Neil Sedaka, the singer and songwriter behind unforgettable hits like “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” “Calendar Girl” and “Laughter in the Rain,” died on Friday at the age of 86.
Sedaka’s representatives confirmed his death to Rolling Stone. A cause of death was not given.
“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather Neil Sedaka,” the singer’s family said in a statement. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions – but most of all, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be greatly missed.”
Two eras of success
Sedaka was one of the most successful performers and songwriters of the sixties and seventies and experienced two clearly separate heydays. At the beginning of the ’60s, his sweet pop and doo-wop numbers like “Breaking Up” and “Oh! Carol” dominated the charts of the pre-Beatlemania era. A decade later, he returned as an adult contemporary star with hits like “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood.”
Sedaka was born and raised in Brooklyn. His early talent at the piano earned him a place at the renowned Juilliard School of Music, where he attended both preparatory school and college. While receiving classical training, he also fell in love with early rock & roll and co-founded the doo-wop group The Tokens. Sedaka left the band before the Tokens topped the charts with their famous (if controversial) version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” – but his own success was not long in coming.
Along with his neighbor and longtime songwriting partner Howard Greenfield, Sedaka took up a desk in the famed Brill Building and helped shape the pop style that emerged from this New York hit factory. Her success with songs like “Stupid Cupid” for Connie Francis paved the way for Sedaka to get her own record deal. He scored his first Top 10 hit in 1959 with “Oh! Carol”, which was followed by other classics: “Stairway to Heaven” (not that one), “Calendar Girl”, “Little Devil” and “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen”. The highlight of this phase was the number one hit “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” in 1962, while “Next Door to an Angel” climbed to number five.
International star
Sedaka wasn’t just successful in the US – he was also a big star abroad. He maintained his international appeal by regularly recording his songs in other languages. Throughout his career he has released tracks in Italian, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Japanese.
However, with the invasion of the Beatles in 1964, Sedaka’s solo career effectively came to a standstill. His label eventually dropped him, and he found himself in financial trouble after learning that his manager – also his mother’s boyfriend – had squandered his savings. Sedaka kept himself afloat as a songwriter and his work enjoyed some success, but in an interview with The New York Times last year he admitted to feeling lost in the second half of the ’60s.
“I missed it. I missed it with a vehemence,” he said. “I listened to the radio and thought: What do I have to do? No more tra-la-la and do-be-do where I was the king. I wanted to be an artist who fit into the culture of the time.”
Comeback with Elton John
At the beginning of the 1970s, Sedaka found refuge and new inspiration in England. He played in small clubs across the country and met a new group of collaborators, including the members of the up-and-coming pop band 10cc. With them Sedaka recorded two albums: “Solitaire” (1972) and “The Tra-La Days Are Over” (1973), which further strengthened his reputation in Great Britain. He soon found a strong advocate in Elton John, who signed Sedaka to his label and helped him organize his comeback.
In 1974, John’s Rocket Record Company collected many of Sedaka’s songs from his British period on the compilation “Sedaka’s Back”, which was certified gold in the USA. The following year would be Sedaka’s strongest: He topped the Billboard Hot 100 twice as a solo artist – first with “Laughter in the Rain”, then with “Bad Blood” (the latter with uncredited backing vocals from John) – while his new ballad version of “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” climbed to number eight. At the same time, Captain and Tennille took “Love Will Keep Us Together” (written by Sedaka and Greenfield for “The Tra-La Days Are Over”) to number one, and the Carpenters reached number 17 with a version of Sedaka’s “Solitaire”.
Sedaka cracked the Top 20 twice more as a solo artist: first in 1976 with the rocking “Love in the Shadows” and then in 1980 with “Should’ve Never Let You Go,” which he recorded with his daughter Dara. Sedaka also had further success in the adult contemporary sector of the late 1970s and early 1980s with songs such as “Amarillo”, “Alone at Last” and “Your Precious Love” (also with Dara). In 1983 Sedaka was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Final years and legacy
In the decades that followed, Sedaka remained active as a live performer and recording artist. He tried his hand at classical music, children’s music and even recorded an entire album of songs in Yiddish. In 2016 he released his last studio album “I Do It for Applause” and ultimately decided not to write any more new songs. “I found that if you can’t top it anymore, you should stop,” he said in a 2020 interview.
Sedaka experienced a final rebirth of sorts when he began recording and sharing performances from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. The octogenarian proved adept at navigating this new age of short-form video. Even after the pandemic, he continued to post and share new clips and archive footage on TikTok and Instagram. A video of him performing his first hit “Stupid Cupid” on Valentine’s Day was viewed more than 338,000 times on TikTok alone.
“I think the reason I’ve been around for so long is because I’ve always been able to raise the bar, reinvent Neil Sedaka and evolve,” he said in the same 2020 interview. “It’s still very satisfying to hear my music on the radio – the songs will outlast me.”
