No More “Sweet Caroline” at Penn State Games Due to “Touching You” Lyrics [UPDATE]

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Penn State fans have been singing Neil Diamond for years. At every home game, Nittany Lion fans belt out the lyrics to Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” a tradition popularized at Boston’s Fenway Park. This season, though, Penn State fans will have to do without their ba-ba-ba-ing and “so good”‘s to themselves now that the school has announced it will no longer play the 1969 classic during the games. University officials decided that, in wake of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, it’s probably a bad idea to have 100,000 Penn Staters on television singing “touching me, touching you,” especially when the song was written about an 11-year-old girl (Caroline Kennedy).

Some concerns by university officials about its lyrics – “touching you touching me” – and the perception of people singing along to them in light of the recent scandal have been expressed. A final decision will be made this week. (Editor’s note: The Mirror has now received confirmation that “Sweet Caroline” will not be included in the musical play list for Penn State games this season.) [Altoona Mirror]

UPDATE: Multiple reporters have tweeted that the university’s decision to take “Sweet Caroline” off of the gameday playlist had nothing to do with lyrics. So, apparently, it’s just that university officials decided that one of the most widely recognized and beloved songs in the history of American music just wasn’t good enough anymore.