https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/dining/pat-o-briens Archives

Hands, touching hands/Reaching out, touching me, touching you – Sweet Caroline/Neil Diamond

And this’ll have you bopping on land or sea… Sweet Caroline, oh, oh, oh, good times never felt so good (so good, so good, so good).

You always know you’re onto a rousing stadium song and party favourite when the crowd know their cues.

And so randomly here are some of the places where those good times with Neil Diamond have never felt so good.

The duel in the crown

I don’t know what you’re having

Pat O’Brien’s duelling pianos, Universal Orlando: And you’ll need to bring a fistful of dollars with you (no, not the film though I dare say they’d play that soundtrack too).

Somebody will almost certainly ask for Sweet Caroline, and Piano Man, so that leaves the field open for your other faves.

Randomly I asked for (and got) Barry Manilow’s Mandy… ‘And I came and I gave without taking, and you sent me away, I’m Murty.’

Summer in New York

Holding hands… well, almost

The Beast, The Hudson River, New York: And on the hottest day of the summer with no space on the sidewalk (remember that) then the best place to go is the Hudson.

You’ll want to take the 70ft powerboat The Beast building up to 45mph around the Statue of Liberty.

And as you pass by New Jersey on the other side there’s a nod to that state’s favourite sons Bon Jovi and Livin’ On A Prayer.

Check it out as part of your New York CityPASS.

A gran old time in Austria

And that’s Ehrwald Presley there on the keyboards

Ehrwald, Austria: And what do you give a group of Irish senior walkers for musical entertainment?

The octogenarian oompah-oompah man laid on by Top Flight for Schools had tried some Austrian music and some Elvis.

But one of our group pointed out that we were an Irish group and ran off a list of Irish Wedding Songs… and obviously Sweet Caroline.

Booze cruise

And wait till the party gets started

Royal Caribbean, the English Channel: And we’re in the main shopping and entertainment area, of the Independence of the Seas rockin’ on our final night.

We’ve had the DJ belt out Hi Ho Silver Lining, 500 Miles, Delilah and It’s Not Unusual.

But the one that really rocks the boat is… you guessed it Sweet Caroline. So good, so good, so good.

I still feel to this day that I was stitched up… in Orlando.

Our hosts Natatlie and Fiona had plied us all with Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s bar https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/dining/pat-o-briens and shots at Rising Star both on CityWalk https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/entertainment/rising-star-karaoke.

And then invited us to fill out a form from the menu of songs and submit our requests for the karaoke bar.

Now this karaoke bar is like nothing I’ve ever seen. There must have been about 2,000 people there.

There was the compere who could sing and throw shapes and two leggy lovely backing singers.

I knew I was in trouble when fellow Glaswegian Bev who was in our party declared that her karaoke song was Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters.

If I was a Carpenter

And if you feel you can do justice to just about the greatest female voice in pop history in Karen Carpenter then you can clearly sing.

Walking on water: The Lowes Portofino in Orlando

It all came flooding back to me this week when I followed Bev on her Sbowbiz Lion website http://www.showbizlion.com where she was singing like a nightingale, this time a moving version of Judy Garland’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Again aiming high and nailing it.

And thanks for the shout-out and here I’m only too happy to reciprocate.

Back to Orlando and my new pal introduced herself as ‘Bev from Glasgow’ giving it the obligatory ‘Hello Orlando’.

Before working the compere and the backing singers into her routine, moving those arms like pistons as she rocked the place with Tina Turner’s Proud Mary.

Of course I would have to be next, singing Patti LaBelle’s Lady Marmalade.

Nailing a girls’ song

The compere kindly told the crowd after I’d murdered the song that ‘that was how a man sings a girls’ song.’

And a couple on our boat trip back to our hotel, the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/places-to-stay/loews-portofino-bay-hotel, were gracious enough to congratulate me on my efforts. Americans really do do manners well.

As a postscript myself and my Sunday paper workmate and showbiz writer Eoin Murphy did The Killers and Mr Brightside later in the week.

I was lucky enough to get back to Orlando the following year to bookend my Aaawlando… Orlando, the rollercoaster capital See off Voldemort, then for a beer at Moe’s and http://www.universalorlando.com trip.

With Why I love The Donald and http://www.visitorlando.com.

But whether the word had been put out to stop me singing again but we didn’t take in the Rising Star on that trip.

Eoin had occasion to interview Brandon Flowers a couple of years later when he told him about our duet to which The Great Man just rolled his eyes.

So he knows me then.

Killer tune

And maybe some day soon I’ll telll you about how I was so nervous at the possibility of meeting him (Brandon that is, not Eoin) that I queued an hour and a half before everyone else and almost lost my place because I had to keep going to the hotel.

A hero with a cloak: At Harry Potter’s favourite pub with the butter beer

Alas, it wasn’t Brandon who was playing but another less well-known singer.

I had hoped to meet him in Las Vegas, a city I love and have unfinished business in Strip… the light fantastic and http://www.lvca.com this year but alas that wasn’t to be but there’s always next year.

Watch out for the boys’ new album Imploding the Mirage which comes out on May 28.

While I can’t imagine that nobody has offered my old pal Bev a contract. I’d pay to see her, but I wouldn’t blame her if it wasn’t mutual.

MEET YOU ON THE STAGE

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Rainy Days and Songdays – Sweet Caroline, so good!