About The Song
Diamond’s dreams of movie stardom go all the way back to the early Seventies when he unsuccessfully auditioned to play Lenny Bruce in Bob Fosse’s Lenny, a part that ultimately went to Dustin Hoffman. The mental anguish of the experience inspired Diamond to write his maudlin masterpiece “I Am, I Said.”
He got another chance a few years later when movie producer Jerry Leider saw Diamond on a 1976 TV special and felt the singer had enough charisma to star in a movie. The Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version of A Star Is Born had just been a huge hit, and Leider decided to create another remake of a classic film with a pop singer in the lead role.
Laurence Olivier was cast as Diamond’s father, meaning the singer had to make his film debut alongside one of the most celebrated actors in history. Diamond was under a lot of pressure, and he has claimed he was a nervous wreck throughout the entire production. Making matters worse, the shoot was rocked by major script rewrites and the replacement of original director Sidney J. Furie with Richard Fleischer. Check out this footage of the grand finale where Diamond sings “America” with his father in the audience.
In the end, the film lost money and Diamond won the first-ever Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor in a Motion Picture, beating out heavyweights like Kirk Douglas in Saturn 3, Robert Blake in Coast to Coast, and Anthony Hopkins in A Change of Seasons. But the soundtrack became a sensation and gave Diamond three songs that stayed in his set for the remainder of his career. Discounting quick cameos as himself in movies like Saving Silverman, he never acted again.
Video
Lyrics
Far
We’ve been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a star
Free
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream
On the boats and on the planes
They’re coming to America
Never looking back again
They’re coming to America
Home
Don’t it seem so far away
Oh, we’re traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm
Home
To a new and a shiny place
Make our bed and we’ll say our grace
Freedom’s light burning warm
Freedom’s light burning warm
Everywhere around the world
They’re coming to America
Every time that flag’s unfurled
They’re coming to America
Got a dream to take them there
They’re coming to America
Got a dream they’ve come to share
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
Today, today
Today, today, today
My country ’tis of thee (today)
Sweet land of liberty (today)
Of thee I sing (today)
Of thee I sing
Today, today, today
Today, today, (today, today)