Neil Diamond sings "You Baby" in The Jazz Singer

This week's nomination for worst number in a musical: "You Baby" sung by Neil Diamond in The Jazz Singer (1980). It is an embarrassing blackface segment that showcases Diamond's wooden, going-through-the-motions acting along with a lackluster pop song.

In this remake of the classic Al Jolson film (1927), The Jazz Singer, Neil Diamond played the son of a Jewish cantor who defies his father (Laurence Olivier) to pursue his dream of being a pop singer. Neil sang the likes of 'Love on the Rocks," (Nominated for ASCAP's Best Song of the Year) but that's not the musical moment here. As a homage to Al Jolson, an early scene featured Diamond performing in a four-piece group wearing blackface because a promoter wants to see "four brothers" on stage. It doesn't work . . . on so may levels.

The 1927 version of The Jazz Singer was the first movie to include dialogue and music on the film strip itself. Before that, there were silent films that often were accompanied by a live orchestra or music performed in the theater. In the Twenties, Bell Laboratories developed a way (Vitaphone announcement includes video at the New York premier of The The Jazz Singer) to allow an audio tract be placed on the film. This made way for the future of "talkies."

In 1996, The 1927 version of The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the U.S. Library of Congress's National Film Registry of "films that continue to have cultural, historical or aesthetic significance." In 1998, the movie was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety.

View a video clip of Al Jolson singing "Mammy" in the finale of The  Jazz Singer. Note: Warner Brother's use of blackface production in the film witnesses the overt racism of an era - - a practice that goes back to the minstrel shows of the 19th century.

Lyrics to You Baby:

One, two, three, four, brother!

Takes a lot of time if you want it right

Takes a lot of time in believing babe

Gotta see the signs and or you'll get it right

Thats even signs in your eyes

And I know that it's true, baby, baby

Ooh, baby, baby now

Ooh, baby, baby

Only a blind man would leave you behind

But not me

Takes a lot of lovin' to make it good

Ooh it takes a lot of lovin' believe it, babe

I'm sayin' it again so it's understood

Me, I believe in the things I keep seein' in you, baby, baby

Ooh, baby, baby now

Ooh, baby, baby

Ooh, baby, baby now

Ooh, baby, baby

Ooh, baby, baby now

You, baby, baby

Ooh, baby, baby now

You, baby, baby

You, baby, baby now

You, baby, baby now

You, baby, baby now

You, baby, baby now

You, baby, baby now