On this day in history in 1905, the world's largest diamond was found in the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa. Weighing in at 1.33 pounds, and comprising 3,106 carats, the diamond was christened "the Cullinan" after the owner of the mine, Sir Thomas Cullinan, who then sent the gemstone from South Africa to England as a birthday present for King Edward VII. Eventually, the diamond would be carved into 9 major stones and nearly 100 smaller ones, and even on their own, these stones are among the most valued diamonds in the world, some being worth hundreds of millions of dollars individually. 

My desire to descend into a hole in the earth in search of rocks being at an all-time low today, I decided instead to do a search for gemstones in pop music -- or more specifically, for any reference to diamonds, opals, sapphires, topaz, emeralds, and rubies in the Billboard year-end Top Ten collection (1951-2015). What I found was a total of 21 hits in 13 songs, all of them references to diamonds, rather than the other gemstones on the list. Additionally, diamond(s) are used in a variety of ways in these songs. One distinction that can be made is between songs in which diamonds are coveted, and those in which there value is disregarded, typically in comparison to love. An example of the latter includes "Little Things Mean a Lot" (1954), with its verse:

"You don't have to buy me diamonds and pearls,
Champagne, sables, or such,
I never cared much for diamonds and pearls
Because honestly, honey, they just cost money."

This theme recurs 50 years later in "If I Ain't Got You" (2004), specifically in this verse:

"Some people want it all
But I don't want nothing at all
If it ain't you baby
If I ain't got you baby
Some people want diamond rings
Some just want everything
But everything means nothing
If I ain't got you."

Another example of this is in this verse of "Thank God I'm Country Boy" (1975):

"Well I wouldn't trade my life for diamonds and jewels
I never was one of them money hungry fools
I'd rather have my fiddle and my farming tools
Thank God I'm a country boy."

Or, as in this verse from "Glamorous" (2007):

"Wear them gold and diamonds rings
All them things don't mean a thing
Chaperones and limousines
Shopping for expensive things."

At other times, diamonds are used as metaphors. In "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1955), diamonds are used to describe "her eyes." Or in "We Found Love" (2012), where diamonds apparently represent a couple in love. In "No Scrubs" (1999), a diamond is used as a model of precision.

But, at other times, a diamond is just a diamond, as in the following songs: