Why is "Sweet Caroline" so popular with sports?

Posted by Rob1150@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 18 comments

Me and my dad were watching a Boxing match that was broadcast in England, and they all started singing along. Me and Dad were both confused. Isn't that a love song?

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Lucky-Tip-2630@reddit

Yeah, well it’s been overdone and now time to be shelved back where it belongs. It’s driving me nuts.

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smellyfeet25@reddit

I do not know , beautiful deep words though. Neil Diamond is a genius

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SnooSnooSnuSnu@reddit

It's a catchy song that invites audience participation.

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idunnomattbro@reddit

it builds up an atmosphere, you can go alone and feel part of something, like pit college football https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rGqaMkoiyg

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Kent_Tog@reddit

You Northern Boys and your gravy. Love it, doncha?

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Next-Project-1450@reddit

It's mainly because of the line 'Good times never seemed so good'.

Football fans don't sing all of it - just the bit with that in. They start (and end with) at 'Sweet Caroline' in the chorus. I doubt many would know any of the rest of the song.

It's helped along by being a catchy tune in its own right.

There are various online analyses of it, which link it to US sporting events in the 90s. But those are independent, and there's no way the UK picked up on it because of that (the Boston Red Sox played it in the 90s because someone involved with the tea had just had a baby and named it Caroline). The US used it first at sports events.

In the UK, several football teams and other sports have adopted it, but it went big at the 2020 Euros, when the Wembley music bod played it instead of Vindaloo after England beat Germany. That alone was probably a good thing 😁

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Rob1150@reddit (OP)

I am actually watching a documentary on it now. "2020 Euros"

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OndoroFuse@reddit

'Sweet Caroline' has become a football anthem actually. As far as I know, Neil Diamond originally wrote the song in 1969 for his wife Marcia, but her name didn’t fit the tune. He changed it to ‘Caroline’ after recalling seeing a photo of Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of US President John F Kennedy, in a magazine.

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-G_F@reddit

It's just so that people can go oh oh oh, together.. and people are thinking about "love" a lot of the time.

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