Famous Like Me > Composer > S > Neil Sedaka
Profile of Neil Sedaka
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| Name: |
Neil Sedaka |
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| Date of Birth: |
13th March 1939 |
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| Place of Birth: |
New York, New York, USA |
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| Profession: |
Composer |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Neil Sedaka (born March 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American Brill Building pop singer, songwriter and pianist. He teamed up with Howard Greenfield to write many major hit songs for himself and others.
His best-known Billboard Hot 100 hits are,"Oh, Carol" (in reference to Carole King) (#9), "Calendar Girl" (#4) and "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" (#6) in 1961, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (#1) (1962), "Laughter in the Rain" (#1, 1975), and "Bad Blood" (#1, also 1975). He and Greenfield also wrote "Love Will Keep Us Together", a No. 1 hit for The Captain and Tennille and the best selling record of 1975. The popular recording of the song includes the lyrics "Sedaka is back" in the coda.
Sedaka was born to the son of the Turkish Jewish immigrant to Brooklyn and an Ashkenazi Jewish mother. Sedaka began performing with the piano as a youth, and played on a classical music radio station, as well as studying at Juilliard. He also began experimenting with doo wop and rock and roll, playing in an early version of The Tokens. His composition, "Stupid Cupid" was a 1958 success for Connie Francis, and Sedaka signed as a solo performer. A string of hits followed, ending in about 1963.
Sedaka returned to the forefront in 1973, helping ABBA write the song "Ring Ring" for the Eurovision contest. Later in the 1970s, after he experienced a comeback both in recording and songwriting, he began working in England with Elton John and continued touring for many years after that.
In 1976, Sedaka recorded a new version of "Breaking Up is Hard to Do," a ballad which sounded very different from the original version released in 1962. It made #8 on the pop charts; the original made it to #1. This is an exceedingly uncommon event; the only other instance in the rock era of a performer charting twice with two different versions of the same song is Eric Clapton's Layla. The ballad version charted at #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
He was also the writer of the popular song 'Amarillo' a song he wrote for Britain's Tony Christie, it reached the top 40 in the UK (twice 1971 and 2005 - hitting #1 the second time thanks to an amusing video starring Christie, Peter Kay and many other celebrities) and also reached #1 in Spain and Germany in 1971. Sedaka later recorded the song himself, taking it into the US Hot 100 singles chart.
As of 2005, Sedaka has been married for forty-two years to his wife, Leba, and they have two children: daughter Dara, a recording artist and vocalist for television and radio commercials, and son Marc, a screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles. In 1980, Sedaka had a Top Ten hit with "Should've Never Let You Go," which he recorded with Dara. Marc and his wife, Samantha, are the parents of twin girls, Amanda and Charlotte, who were born in 2003 and are Neil Sedaka's first grandchildren.
In 2005, Sedaka continues to perform regularly. He now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a petition is under way for Sedaka to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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