Pianist and singer-songwriter who had two bright
flurries of chart activity in the early '60s and mid-'70s as a
recording artist.Neil was playing
piano at the age of eight and attending the Juilliard School of Music's
Preparatory Division by the age of eight or nine.Artur
Rubinstein would later call him one of the best classical pianists in the
New York City school system.As
he grew older, his interest was in pop music, and when a neighbour overheard him playing one day, she introduced
him to her son, who wrote lyrics and poetry.His name was Howard Greenfield, and
he and Sedaka would collaborate for
thirty-something years, first striking gold with Connie Francis's "Stupid
Cupid" in 1958.During a
mind-numbing day of vetting songs they thought might be suitable for
Connie, Greenfield suggested "Stupid Cupid", and Sedaka was reluctant to offer it to her because he
thought it might insult her intelligence.She was smart enough to take it to
#14 on the Billboard pop chart.It was an auspicious if uncomfortable beginning to what would become
another important collaborative partnership for Neil:During the day when they were
looking for songs for Connie to sing, she wrote so obsessively in her diary
that Neil breached protocol by asking her if she could read it.After an obvious no, Neil went on to
write "The Diary", his first hit as a recording artist.It was not the last time he would be
inspired to write a song for a girl.He wrote "Oh! Carol" for his high-school girlfriend
Carole King, who just so happened to work in the Brill Building with him
and Greenfield.It hit #9 on
the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 and started a string of hits that made Sedaka flavor-of-the-month for about two years.Other successes during this time included
the top-ten hits "Calendar Girl" and "Happy Birthday
Sweet Sixteen" and the #1 smash "Breaking up is Hard to Do".Sedaka
scored eight top-forty hits between the years 1960 and 1962.After that, the hits dried up.The British Invasion is frequently
blamed for this.Neil continued
to write songs for other artists, including "Venus in Blue Jeans"
for Jimmy Clanton and "Working on a Groovy Thing" for The Fifth
Dimension.In the 1970s, Neil
staged his own American invasion of Great Britain, giving himself a fresh
start and the beginnings of a comeback that would culminate with a brand
new record contract courtesy of Elton John, who signed him to Rocket
Records and offered vocal support on 1975's "Bad Blood".It was "Laughter in the Rain"
that would become Neil's biggest hit, reputedly the biggest-selling
single in the U.K. in the 1970s, and another #1
for Neil in the States.He and
Greenfield also penned "Love Will Keep Us Together" which
became a runaway hit for Captain & Tennille and garnered Neil a
Grammy.In 1976, a new,
jazz-blues rendition of "Breaking up is Hard to Do" went to #8
on the Billboard pop chart, only the second song to win top-ten success for
the same artist in two different incarnations.(The Ventures were the first with
two versions of "Walk Don't Run".)It also went to #1 on the Billboard
Adult Contemporary chart.The fickle
winds of fame blew away as quickly as they had come, once again, for Neil, as
he wouldn't return to the top twenty until 1980 with a duet with his
daughter Dara entitled "Should've
Never Let You Go", which peaked at #19 on the pop chart, his last
top-forty hit.He has continued
to record and tour, however, throughout his bumpy career, anchored by his
wife Leba, to whom he has been married since
1962.As recently as 26th
October 2007, Neil was honored at Avery Fisher Hall, a tribute to his fifty
years of hits that included the aforementioned Captain & Tennille,
Connie Francis, and DaraSedaka.Other notables on hand were Natalie
Cole, David Foster, and Paul Shaffer.
Neil Sedaka and DaraSedaka recordings
Should've
Never Let You Go (Phil Cody/Neil Sedaka)
