Neil Diamond courtesy Irisgerh at en.wikipedia (CC-BY-3.0)

The Jewish Elvis, Neil Diamond has been elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Although eligible for years, this is the first time Diamond had been nominated.

He made it this year along with the Alice Cooper Band, Dr. John, Darlene Love and singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

Others were nominated for the first time but didn’t made the cut, including Bon Jovi, LL Cool J, the J. Geils Band, the Beastie Boys and Donna Summer.

At age 69, Diamond is the ancient veteran of the all the candidates.

His first writing hit was I’m a Believer for the Monkees.

His own singing success exploded in 1966 with Solitary Man, then continued through the end of the sixties with a mix of hard driving bluesies and soft ballads with rock standards Cherry Cherry, Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon, (and less well knwn but relevant) Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show and Holy Holy.

Diamond survived into the the next decade (where so many didn’t) and was often on the charts and always on the radio with endless soft rock releases like Song Sung Blue and You Don’t Bring Me Flowers (dueting with Barbra Streisand).

And he just keeps on giving.  His album production has been steady for the past five years, with his latest introduced just weeks ago.

Diamond reportedly said that he was honored to receive the induction and glad that it occurred before he died.

The event in Cleveland will be televised on Fuse.