"Done Too Soon" is a song written, composed and performed by Neil Diamond, and released on his 1970 album Tap Root Manuscript.
[1] Cash Box described the song by saying that "the up-tempo thrust that opens the track gives way to a commentary, inspirational close.
"[2] The lyrics of "Done Too Soon" drop the following names, in order, in its fast-paced first part: The slower, more introspective second part notes the commonalities between these twenty-five individuals - Gunga Din being the one fictional character mentioned because his name both rhymed within the context of the lyrics and was a fit to the syllabic count.
Those commonalities were these: having sweated beneath the same sun, having looked up in wonder at the same moon, and having wept when it was all done ... for being "done too soon"; that is, whether their life was long or short, for each individual the end came too early.
- Neil Diamond "Done Too Soon" spent five weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart as the B-side of "I Am...