Composers/Sweet Caroline. The song was written by Neil Young for his album After the Gold Rush. Neil Young has said that he wrote Sweet Caroline while listening to Tony Joe White play at a club in Toronto. He told Rolling Stone: "I liked the way he played it, so I wrote him a note on a piece of paper, saying 'That's a great song but you gotta play it like this.' And then I went and bought a guitar and played it for myself, sort of like proofreading my own song." Young also stated that he did not intend for anyone else to sing it, but when Linda Ronstadt heard it she wanted to record it. So he gave her the song with no intention of her recording it, yet here we are more than 30 years later and it's still one of her most popular songs. Linda Ronstadt has said about writing lyrics to Sweet Caroline: "It was really easy. It's a love song - very simple."