genius. … Your music gave the world Good Vibrations and so much more.”
Photo: Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
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