Boston Guy Croons ‘Sweet Caroline,’ The Coronavirus Version

BOSTON — As they hunker down in their homes and practice social distancing to flatten the curve of new coronavirus illnesses— and whoever thought those would be terms we’d use in our daily conversations held a safe 6 feet apart? — Bostonians are still finding joy and humor.

Mike DiCarlo hit just the right note with his coronavirus-inspired neighborhood serenade of Neil Diamond’s classic “Sweet Caroline.”

Instead of crooning “reaching out, touching me, touching you” as Diamond did, DiCarlo switched it up in perfect tune with the times: “Hands, not touching hands, not reaching out, not touching me, not touching you.”

That Bostonians — and, indeed, people around the world — can still burst into song is one of the bright spots in our collectively upended life.

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DiCarlo belted out his coronavirus version of “Sweet Caroline” from his second-story Beacon Street brownstone, and people on the sidewalk below offered harmony, singing the lyrics DiCarlo had posted on his neighbors’ doors.

Of course, they stood 6 feet apart.

“It is a real morale booster,” DiCarlo told news station WHDH. “If I can boost morale with my terrible singing voice, I figured, why not do it?”

This trend started with Italian opera singer Maurizio Marchini, who began singing from his balcony to the empty streets of Florence, shut down along with the rest of Italy to stem the spread of the new virus.

Marchini's pitch-perfect solos may soothe a world heart burdened with worry about the spread of coronavirus illnesses; halfway around the world in Boston, DiCarlo is tickling funny bones.

» Watch DiCarlo’s “Sweet Caroline” video on WHDH