Talk:Neil Sedaka

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[edit] LGBT musician?

I recently looked back over the editing history of this article and noticed that someone had briefly classified Neil Sedaka as an LGBT musician. That interested me, because I have listened to and read about Sedaka for years and he has always seemed very feminine to me. I think it is pretty clear that Sedaka is romantically attracted to females, but I have never been able to find any information about his seemingly effeminate nature. Does he just seem that way to a few of us? Or does he (or possibly she) seem that way to a lot of people?

To the person who classified him as an LGBT musician: if you happen to see this, please explain your reasoning for doing so. I apologize to anyone who finds this offensive, but seeing this really sparked my curiosity.

Andrea Parton 19:24, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I recently heard an NPR interview with him where he discussed what he himself called his strong "feminine" leanings, which he said was due to being raised in a home with 6 strong women. I don't have the exact quotes, but he discussed this himself... 75.3.234.235 13:20, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
So, apparently he likes women. Not that there's anything wrong with that. :b Wahkeenah 14:23, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
  • A very interesting observation. I thought back in the 70s, when I first heard "Laughter in the Rain" and was unfamiliar with Neil Sedaka, that it was a woman singing! Obviously not. He does seem a little effeminate, but that doesn't make him any gayer than Jack Benny, who certainly wasn't. Neil is married with children, which doesn't necessarily prove anything either, but it's a clue. Labeling on the basis of behavior is risky. Who'd have thought Rock Hudson was gay? Yet with Liberace it was no surprise. Unless Neil himself has publicly "come out", I think it's best that it was reverted. Someone once labeled Jim Nabors that way, too. I don't think he's ever "come out" either, and I reverted it myself. Not that there's anything wrong with it. :) Wahkeenah 00:54, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
  • Yes, Neil Sedaka is married with children and I really never thought he was gay. If he seems effeminate to both of us, and likely a lot of other people as well, I guess he could be considered transgender by a broad definition of the term, but he might be offended if people described him that way. Eddie Izzard once described hirself as a "male lesbian," but again, Neil Sedaka might be offended by that term. I think that unless Neil comes out as gay, bi, or trans, we can leave our speculation as it is and not mention anything about it in the main article. Andrea Parton 23:43, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
  • In fact, labeling someone as possibly swinging one way or the other, solely based on his personality characteristics, is steretyping and bigotry, as I see it. I concur with your take on this. P.S. Any relation to Dolly? And how many times a day do you get asked that question? Wahkeenah 02:07, 19 December 2005 (UTC)


I never conclusively labeled Neil Sedaka to be anything and I will not suggest any more labels for him. It is also very possible that he does not consider himself to be a member of the LGBT community at all, and I agree that people should not be labeled based on their apparent personality. And some people don't like labels at all. Lily Tomlin has even said that she wishes no one had to identify as being of a certain sexual orientation.

I know that the titles of some of Neil's songs like "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" and "Steppin' Out" have become popular phrases in the LGBT community, but that doesn't mean that Neil is LGBT himself. I guess that could make Neil classifiable as a 'gay icon,' but most of the people in that category are better known than Neil Sedaka, and so I don't really know if that would be appropriate. What does everyone else think about classifying Neil as a 'gay icon' or about mentioning this in the main article. I am only considering mentioning the use of Neil's song titles as phrases in the gay community, not any speculation that Neil is LGBT.

Lesley Gore only recently came out as lesbian, but really, I was not surprised. In an interview shortly after she came out, she said she felt like the record industry was still largely homophobic. There probably are many musicians who are already well-known and who will come out as LGBT in the future. But I agree with you that it is probably better not to publicly speculate which ones they will be. After all, it seems like the majority of celebrities have had someone speculate at some time or another that they were gay. For a few of them, like Richard Gere and Dolly Parton, the rumors become widespread, and it probably creates difficulties for such celebrities. So I do not want my questions and comments on this talk page to become the basis for a widespread rumor about Neil Sedaka, and if anyone thinks that any of this discussion should be taken down, I will be glad to consider doing so.

To answer your question, Wahkeenah, no I am not related to Dolly, but I do like her music and her personality, as well as the music and personality of Neil Sedaka and dozens of other musicians.

Andrea Parton 05:14, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

LGBT? He may or may not be G, or even B, but he's certainly not L, or T.


I really doubt that Neil is even gay considering that he has been married to Leba for over 40 years and I think he is in a very happy marriage. Neil had a long songwriting partnership with Howard Greenfield and they definitely became very good friends; it is no understatement to say that they loved each other, though their affection for each other may not have been romantic. When Neil performs "Our Last Song Together" in his concert at the Royal Albert Hall, he talks about his relationship with Howie, which is further described in the song. But my guess is that Neil Sedaka is probably either heterosexual or bisexual, and any further speculation at this point will be pointless and possibly offensive to Neil and his family. Andrea Parton 05:19, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Again, we have homosexuals trying to legitimize their unnatural, juvenile behavior by insinuating that a famous person is homosexual. Again, we have a smear that should be considered libelous.Lestrade 15:12, 16 October 2007 (UTC)Lestrade
Oh my god! Did you just seriously type that, Lestrade? Was fire shooting from your fingertips as you typed? Have you been living under a bridge for the past 30 years? Are you just congenitally retarded...or maybe you were raised by Fundamentalist christians? That's usually the same thing. YOUR comments should be considered for a libel suit! And for removal from Wikipedia. But of course, since it's not racism, everyone's just ignoring it as if nothing scandalous was written by a moron on Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.27.225.85 (talk) 20:06, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Songs used in Zeta Gundam

Both "Better Days/Toki wo" and "Bad and Beautiful/Hoshizora" were both composed, recorded, and featured on albums around a decade or more before Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam premiered (and for that matter, some years before Gundam itself was conceived!). I'm not sure what year the melody for "Mizu/For Us" was written, but it may have also been years prior to Zeta, and if not, I doubt Sedaka himself had the show in mind when writing it. I remember reading that the suggestion to use the melodies came from a relative of Sedaka with connections to the Japanese music industry and/or Yoshiyuki Tomino (or something like that); if I can find that source again, I'll post it. Tony Myers 00:13, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Album articles

Hi! If anyone should want to start creating album articles about Sedaka's albums, you can copy the track listings (and maybe some more things like chart info) from the Swedish wikipedia [1]. I've created articles for most of his albums. Hakanand 11:43, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Breaking Up" remake

Since the section on the ballad remake of "Breaking Up is Hard To Do" comes right after the section on Sedaka being fired from the Carpenters tour by Richard Carpenter, is it worth mentioning that the arrangement on the "Breaking Up" remake is by Richard Carpenter? Rich 13:56, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

  • Maybe, if you can prove it. Wahkeenah 14:03, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Carpenter is credited as the arranger of that track on Sedaka's "The Hungry Years" LP, which is the LP on which the track first appeared. Rich 05:51, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ABBA

The article used to say that Sedaka helped on the English lyrics to ABBA's song "Ring Ring" for the Eurovision Song Contest. Sedaka is credited as a co-writer in the Ring Ring (song) article, but the song came in 3rd in Sweden's national "heat" to represent the country in the contest. An unlogged editor changed "Ring Ring" to "Waterloo" without citing a source. According to the "Waterloo (song)" article, ABBA won the following year's Eurovision Song Contest, but that article does not list Sedaka as a writer or mention him in any other way. Assuming that both articles are correct (although they do not cite sources, either), Sedaka's role in translating lyrics for an ABBA song that was not entered Eurovision, but unsuccessfully competed to represent Sweden in the contest, is insignificant in the context of Sedaka's career. So I deleted the sentence about this subject. Finell (Talk) 01:18, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] = THE HUNGRY YEARS

For sure Neil Sedaka wrote some hot stuff in his first career, but nothing to compare with what he offered when he came back in early ’70s; PUPPET MAN (Tom Jones), LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER (Captain & Tennille), LAUGHTER IN THE RAIN are just outstanding songs, among the best standards written at this time. But I think you should devote some lines to a much better one, a high-class classical that is (according to me) one of the very best song of the last 60 years: THE HUNGRY YEARS. Listen to it carefully, and you’ll see it has it all: a great melody, meaningful lyrics, a very strong musical environment and Sedeka’s voice at his very best. Wow! That is a hell of a song. I just can’t understand why it has not been covered over and over yet. This song is purely, simply a pearl. --André54 (talk) 02:04, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citations & References

See Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags Nhl4hamilton (talk) 04:47, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Neil in tour concert Philippines

I have to add the notable tour concert of Philippines since this is a feather on his cap's comeback.: Neil also toured the Philippines for his May 17, 2008 concert at the Araneta Coliseum.Neil Sedaka arrives in RP for concert, 05/15/2008 --Florentino floro (talk) 09:29, 16 May 2008 (UTC)