Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka in 2005
Background information
Born March 13, 1939 (1939-03-13) (age 71)
Origin Brooklyn, New York,
United States
Genres Pop
Occupations Singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer
Instruments Vocals, Multiple instruments
Years active 1955–present
Labels RCA Victor Records, MGM Records, Polydor Records, Rocket Records, Elektra Records, Razor & Tie Records
Website www.neilsedaka.com

Neil Sedaka (born March 13, 1939) is an American pop singer, pianist, and songwriter. His career has spanned over 50 years, during which time he has written many songs for himself and others, often working with lyricists Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody.

Contents

Career beginnings, 1960s success

Early life

Sedaka was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Mac Sedaka, a taxi driver, was the son of Turkish Jewish immigrants ("Sedaka" is a variant of tzedaka — Hebrew for charity); his mother, Eleanor (Appel) Sedaka, was of Polish-Russian Jewish descent. He grew up in an apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.[1] He is the cousin of singer Eydie Gorme.

He demonstrated musical aptitude in his second-grade choral class, and when his teacher sent a note home suggesting he take piano lessons, his mother took a part-time job in an Abraham & Straus department store for six months to pay for a second-hand upright. He took to the instrument immediately. In 1947, he auditioned successfully for a piano scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music's Preparatory Division for Children, which he attended on Saturdays. He also maintained an interest in popular music, and when he was 13, a neighbor heard him playing and introduced him to her 16-year-old son, Howard Greenfield, an aspiring poet and lyricist. The two began writing together.

His early career

After graduating from Lincoln High School, Sedaka and some of his classmates formed a band called The Tokens. The band had minor regional hits with songs like "While I Dream", "I Love My Baby", "Come Back Joe", and "Don't Go", before Sedaka launched out on his own in 1957. However, after a few personnel changes, in 1961, The Tokens would hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts with the international smash "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Meanwhile, the very young Sedaka's first three solo singles, "Laura Lee", "Ring-a-Rockin'", and "Oh, Delilah!" failed to become hits (although "Ring-a-Rockin'" earned him his first of many appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand). But they demonstrated his ability to perform as a solo singer, so RCA Victor signed him to a recording contract.

His first single for RCA, "The Diary" (a song he offered to Little Anthony and the Imperials), reached #14 on the Billboard charts in 1958-59. His second single, "I Go Ape", was a modest success at #42, and his third single, "Crying My Heart Out for You", was a flop at #111. Desperate for a hit, he bought several hit singles and listened to them over and over, studying the chord progressions and lyrics to figure out what made them so popular. Based on that, he crafted a new song, "Oh! Carol", dedicated to his then-girlfriend and fellow pop star, Carole King. The song reached #9 on the charts. (Carole King would respond with the answer song, "Oh, Neil!" later that year.)

Sedaka kept churning out new hits from 1960 to 1962. The best known are "Stairway to Heaven" (#9, 1960); "Calendar Girl" (#4, 1961); "Little Devil" (#11, 1961); "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" (#6, 1961); his signature song, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (#1, 1962); and "Next Door to an Angel" (#5, 1962). He also had modest successes with "You Mean Everything to Me" (#17, 1960); "Run Samson Run" (#27, 1960); "Sweet Little You" (#59, 1961); and "King of Clowns" (#45, 1962). RCA issued four LPs in the US and Britain of his works during this period, and also produced a Scopitone video of "Calendar Girl".

When Sedaka wasn't recording his own songs, he was writing for other performers, most notably Connie Francis. As Francis explains at her concerts, she began searching for a new hit after her 1958 single "Who's Sorry Now?". She was introduced to Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who played every ballad they had written for her. Francis began writing in her diary while the two played the last of their songs. After they finished, Francis told them they wrote beautiful ballads but that they were too intellectual for the young generation. Sedaka suggested to Greenfield a song they had written that morning for a girl group. Greenfield protested because the song had been promised to the girl group, but Sedaka insisted on playing "Stupid Cupid". Francis told them they had just played her new hit. Francis' song reached #14 on the Billboard charts.

While Francis was writing in her diary, Sedaka asked her if he could read what she had written. After she refused, Sedaka was inspired to write "The Diary", his first hit single. Sedaka and Greenfield wrote many of Connie Francis' hits, such as "Fallin'" and the theme to the film "Where the Boys Are", in which she starred.

Foreign-language recordings

Neil Sedaka was popular in Italy. In 1961, Sedaka began to record some of his hits in Italian, starting with "Esagerata" and "Un Giorno Inutile", local versions of "Little Devil" and "I Must Be Dreaming". Other recordings were to follow, such as "Tu Non Lo Sai" ("Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"), "Il Re Dei Pagliacci" ("King of Clowns"), "I Tuoi Capricci" ("Look Inside Your Heart"), and "La Terza Luna" ("Waiting For Never"). "La Terza Luna" reached #1 on the Italian pop charts in April 1963. Cinebox videos exist for "La Terza Luna" and "I Tuoi Capricci".

Sedaka also recorded in Spanish, German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Japanese. He enjoyed popularity in Latin America for his Spanish-language recordings.

Decline

Between 1960 and 1962, Sedaka had eight Top 40 hits, but after the success of "Next Door To An Angel", he would not see the Top 10 again in the 1960s. His singles for 1963 were modest successes: "Alice In Wonderland" (#17), "Let's Go Steady Again" (#26), "The Dreamer" (#47), and "Bad Girl" (#33). He would not crack the Top 40 again after "Bad Girl".

The British Invasion of 1964 eroded Sedaka's career further, and from then until 1966, only three of his singles made it into the Top 100: "Sunny" (#86, 1964), "The World Through A Tear" (#76, 1965), and "The Answer To My Prayer" (#89, 1965). It didn't help matters when RCA rejected his demo recording of "It Hurts To Be In Love", which Gene Pitney then took and made into a #7 hit for himself and his Musicor label. RCA Victor chose not to renew Sedaka's contract when it expired at the end of 1966, leaving him without a record label.

Although Sedaka's stature as a recording artist was at a low ebb in the late 1960s, he was able to maintain his career through songwriting. Thanks to the fact that his publisher, Aldon Music, was acquired by Screen Gems, two of his songs were recorded by The Monkees, and other hits in this period written by Sedaka included The Cyrkle's version of "We Had a Good Thing Goin'" and "Workin' on a Groovy Thing", a Top 40 R&B hit for Patti Drew in 1968 and a US Top 20 hit for The 5th Dimension in 1969. Also, "Make the Music Play" was included on Frankie Valli's charting album Timeless.

On an episode of the quiz show I've Got a Secret in 1965, Sedaka's secret was that he was to represent the United States in classical piano at the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, and he played "Fantasie Impromptu" on the show. Panelist Henry Morgan made a point that the Russians, at least older ones, hated rock and roll. Sedaka's participation in the competition, which Van Cliburn had won in 1958, was cancelled by the USSR because of Sedaka's rock and roll connection.

Sedaka also made an appearance in the 1968 movie Playgirl Killer, with a scene of him performing a song called "The Waterbug".

The lean years

Sedaka revived his solo career in the early 1970s. Despite his waning chart appeal in the USA in the late 1960s, he remained very popular as a concert attraction, notably in the UK and Australia. He made several trips to Australia to play cabaret dates, and his commercial comeback began when the single "Star Crossed Lovers" became a major hit there. The song went to #5 nationally in April 1969[2]—giving Sedaka his first charting single in four years—and it also came in at #5 in Go-Set magazine's list of the Top 40 Australian singles of 1969[3].

Later that year, with the support of Festival Records, he recorded a new LP of original material entitled Workin' on a Groovy Thing at Festival Studios in Sydney. It was co-produced by Festival staff producer Pat Aulton, with arrangements by John Farrar (who later achieved international fame for his work with Olivia Newton-John) and backing by Australian session musicians including guitarist Jimmy Doyle (Ayers Rock) and noted jazz musician-composer John Sangster.[4]

The single lifted from the album, "Wheeling, West Virginia," reached #20 in Australia in early 1970[5]. The LP is also notable because it was Sedaka's first album to include collaborations with writers other than longtime lyricist Howard Greenfield; the title track featured lyrics by Roger Atkins and four other songs were co-written with Carole Bayer Sager (who subsequently embarked on a successful collaboration with expatriate Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen).

In 1971, Sedaka released the album Emergence. Singles from that album include "I'm A Song (Sing Me)," "Silent Movies," "Superbird," and "Rosemary Blue." Emergence (and the Solitaire album the following year) were both released on the RCA Victor label, marking a short-lived reunion between Sedaka and RCA. Good friend and New York music impresario Don Kirshner attempted to make the U.S. release of Emergence a comeback for Sedaka, but the album and single releases had no appreciable success. After the failure of Emergence in the U.S., Sedaka left his hometown of New York and moved his family to England.

In 1972, Sedaka embarked on a successful English tour and in June recorded the Solitaire album at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, working with the four future members of 10cc. As well as the title track, which was successfully covered by Andy Williams and The Carpenters, it included two UK Top 40 singles, including "Beautiful You," which also charted in America: Sedaka's first US hit in ten years.

1970s success

A year later he reconvened with the Strawberry team, who had by then charted with their own debut 10cc album, to record The Tra-La Days Are Over for MGM Records, which started the second phase of his career and included his original version of the hit song "Love Will Keep Us Together" (a US #1 hit two years later for The Captain & Tennille). This album also marked the effective end of his writing partnership with Greenfield, commemorated by the track "Our Last Song Together." They would reunite, however, and begin composing together again before Greenfield's death in 1986.

Sedaka worked with Elton John, who signed Sedaka to John's Rocket Records label; during the ensuing years, Sedaka's records would be distributed in Europe on the Polydor label. Sedaka returned to the U.S. with the release of the 1974 album "Sedaka's Back," a shelf-ready blend of cuts he had already recorded in Britain with 10cc and Elton John. Although the single was released in the autumn of 1974 and was slow in building, eventually Sedaka found himself once again topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts with "Laughter in the Rain" in early 1975, and then later again that year with "Bad Blood" (and continuing into 1976, staying at #1 for three weeks and being certified gold by the RIAA, the most commercially successful single of his career). Elton provided uncredited backing vocals for the latter song. The flipside of "Laughter in the Rain" was "The Immigrant" (US pop #22, US AC #1), a wistful, nostalgic piece dedicated to John Lennon, which recalled the bygone era when America was welcoming of immigrants, in contrast to the U.S. government's then-refusal to grant Lennon permanent resident status.[6] The third consecutive Billboard Top 25 hit from Sedaka's Back was the uptempo "That's When the Music Takes Me" (US pop #25, US AC #7); this song has been Sedaka's standard curtain-call concert closer.

Sedaka and Greenfield co-wrote "Love Will Keep Us Together", a No. 1 hit for The Captain & Tennille and was the biggest hit for the entire year of 1975. Toni Tennille paid tribute to Sedaka's welcome return to music-business success with her ad lib of "Sedaka is back" in the outro while she was laying down her own background vocals for the track.[7]. "Captain" Daryl Dragon and Toni also recorded a Spanish-language version of the song the same year that cracked the top half of Billboard's Hot 100 chart ("Por Amor Viviremos," US pop #49).

In 1975, Sedaka was the opening act for The Carpenters on their world tour. According to The Carpenters: The Untold Story by Ray Coleman, manager Sherwin Bash fired Sedaka at the request of Richard Carpenter. The firing resulted in a media backlash against The Carpenters after Sedaka publicly announced he was off the tour. This, however, was before Karen and Richard recorded Sedaka's "Solitaire" which became a Top 20 hit for the duo. Richard Carpenter denied that he fired Sedaka for "stealing their show", stating they were proud of Sedaka's success. However, Bash was fired as The Carpenters' manager a short time after.

"Solitaire" would find success again in the 21st century, when American Idol runnerup Clay Aiken sang the song when Sedaka appeared as a guest judge in the second season. Aiken explained the song was his mother's favorite, and she begged him to sing it when she learned that Sedaka would be on the show and that the remaining finalists would be singing songs from Sedaka's impressive songbook. After Aiken was awarded a recording contract, although it did not appear on his debut CD itself, he added "Solitaire" as the B-side to the single "The Way", whose sales were faltering. "Solitaire" was moved to the A-side and radio airplay and single and download sales responded immediately. The single hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart, the Top 5 on Billboard's Hot 100, and was one of the biggest hits of 2004. Sedaka was invited back to American Idol to celebrate its success and continues to be seen in the audience.

In 1975, Sedaka recorded a new version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". The 1962 original #1 hit was fast-tempoed and a sort of bouncy teen pop, but the remake was slower and featured a jazzy, torch-piano arrangement. Lenny Welch had recorded the song in this style in 1970. Sedaka's new version hit #8 on the Hot 100 in early 1976, making him the first artist--and after more than 35 years, he remains the only one--to hit the U.S. Top 10 twice with entirely different versions and arrangements of the same song. Sedaka's second version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in 1976. The same year, Elvis Presley recorded the Sedaka song "Solitaire". This was followed by Sedaka's Top 20 hit "Love in the Shadows", also from 1976.

Later in 1976, Sedaka released a second (and final) collaboration with Elton John, with Elton once again on uncredited backing vocals on the title song to Sedaka's album "Steppin' Out". While it would crack the Hot 100's Top 40, it would also signal the beginning of a slowdown in Sedaka's music sales and radio play not unlike what he experienced in 1964 when The Beatles and the "British Invasion" arrived. In this version of another fading of his music sales, it was the arrival of the disco era. While Sedaka attempted to release disco-themed music himself in the late 1970s, his album sales were weak and singles could not get a foothold on the radio. In 1980, Sedaka had his final Top 20 hit with "Should've Never Let You Go", which he recorded as a duet with his then 17-year-old daughter, Dara.

Throughout the 1970s, Sedaka's old record company, RCA, would re-issue his 1960s-era songs on several compilation LPs on the RCA Victor and RCA Camden labels, a practice which continues to this day.

Into the 1980s

A change in record companies in the early 1980s also required him to, for the first time in his career, record cover versions of other artists' "oldies". Only two singles on two albums, spaced three years apart, managed to land on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart; none charted on the Hot 100 at all. Another duet with Dara, a remake of the Marvin Gaye-Tammi Terrell 1967 Top 5 smash "Your Precious Love", placed high enough on the AC chart (making the Top 15) for one final album to be released. But the second album's only release did not fare well on the AC chart, barely cracking its Top 40, and by 1985, Neil Sedaka was once again without a recording contract. Concertgoers filled theatre seats while Sedaka created had his own music label. That would assure that his catalog of hits would find the marketplace, and he released occasional CDs of self-produced new, original material.

Other successes

Sedaka is also composer of "Is This the Way to Amarillo?", a song initially recorded by Britain's Tony Christie when Sedaka had moved his family to the UK in the early 1970s. It reached only #18 on the UK charts in 1971, but then hit #1 for seven consecutive weeks on the UK singles charts when reissued in 2005, thanks to a music video starring comedian Peter Kay. It was Britain's most popular single for the year. Sedaka had also recorded and released the song in the US in 1977, when it became a #44 hit on Billboard's Hot 100, although the U.S. release was titled as the shorter "Amarillo." On April 7, 2006, during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Sedaka was presented with an award from the Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums, as writer of the best-selling single of the 21st century (thus far) for "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" The interruption seemed to be quite a genuine surprise for Sedaka, because it occurred just before Sedaka was to begin "Amarillo" and Christie was to join Sedaka onstage for a duet of the song. The presentation and eventual duet appear on Sedaka's filmed DVD of the concert at the Royal Albert, subtitled "The Show Goes On."

Ben Folds, an American pop singer, credited Sedaka on his "iTunes Originals" album as an inspiration for song publishing. Hearing Sedaka had a song published by the age of 13 gave Folds the goal of also getting a song published by his 13th birthday, despite the fact that Sedaka didn't actually publish his first song until he was 16.[8]

In 1985, songs composed by Sedaka were adapted for the Japanese anime TV series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. These included the two opening themes "Zeta - Toki wo Koete" (originally in English as "Better Days Are Coming") and "Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete" (originally in English as "For Us to Decide", but the English version was never recorded), as well as the end theme "Hoshizora no Believe" (written as "Bad and Beautiful"). Due to copyright, the songs were replaced for the North American DVD.

In 1994, Sedaka provided the voice for Neil Moussaka, a parody of himself in Food Rocks, an attraction at Epcot from 1994-2006.

A musical comedy based around the songs of Sedaka, titled Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,[9] was written in 2005 by Erik Jackson and Ben H. Winters; it is now under license to Theatrical Rights Worldwide.

A biographical musical, Laughter in the Rain, produced by Bill Kenwright and Laurie Mansfield and starring Wayne Smith as Sedaka, had its world premiere at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley (in London, UK) on 4 March 2010. Sedaka attended the opening and joined the cast on stage for an impromptu curtain call of the title song.

Sedaka in the 21st century

Sedaka maintains a rigorous concert schedule in the second decade of the 21st century, in the U.S. and around the world, despite having passed the age of 70. He was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1983, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was an October 2006 inductee of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. His devoted fans are livid that he has not yet been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, citing his longevity, contributions to contemporary music, and hit songwriting for himself and countless other artists.

A concert performance on 26 October 2007 at the Lincoln Center in New York City paid homage to the 50th anniversary of Sedaka's debut in show business. Guests included The Captain and Tennille, Natalie Cole, Connie Francis, Clay Aiken, music impresario David Foster, and many others.

During his 2008 Australian tour, Sedaka premiered a new classical orchestral composition entitled "Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life)."[10] Sedaka also toured The Philippines for his May 17, 2008 concert at the Araneta Coliseum.[11]

He continues to release recordings. His three most recent U.S. releases — The Definitive Collection, Waking Up Is Hard to Do, and The Music of My Life — all appeared on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, in May 2007, May 2009, and February 2010, respectively. None of his album releases had appeared on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart since In the Pocket in 1980, when his duet with daughter Dara, "Should've Never Let You Go," was a Top 20 hit on the Hot 100 singles chart.

The Definitive Collection reached the Top 25 of the albums chart, one of the highest-charting albums of his entire career. It is a life-spanning compilation of his hits, along with previously unreleased material and outtakes. Waking Up is a children's album, inspired by his three grandchildren, in which he takes his best-known songs and changes the lyrics to delight babies, toddlers, and their elders alike. Music is a new release of original material.

Also, in early 2010, his original uptempo version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (performed by a group of uncredited singers) was being heard as the impetus for a series of insurance TV commercials, featuring actor Dennis Haysbert assuring that TV viewers not insured by Allstate can break up with their current insurer without much ado at all.

Personal life

Sedaka attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, graduating in 1956.[12] He has been married to his wife, Leba (Strassberg), since 1962. They have two children: a daughter, Dara, a recording artist and vocalist for television and radio commercials (who sang the female part on the Sedaka duet "Should've Never Let You Go"), and a son, Marc, a screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles with his wife Samantha and three children.

Pop culture references

In the Friends episode "The One With the Two Parties", Ross says that he is wearing the same glasses frames as Neil Sedaka.

In the lyrics to mini-opera "Billy the Mountain", on the album Just Another Band from L.A. by Frank Zappa and The Mothers, it is alleged that Studabacher Hoch "could sing like Neil Sedaka."[1]

In the Boy Meets World episode "Killer Bees", Alan Matthews is being sarcastic when he says he couldn't find tickets to the Neil Sedaka concert.

In Career Day on That '70s Show, Kitty starts out singing "Bad Blood" on the radio, which makes everyone, including Fez and Hyde's mother, sing along in the lunchroom.

The indie compilation album Young Savage Florida contains a cover of "Stupid Cupid" by The Vodkats.

Sedaka appeared on an episode of "King Of Queens" entitled "Sandwiched Out" in 2005. On a different episode of "King Of Queens", Deacon sings Karaoke to "Laughter In The Rain".

On the Canadian sketch comedy show Second City Television, Eugene Levy portrays Sedaka during a sketch entitled Farm Film Report Celebrity Blowup. The sketch also features John Candy and Joe Flaherty who make references to Sedaka's career and then watch as he explodes while performing.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Year Title Peak US Peak US AC Notes
1957 "Laura Lee" Recorded for the Decca label; b/w "Snowtime"
1958 "Ring-a-Rockin'" Recorded for the Guyden label; b/w "Fly, Don't Fly on Me"
1958 "Oh, Delilah!" Recorded for the Pyramid label; b/w "Neil's Twist"
1958 "The Diary" 14 First single with RCA Victor; b/w "No Vacancy"
1959 "I Go Ape" 42 b/w "Moon of Gold"
1959 "Crying My Heart Out for You" 111 Reached #6 on the pop music charts in Italy; b/w "You Gotta Learn Your Rhythm and Blues"
1959 "All I Need Is You" Released in Italy on the RCA Italiana label; b/w "Fallin'"
1959 "Oh! Carol" 9 b/w "One Way Ticket (To the Blues)
1959 "The Girl for Me" b/w "I Ain't Hurtin' No More"
1959 "Going Home to Mary Lou" b/w "What Am I Gonna Do?"
1960 "Stairway to Heaven" 9 b/w "Forty Winks Away"
1960 "You Mean Everything to Me" 17 Double A-side with "Run, Samson, Run"
1960 "Run, Samson, Run" 28 Double A-side with "You Mean Everything to Me"
1961 "Calendar Girl" 4 b/w "The Same Old Fool"
1961 "Little Devil" 11 b/w "I Must Be Dreaming"
1961 "Sweet Little You" 59 b/w "I Found My World in You"
1961 "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" 6 b/w "Don't Lead Me On"
1962 "King of Clowns" 45 b/w "Walk with Me" (1960)
1962 "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" 1 b/w "As Long As I Live" (1959)
1962 "Next Door to an Angel" 5 b/w "I Belong to You" (1959)
1963 "Alice in Wonderland" 17 b/w "Circulate" (1961)
1963 "Let's Go Steady Again" 26 b/w "Waiting for Never"
1963 "The Dreamer" 47 b/w "Look Inside Your Heart"
1963 "Bad Girl" 33 b/w "Wait 'til You See My Baby"
1964 "The Closest Thing to Heaven" 107 b/w "Without a Song"
1964 "Sunny" 86 b/w "She'll Never Be You"
1964 "I Hope He Breaks Your Heart" 104 b/w "Too Late" (1963)
1964 "Let the People Talk" 107 b/w "In the Chapel with You"
1965 "The World through a Tear" 76 b/w "High on a Mountain (Deep in a Valley)"
1965 "The Answer to My Prayer" 89 b/w "Blue Boy"
1966 "The Answer Lies Within" b/w "Grown-Up Games"
1966 "We Can Make It if We Try" 121 b/w "Too Late" (1963); last major single of RCA Victor career
1969 "Star-Crossed Lovers" b/w "We Had a Good Thing Going"
1969 "Rainy Jane" b/w "Jeannine"
1970 "Wheeling, West Virginia" Hit in Australia (#20)
1971 "I'm a Song (Sing Me)" b/w "Silent Movies"
1971 "Superbird" b/w "Rosemary Blue"
1972 "Beautiful You" Hit in UK (#43); b/w "Anywhere You're Gonna Be (Leba's Song)"
1972 "That's When the Music Takes Me" (UK release) b/w "Don't Let It Mess Your Mind"
1973 "Standing on the Inside" Hit in UK (#26); b/w "Let Daddy Know"
1973 "Our Last Song Together" Hit in UK (#31); b/w "I Don't Know What I Like About You"
1973 "Alone in New York in the Rain"
1974 "A Little Lovin'" Hit in UK (#34); b/w "Lightning Ridge"
1975 "Laughter in the Rain" 1 (1 wk.) 1 (2 wks.) Hit in UK (#15); b/w "Endlessly" in the US, "Kiddio" in UK, "Betty Grable" in Belgium
1975 "The Immigrant" 22 1 (1 wk.) Dedicated to John Lennon; b/w "Hey Mister Sunshine" in US; "Your Favorite Entertainer" in Europe
1975 "That's When the Music Takes Me" (US release) 25 7 b/w "Standing on the Inside" in the US
1975 "The Queen of 1964" Hit in UK (#35); b/w "Solitaire" (live version, 1974); never released in US
1975-
76		 "Bad Blood"
with Elton John (noncredited backing vocal)		 1 (3 wks.) 25 Certified gold; most commercially successful individual US single released in Sedaka's career;
b/w "Hey Mister Sunshine" in UK and "Your Favorite Entertainer" in US
1976 "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" [ballad version] 8 1 (1 wk.) b/w "Nana's Song" in US and "Lonely Night (Angel Face)" in UK
1976 "Love in the Shadows" 16 4 b/w "(Baby) Don't Let It Mess Your Mind" in US, "Love Will Keep Us Together" in Europe
1976 "Steppin' Out"
with Elton John (noncredited backing vocal)		 36 45 b/w "I Let You Walk Away"
1977 "You Gotta Make Your Own Sunshine" 52 4 b/w "Perfect Strangers"
1977 "Amarillo" 44 4 b/w "The Leaving Game"
1977 "Alone at Last" 104 17 b/w "Sleazy Love"
1978 "All You Need Is the Music"
1979 "Sad, Sad Story"
1979 "Letting Go" 107
1980 "Should've Never Let You Go"
Neil & Dara Sedaka		 19 3 b/w "You're So Good for Me"
1981 "My World Keeps Slipping Away" 36
1984 "Your Precious Love"
Neil & Dara Sedaka		 15
1984 "Rhythm of the Rain" 37
1985 "Love Made Me Feel That Way"

Italian-language Singles

Year Title Notes
1961 "Esagerata" ("Little Devil") b/w "Un Giorno Inutile" ("I Must Be Dreaming")
1962 "Tu Non Lo Sai" ("Breaking Up Is Hard to Do") b/w "Finche Vivro" ("As Long As I Live")
1963 "I Tuoi Capricci" ("Look Inside Your Heart") b/w "Non Cercare Un'Altra Bocca" ("Walk with Me")
1963 "La Terza Luna" ("Waiting for Never") #1-ranked hit in Italy in April 1963; b/w "Il Re Dei Pagliacci" ("King of Clowns")

Filmography

Autobiography

References

  1. ↑ Dettelbach, Cynthia. "From angst-ridden teenager to world-class music star", Cleveland Jewish News, July 30, 2004. Accessed September 23, 2009. "That includes instant face and name recognition, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and even a street named after him in his native Brighton Beach, Brooklyn."
  2. ↑ Go-Set chart, 19 April 1969
  3. ↑ Go-Set Top 40 for 1969
  4. ↑ Neil Sedaka Discography 1958-1969
  5. ↑ Go-Set Top 40 chart, 7 March 1970
  6. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications), p.539
  7. ↑ Shannon, Bob (2007). "IT'S THE SINGER, NOT THE SONG". bobshannon.com. http://www.bobshannon.com/stories/Lovewill.html. Retrieved 7 January 2010. 
  8. ↑ http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=35
  9. ↑ Theatricalrights.com
  10. ↑ Munro, Ian (2008-04-21). "The master songwriter turns maestro". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/songwriter-turns-maestro/2008/04/20/1208629722253.html. Retrieved 2008-05-12. 
  11. ↑ Neil Sedaka arrives in RP for concert, 05/15/2008
  12. ↑ Hechinger, Fred M. "ABOUT EDUCATION; Personal Touch Helps", The New York Times, January 1, 1980. Accessed September 20, 2009. "Lincoln, an ordinary, unselective New York City high school, is proud of a galaxy of prominent alumni, who include the playwright Arthur Miller, Representative Elizabeth Holtzman, the authors Joseph Heller and Ken Auletta, the producer Mel Brooks, the singer Neil Diamond and the songwriter Neil Sedaka."

Sources

External links