Before I put my intended regular post, I must acknowledge the passing of singer/musician Neil Sedaka, which happened yesterday in Los Angeles after an undisclosed medical emergency. He was 86. He had a successful career during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later had a comeback during the mid-1970s.
Neil Sedaka was born in the New York borough of Brooklyn to Mordechai "Mac" Sedaka and the former Eleanor Appel. In 1947, after taking some piano lessons, he successfully auditioned for a piano scholarship at the Juilliard School of Music's Preparatory Division for Children. When he was 13, he started writing songs with his neighbor Howard Greenfield. Although he turned to pop music, he maintained a fondness for classical music throughout his life. Among his hits during the fifties and sixties were Calendar Girl, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Next Door to an Angel, and Oh! Carol, which was inspired by his former girlfriend Carol Klein, later known as Carole King. Sedaka and Greenfield also wrote songs for other artists including Connie Francis and Jimmy Clanton, before agreeing to part ways.
Sedaka had his lean years from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. He still was popular in Australia and the U.K. He joined up with new lyricist Phil Cody. Their first song Solitaire was a hit for the Carpenters. His comeback started in 1974 with the song Laughter in the Rain. He joined Elton John's company Rocket Records and had a no. 1 hit with Bad Blood, on which John sang backing vocals. Sedaka and Cody contributed English lyrics to ABBA's first hit Ring Ring. He rerecorded Breaking Up Is Hard to Do as a slow ballad. He reunited with Greenfield and wrote Love Will Keep Us Together for The Captain & Tennille, which went to no. 1 in 1975. He eventually left Rocket and signed with Elektra Records.
Sedaka married Leba Strassberg in 1962. They had two children.
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