I've been a Neil Diamond fan virtually from the beginning, but I'm not a blind Neil fanatic who loves everything he does simply because he did it. There are Neil numbers I love, Neil numbers I hate, and Neil numbers I'm indifferent to. Regarding "I'm Glad You're Here with Me Tonight," I can honestly say that I was knocked out. Here's my cut-by-cut review:

1. God Only Knows: Not superior to the original, but an intriguing interpretation of it.

My personal ranking for this album: A-

With the exception of "God Only Knows" and the title song, I have always loved this album. "As If" is a wonderful song, and "Dance of the Sabres" is a masterpiece of writing and arranging. It's one of my all-time favorite Neil pieces.

This is probably one of the more divisive of Diamond's albums. Fans of his earlier works feel it is over produced and schmaltzy, others believe things are only enhanced by the use of sophisticated orchestrations; after listening once again, I find myself in the latter camp. While on songs like "Once in a While" the background is too busy, filled with soaring strings "tinkling" synths; the next song "Let the Little Boy Sing" shows how well this style can work elevating a fairly slight piece into one of sheer joy. Opening and closing with compositions by Brian Wilson and Joni Mitchell, Diamond does a great job in making "God Only Knows" and "A Free Man in Paris" his own (both worth the price of admission) and his own compositions work well between these wonderful "bookends." I can appreciate the point of those critical of this work, but his voice convinces me, there's just as much passion here and he's not buried in the sound. It just supports him in an occasionally over lush cocoon, but still has the emotion needed to make the album work.

...way back in 1978, because it introduced me to the 'phenomena' of Neil Diamond. As with the rest of his work, you cannot pigeon-hole this album. It gives you a little bit of everything, from the seductive 'I'm Glad you're here with me tonight' to the stirring 'Dance of the Sabres', still one of my favorites. As with all his albums, this grows on you and gets richer each time.

I can still remember buying this album upon its release - and being a little disappointed for the very first time by any new Diamond album. Never mind cover tunes, he'd done that before. But the whole production sounded so sleek, so unspired. Was this the same Neil Diamond who'd released the ambitious milestone "Beautiful Noise" only a year before?

I blamed it on the change in producer at the time... and boy, was I right. With every new release the new hired hand Bob Gaudio managed to take away a little more substance from the unpolished Diamond stuff in favor of ersatz elavator fare. My favorite tracks off this album are the lesser-known "Sabre Dance" and "As If" - probably because they're the only ones that still sound like what ND used to be before.