Singer And Songwriter Neil Sedaka Dies At 86
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Prolific singer and songwriter Neil Sedaka passed away on February 27th at 86. He was rushed to the hospital earlier that same day after an undisclosed medical emergency and was pronounced dead soon after. The family released a statement on Instagram following his passing:
Born on March 13th, 1939, in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, New York, Sedaka was the son of taxi driver Mordechai “Mac” Sedaka and Eleanor. His parents were both of Jewish descent, his father of Lebanese Jewish descent, and his mother an Ashkenazi Jew of Russian and Polish descent. As a child, he attended piano classes at the Juilliard School of Music's Preparatory Division for Children, at his mother's request, to become a classical pianist. However, around this time, much to his mother's dismay, he began taking an interest in pop music.
Sedaka soon formed a partnership with Howard Greenfield when they were both 13 and 16, respectively. They wrote several songs together, taking inspiration from show tunes before drawing from rock and roll. He and his classmates also formed the doo-wop group the Linc-Tones, later renamed The Tokens. They recorded two rather successful singles. He left the group in 1957 to pursue a solo career.
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His first three solo singles did not fare well, but they did well enough to earn him a contract with RCA Victor and appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. He released his first single with the label, titled “The Diary,” in 1958, which was inspired by Connie Francis. It peaked at no. 14 on the Billboard Top 100. His next two singles, “I Go Ape” and “Crying My Heart Out For You,” did not fare so well and actually caused RCA to lose money. The label was ready to drop Sedaka, but his manager, Al Kevin's, persuaded them to give him one more chance.
Sedaka took this chance and ran with it. His next single, “Oh Carol,” brought him his first domestic top 10 hit, and its B-side, “One Way Ticket,” reached number one in Japan. As the 50s became the 60s, he continued to have success as a performer, with songs like “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” “Calendar Girl,” and “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” all reaching either the top 10 or top 40.
Though Sedaka had success as a performer, he had even more success writing songs for other artists. He and Greenfield wrote several hits, including Connie Francis’ “Who's Sorry Now?” and “Stupid Cupid,” Jimmy Clanton's “Another Sleepless Night” and “What am I Going to Do?”, and The Monkees’ “When Love Comes Knocking at Your Door” and “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” though this was after the rise of Beatlemania and during his lesson successful period.
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With Beatlemania and the British Invasion taking America and the world by storm, Sedaka struggled through the mid-to-late 60s and early 70s. His popularity began to wane, and very few of his songs cracked even the top 100. Despite his lack of chart success, he still remained a popular concert draw, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom. In 1969, his song “Star-Crossed Lovers” reached number 1 in Australia. Later that year, he would release an album entitled Workin’ on a Groovy Thing, his first to include collaborations with lyricists other than Greenfield.
Though he reunited with RCA in 1971, he still struggled to regain the success he had before the British Invasion. However, he returned to the charts in 1974 with the album Sedaka's Back, which is a compilation of songs Sedaka recorded in the UK. He topped the charts with his song “Laughter in the Rain,” which was his second number one of his career so far. He followed it with the more politically charged song, “The Immigrant,” which was inspired by his parents and John Lennon.
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Sedaka was inducted in the songwriters hall of fame in 1983 and was an October 2006 inductee of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. In 2003, he was a guest judge on American Idol. In 2007, he signed his first recording contract in nearly two decades with Razor and Tie Records, with him having used his own business, Neil Sedaka Music. During the pandemic, he hosted a series of mini concerts through his social media. He retired from songwriting in 2022 but continued performing up until his passing.
Several of his contemporaries paid tribute to the singer-songwriter. Among these tributes was a post on X by the last living Monkee, Micky Dolenz:
Even Carole King, who dated Sedaka in high school and was the subject of “Oh Carol,” paid tribute to the late artist:
Neil Sedaka is survived by his wife Leba and their children Marc and Dara.
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Sources: NBC News, The Guardian, TV Insider, X, Threads, Instagram, Wikipedia
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