Would you like cheese on that?

The answer, judging by Saturday night’s Neil Diamond concert at Rogers Arena, was overwhelmingly affirmative. Like a good burger, when it comes to an evening with this king of adult contemporary, a little bit of cheese goes a long way.

So it’s easy to accept that Diamond finishes every song with arms either outstretched to the crowd or above his head in triumph, and that his onstage banter is dripping with Vegas schmaltz. Because no one maintains a 50-year career (including 115 million records sold and enshrinement into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) without knowing how to put on a show.

The songs are the stars. And although only Diamond diehards would place his abilities in the elite company of song writing giants in the Dylan/Young/Lennon category, he had more than enough hits to fill two hours where killer effortlessly triumphed over filler.

Still, not all Neil Diamond hits are created equal. Last night it wasn’t hard to spot the songs that were sending the grey-tinged Rogers Arena back to their collective youth. “Forever in Blue Jeans” was the first genuine smash of the night. Stately waltz “Play Me” and ode to imaginary friend, “Shilo,” were watched in reverential silence. “Red Red Wine” made a gentle nod to the Caribbean, while Pulp Fiction favourite “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” climaxed with Diamond demonstrating the most theatrical kisses ever blown to a Vancouver crowd.

“Cherry Cherry,” the most legitimately rock and roll song of the night, provided a platform for Diamond’s 14-piece band to show off their musical muscle with a series of extended solos. “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” sung as a duet with backing singer Linda Press, still packed a genuine emotional punch.

For all the schmaltz, Diamond still had a mischievous streak under his flashy black shirt.

“Every time I sing this song I see beautiful lady’s face in front of me. She’s my wife,” he explained while dedicating the first of two renditions of “I’m a Believer,” a ballad immediately followed by the familiar up-tempo version. “I wish I could say I wrote it for you, but when I wrote it you weren’t born yet.”

A pumping “Holly Holy” was a prelude to the inevitable high point of “Sweet Caroline” – the chorus provoking such an epic outbreak of “bum-bum-bum” from the crowd that Diamond felt obliged to encore its final minute twice.

Surprisingly, that didn’t mark the end of the show, and although “I Am I Said” and the patriotically pro-immigration “America” delivered emotion (the latter ending with an incongruous “Thank you, Canada!”) nothing could reach the high point of the “Sweet Caroline” sing-along.

Of course, a Neil Diamond concert is awash with cheese, but that doesn’t mean that the septuagenarian superstar should be dismissed as something less than a musical force. Listen carefully, and this is a songwriter still expressing powerful ideas.

“Love on the rocks/ Ain’t no surprise/ Pour me a drink/ I’ll tell you some lies,” is as dark as love songs get. Its tale of doomed romance echoed in songs like “Solitary Man” and “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”

Not that Diamond only does doom and gloom. Delivering the faux-sermon of “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show” (pretty convincingly for a Jewish lad from New York), he implored the crowd to reach out and love one another. “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, rich or poor, gay or straight – we’re all God’s children.”

Vancouver tasted the cheese. And the cheese was good.