The 1970s File Feature
Do It
Do It: Neil Diamond and the Uni Records Era "Do It" by Neil Diamond was released on Uni Records in 1970 and represented one of several singles the singer-son…
01 The Story
Do It: Neil Diamond and the Uni Records Era
"Do It" by Neil Diamond was released on Uni Records in 1970 and represented one of several singles the singer-songwriter placed on the Billboard Hot 100 during a remarkably productive period in his commercial career on that label. The single entered the chart on November 7, 1970, debuting at number 78, and climbed steadily to a peak of number 36 during the week of December 19, 1970, spending ten weeks on the chart. The song appeared on Diamond's ambitious album Tap Root Manuscript, released by Uni Records in 1970, which was one of his most creatively distinctive projects to that point, incorporating African musical influences and extended choral elements alongside his characteristic pop-rock songwriting craftsmanship.
Neil Diamond had built his initial industry reputation as a songwriter for other artists, crafting hits for the Monkees including "I'm a Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You" before establishing himself as a successful recording artist in his own right on Bang Records in the mid-1960s. His signing to Uni Records in 1968 initiated a highly productive phase during which he consistently placed singles on the Hot 100 while also establishing himself as a major concert attraction capable of selling out large venues. Uni was a Universal Pictures subsidiary label that had been an early home for Elton John's American releases and positioned Diamond as a sophisticated pop-rock artist distinct from the teen-idol market and the harder rock movement that dominated many other labels' rosters.
"Do It" was written by Diamond himself, consistent with his consistent practice of writing the majority of his own recorded material, which distinguished him from many contemporary artists who relied on professional songwriters for their chart material. The song featured a more uptempo, rhythmically assertive energy than some of his best-known introspective ballads, fitting within a broader tendency in his early 1970s work to explore more energetic pop-rock arrangements alongside the reflective ballads that were increasingly becoming his artistic signature. Producer Tom Catalano worked with Diamond throughout much of the Uni period and their sustained collaboration produced a coherent sonic identity that served Diamond's commercial interests with considerable effectiveness.
The Tap Root Manuscript album was one of Diamond's most ambitious and conceptually distinctive recording projects. It contained both conventional pop-rock songs of the kind his audience expected and extended orchestral and choral pieces that incorporated the sounds, rhythms, and musical sensibilities of African traditional music, particularly within a suite of songs called "The African Trilogy." This creative ambition to expand significantly beyond conventional pop album frameworks placed Diamond in productive dialogue with the late-1960s rock tendency toward concept albums and serious musical exploration, even as his core commercial appeal remained firmly rooted in the melodic songwriting craft he had developed across his entire career.
The album reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart, confirming Diamond's commercial viability as an album artist with genuine audience loyalty and not merely a singles performer chasing radio play. By 1970, the album market had grown to be as commercially significant as the singles market for certain artists and audience demographics, and Diamond's ability to chart strongly in both formats simultaneously indicated the unusual depth and breadth of his audience's engagement with his work. "Do It" functioned as a commercially oriented single to promote the album while representing one of its most immediately accessible and radio-friendly tracks.
Diamond's chart run on Uni Records from 1968 through 1972 included numerous Hot 100 entries at various chart positions, with several singles reaching the Top 20 and a handful achieving Top 10 placements. Songs like "Sweet Caroline" in 1969 at number 4, "Holly Holy" in 1969 at number 6, and "Cracklin' Rosie" in 1970 at number 1 established him as one of the most dependable pop singles hitmakers of the early 1970s. "Do It" at number 36 represented a solid and respectable performance within this sustained run, maintaining chart presence and radio visibility between his bigger hit singles and contributing to the ongoing commercial conversation with his growing audience.
Diamond subsequently moved to MCA Records after Uni was absorbed into that corporation, and later negotiated a landmark deal with Columbia Records, where he produced some of the most commercially successful recordings of his entire career. His 1970 chart activity, including "Do It," was part of the foundational commercial period that established the audience base and industry infrastructure for those later achievements, and the Tap Root Manuscript album in particular demonstrated an artistic ambition and willingness to take creative risks that set him apart from many of his commercial contemporaries in the pop market.
02 Song Meaning
Imperative Energy and Self-Expression in "Do It"
"Do It" is built around the imperative verb form, addressing its subject directly and by extension the listening audience with an uncompromising command toward action, self-expression, and the realization of personal potential. Neil Diamond constructed the song around a thesis of personal initiative and authenticity: the insistence that doing, acting, expressing oneself fully and without inhibition is not merely desirable but necessary, and is in any case preferable to hesitation, self-censorship, or waiting for external permission, validation, or ideal circumstances before committing to meaningful action. The lyric's sustained energy derives from this urgent imperative, which Diamond communicates through the song's rhythmic momentum as much as through its explicit verbal content.
The song belongs to a commercially reliable and culturally resonant category of pop music that functions partly as motivational rhetoric, addressing listeners in terms that encourage them to recognize themselves as capable of autonomous action and genuine self-determination. This type of pop anthem had proven commercially effective across multiple decades and stylistic movements, from the upbeat optimism of early rock and roll through the affirmations of late-1960s counterculture music and into the more explicitly therapeutic self-help orientation of 1970s popular culture. "Do It" participates in this ongoing tradition while retaining Diamond's characteristic directness and the personal conviction that gave his best work its distinctive authority.
Diamond's commercial and artistic positioning in 1970 was that of a serious, self-sufficient songwriter whose material consistently reflected genuine personal conviction rather than calculated formula. The context provided by the Tap Root Manuscript album, with its ambitious incorporation of African musical elements and its extended conceptual suite exploring themes of cultural roots and artistic origins, surrounded "Do It" with evidence of an artist who took his creative responsibilities to himself and his audience with unusual seriousness. Within this particular creative context, a song about the necessity of doing and acting fully carried an autobiographical resonance: Diamond had himself moved from songwriter-for-hire status to major artist through exactly the kind of persistent self-expression and creative initiative the song advocates.
The simplicity of the song's central imperative also connected it to the broader 1970s cultural preoccupation with authenticity and the removal of inhibition that was expressed across psychological self-help movements, therapeutic culture, and the various social liberation movements of the era. All of these currents emphasized the value of authentic self-expression against the repressive norms and social constraints that earlier generations had imposed and that many Americans in 1970 were actively working to dismantle or renegotiate. "Do It," without engaging these currents explicitly or polemically, drew on the same cultural energy and vocabulary and positioned its exhortatory message within a framework that audiences steeped in these ideas would have recognized and responded to with genuine enthusiasm.
Diamond's melodic craftsmanship ensured that the song's motivational message arrived in a form that was immediately pleasurable and accessible as pure pop entertainment, regardless of whatever deeper cultural resonances listeners might find embedded within it. The ability to construct a well-crafted and genuinely catchy pop song around a motivational premise without tipping into tedium, heavy-handedness, or the kind of earnestness that alienates rather than invites is one of Diamond's core competencies as a songwriter, and "Do It" demonstrated that essential competency efficiently and convincingly within the three-minute pop single format that commercial radio of the period required.
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