Neil Diamond Performs “Holly Holy”

Mike Flanagan is an incredible talent who is constantly making outstanding films and shows. One minuscule example of the auteur’s abilities? Thanks to Midnight Mass, I was reminded of the greatness of Neil Diamond’s song, “Holly Holy.” Growing up, mine was a Neil Diamond household where we heard a lot of his works (including just those he wrote but didn’t perform). I’ve had multiple CDs, records, and audio files of Diamond’s work through the years and I had listened to “Holly Holy” previously. But I had forgotten just how much of a goddamn banger this song was until it was used to exceptional effect in a montage in Flanagan’s Netflix limited series Midnight Mass. The song is pure gold—but forever associating it with that excellent slice of New England terror only makes it better.

Here’s Diamond performing the song live for the The Ed Sullivan Show on November 30, 1969. There’s a great musical production with cool colors and what can only be described as Ed Sullivan’s idea of New Age hippies after he overheard someone half-heartedly describe the youth movement.

Mild tangent: Why aren’t there more performances like this on talk shows anymore? The Weeknd did a bunch of visually cool spectacles on those late night shows when he was promoting After Hours. During the pandemic, there were a few of these as well as COVID-19 restraints meant musical acts couldn’t play in front of audiences and thus needed to substitute it for something else. And there’ve been a few others here and there (Spike Jonze has actually directed a few song segments played on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert). Basically - bring this back! I want giant set pieces and lots of dancers and weird memorable imagery that makes it something more interesting than a band playing to an audience that feels forced to go along with it even though half of them are not aware who is on stage.

Anyways, Neil Diamond sings his latest hit, “Holly Holy.” Neil!