Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka (born March 13, 1939, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.) is an American singer, songwriter, composer, and pianist, one of the most prolific songwriters of his era, having written or cowritten more than 500 songs, including the hits “Calendar Girl” (1959), “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” (1960), and “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” (1961). Although Sedaka himself performed many of his songs, others were sung by well-known performers, among them Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, and the Monkees.

Early life

Sedaka was the younger of two children born to Eleanor (née Appel) and Mordechai (“Mac”) Sedaka, who made a living as a taxi driver in New York City. As the youngest child in a close-knit Jewish family, Sedaka was raised by his parents as well as by his grandparents, five aunts, and elder sister, Ronnie. The entire family resided in a two-bedroom apartment in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Music made an impression on Sedaka at a young age. He and Ronnie would put on shows for the family, imitating artists such as the Andrews Sisters. Young Sedaka was also known for his imitations of singer Johnnie Ray. When he was in the second grade, his chorus teacher suggested that he take piano lessons. Within six months he had excelled to the point that he auditioned for and received a scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School of Music Preparatory Division for Children. Sedaka attended Juilliard on Saturdays to train as a classical concert pianist while continuing his formal education on weekdays, during which time he began playing pop music for his classmates.

In 1952, when Sedaka was 13, he met Howard Greenfield, a 16-year-old aspiring poet and lyricist, whose family lived in the same apartment building as Sedaka’s. Greenfield visited the Sedaka family apartment after his mother, who had heard Sedaka playing at a Catskills hotel, told him about Sedaka’s piano skills. The meeting between Greenfield and Sedaka marked the start of a productive collaboration, in which the two wrote a new song each day, resulting in numerous songs over the next several years.

In 1955, while attending Abraham Lincoln High School, Sedaka formed a band called the Linc-Tones with classmates Hank Medress, Eddie Rabkin, and Cynthia Zolotin. Under Melba Records, the band, renamed the Tokens, released two singles written by Sedaka and Greenfield, “I Love My Baby” and “While I Dream.” Each of the songs became a regional hit. Sedaka left the band in 1957 but continued his songwriting partnership with Greenfield.

Early career

In 1958 Sedaka and Greenfield signed a publishing contract with Don Kirshner and Al Nevins at Aldon Music, where they became known as the original creators of the “Brill Building” sound. Pop singer and actress Connie Francis was the first to cover a song written by the duo—“Stupid Cupid,” which reached number 17 on the Billboard charts in September 1958. Shortly after its release, Kirshner and Nevins suggested that Sedaka record a demo tape of songs he and Greenfield had written. Upon hearing the demo, RCA Victor signed a recording contract with Sedaka. His first single with RCA Victor was “The Diary” (1958), which peaked at number 14 on the Billboard charts in 1959. From 1959 to 1963 Sedaka and Greenfield achieved massive success, selling 40 million records, second only to Elvis Presley. The most successful cover of one of their songs was an upbeat version of “Love Will Keep Us Together” by American recording artists Captain & Tennille, which was Billboard’s top-selling single of 1975 and won the Grammy Award for record of the year (1975). Sedaka ultimately had nine Top 10 hits on the Billboard Top 100 chart—three of those songs were number one hits.

Return to singing

In the mid-1960s, during the so-called British Invasion, which was marked by an influx of rock and pop music groups from the United Kingdom, Sedaka struggled to produce his own hits and decided to turn his attention to raising his two children with his wife, Leba Strassberg, whom he married in 1962. He nonetheless continued to write songs for other artists, and he continued collaborating with Greenfield.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe

In 1971, at the suggestion of one of his agents, Sedaka moved his family to England, where he played small clubs in the hopes of getting his songs back on the radio. He subsequently released three critically acclaimed albums in the United Kingdom: Emergence (1971), Solitaire (1972), and The Tra-La Days Are Over (1973). The latter includes “Our Last Song Together,”, which was the final single of Sedaka and Greenfield’s collaboration. The albums caught the attention of Elton John, who had enjoyed Sedaka’s early records and who offered to promote Sedaka on his then newly formed record label, Rocket Record Company.

Sedaka recorded three albums for Rocket, Sedaka’s Back (1974), The Hungry Years (1975), and Steppin’ Out (1976). The albums reintroduced Sedaka to American audiences, and the first two became top sellers worldwide. Sedaka’s comeback became official when “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood,” two songs from those albums, written with Phil Cody, climbed to the top spot on the Billboard charts. In 1975 Sedaka rereleased “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” which made music history as the only single to have two different versions by the same artist reach number one on the Billboard charts. His original version topped the charts in 1962, and in 1976 his ballad rendition topped the Billboard Easy Listening chart (later known as the Adult Contemporary chart).

Later career

While Sedaka never charted in the Billboard Top 40 after 1980, he continued to write songs and occasionally released new albums as well as compilations of his greatest hits. His autobiography, Laughter in the Rain: My Own Story, was published in 1982; it recounted his career successes and setbacks and discussed his personal life and relationships with others in the music industry. In 1995 he returned to his classical music roots, releasing Classically Sedaka, an album featuring melodies adapted from music composed by Frédéric Chopin, Sergey Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Robert Schumann, and Giacomo Puccini accompanied by original lyrics.

Sedaka released two albums in 2003, Brighton Beach Memories: Neil Sedaka Sings Yiddish, a collection of traditional Jewish songs, and The Show Goes On, a set of newly written songs. Other releases include the albums The Music of My Life (2009), which features new songs packaged with a disc of greatest hits, and I Do It for Applause (2016), a collection of 12 new songs with a bonus track, “Joie de vivre,” his first symphony. He continued to tour in the U.S. and internationally until early 2023.

Sedaka received numerous awards and accolades during his career, including being given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2004 he was honored with the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements in furthering the success of songwriters.