It is hard to
imagine the history of rock and roll without the many contributions of
Neil Sedaka. For over
four decades, Sedaka’s timeless standards have helped change the
face of popular music. With
countless hit singles, and platinum and gold records, he is recognized
as one of rock and pop music’s legendary pioneers, and remains as
vital a force today as he was when he first
achieved his string of hits back in the late 1950’s.
But Neil’s meteoric rise to success began even before that.
It was classical music that shaped the musicianship of the
young Neil Sedaka. At the
age of eight, he had already begun his ntensive classical piano
training at the prestigious Julliard School of Music, practicing up to
five hours a day. And by
the time Sedaka was sixteen, Artur Rubinstein voted him one of the
finest classical pianists in New York City high schools.
Classical music has always remained a passion for Sedaka, and
though he once considered earning a doctorate in the field, it was not
where he chose to forge his legend.
Since his classmates were listening to pop and rock and roll
playing on the radio, and being eager to gain the acceptance of his
peers, Sedaka began to
play the latest music at
parties. He formed a
doo-wop group in high school, the Tokens, and they recorded two
singles that became regional hits.
Greater success was soon to follow, when after having been
introduced to a young neighbor, Howard Greenfield, by Greenfield’s
mother, they began a successful songwriting partnership.
As Sedaka has noted, “for a long period of time, we wrote a
song a day.” While some
songs never made it out of the house, many others made their way
around the world. In the
four years between 1959 and 1963, the songwriting team sold over
twenty-five million records and their collaboration was to last for
thirty years, one of the longest partnerships in music history.
Sedaka
and Greenfield became one of the original creators of the “Brill
Building Sound” in the late
fifties and early sixties when they were the first to sign with Don
Kirshner and Al Nevins at Aldon Music. Not long after, Kirshner and
Nevins signed songwriters Neil Diamond, Carole King, and Paul Simon,
among others, and they became the center of the pop music world. They
worked in a competitive but communal environment, producing the
innocent, romantic anthems of the era that would dominate the music
charts. It was in 1958,
at the age of eighteen, when Sedaka was catapulted into stardom after
Connie Francis recorded his “Stupid Cupid.” Rhythm and blues stars Clyde McPhatter and LaVern Baker also
scored hits with his songs. As
a result of these hits, Sedaka was able to sign a contract with RCA as
a writer and performer of his own material.
Sedaka
soon recorded chart toppers “The
Diary,” “Oh, Carol,” “ Stairway to Heaven,”
“Calendar Girl,” “Little Devil,” “Happy Birthday Sweet
Sixteen,” “Next Door To An Angel,” and “Breaking
Up Is
Hard To Do,”
songs
that have become a part of peoples’ lives and can instantly
take listeners back to special moments.
Sedaka had become a “teen idol” and flew
around
the world as one of the youngest performers to tour extensively. He studied the styles of music that had reached the top of
the charts in other countries, and innovatively combined these styles
with classical and pop music. His
music became distinguished for a unique recording style involving
multi-tracking his own voice to achieve a rich sound. But all of this was merely the first
act in a career that has not ceased to , evolve and entertain.
Following
the “British Invasion” by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in
the United States, when
the
music scene began to change and his record sales dwindled, Sedaka
continued to develop his gift for songwriting.
He wrote for other performers such as Tom Jones with “Puppet
Man,” The Fifth Dimension with “Workin’ on a Groovy
Thing,” and the Monkees with “When Love Comes Knocking At
Your Door.”
Sedaka
also achieved success in international markets
by recording albums in Spanish, German, Italian, and Japanese,
with songs and instrumentation native to each country.
Then in 1972, Sedaka re-launched his solo career in England by
releasing the album Emergence.
A good friend, Elton John, offered to sign Sedaka to his Rocket
Record label and re-introduce him to American audiences. The two
albums he recorded for the Rocket label, Sedaka’s Back in
1974 and The Hungry Years in 1975, both became top
selling albums around the world.
His comeback was further heralded by two of his songs, “Bad
Blood” and the timeless “Laughter
in the Rain,”
reaching the #1 position on the music charts.
In Rolling Stone Magazine, Sedaka
was hailed as “the new phenomenon.”
The song “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”
was re-released
as a ballad in 1975, and made music history when it reached the Top
Ten charts, becoming the first song recorded in two different versions
by the same artist to reach the Top Ten.
During this time, Sedaka also helped to launch the career of
the Captain and Tennille with their version of his “Love Will
Keep Us Together,” which won a Grammy Award for Record of the
Year for this worldwide, number one hit.
Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra would also perform their own
versions of Sedaka hit songs from the 1970’s.
In
1976, Sedaka was seen by millions when his television special, “Neil
Sedaka: Steppin’
Out,” was shown on NBC, with a guest appearance by Bette Midler.
Two more songs of Sedaka’s, “Solitaire” and “Hungry
Years,” became top hits, helping to cement his reputation as a
songwriting force. In
1980, Sedaka had a Top Ten hit with “Should’ve Never Let You
Go,” which he recorded with his daughter, Dara;
this remains one of the few father-daughter songs to have ever
made the charts. The
Sedaka legacy does not end there.
His release in the 1990’s, Timeless – The Very Best of
Neil Sedaka,
which includes both old and new songs, sold over 500,000 copies and
earned Sedaka yet another Platinum Album.
As
t
he prolific and versatile author of more than 1,000 songs, the
accolades showered on Neil Sedaka have
been numerous. Among the
honors he has received, Sedaka has been inducted into the
Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, has had a street named after him in his
hometown of Brooklyn, and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame. Sedaka was honored
in 1998 as one of a select group of personalities to be enshrined at
the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in Las Vegas.
He has received numerous awards from BMI, an organization that
monitors the music industry, for having written some of the most
played songs on radio or television.
Recently, his song “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”
was
listed by BMI as one of the fifty most performed songs of the 20th
century. Yet these serve
as perfunctory recognition to a body of work that continues to grow
and never ceases to entertain.
Live
performances have always been a hallmark of the Sedaka career and have
taken him to some of the most hallowed and respected concert stages
around the world. London’s
Royal Albert Hall has always been a favorite and his appeal in England
has only grown over the years. His
concerts, often with a full orchestra, continue to be enormous draws
in Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City, and Sedaka still enjoys the
interaction with an audience.
Sedaka
has been married for forty years to his wife, Leba, and they have two
children: daughter Dara
is a recording artist and vocalist for television and radio
commercials, and son Marc is a successful screenwriter in Los Angeles.
Sedaka
has embarked on a marriage of an entirely different sort by returning
to the classical classical roots of his early years. With original
romantic lyrics written by Sedaka, and set to the music of Beethoven,
Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky, he has released a collection of
these songs on Classically Sedaka.
He has already performed a selection of these songs with many
symphonies across the United States and the United Kingdom, including
the Richmond Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony, the National
Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, and the New York Pops at
Carnegie Hall. Both the
critical and audience response have been phenomenal.
Classically Sedaka has gone on to earn a gold record in
Europe. Following
the smash success of this record, Sedaka released Tuneweaver,
and made another departure with the release of Tales of Love and
Other Passions, recording both old standards and original Sedaka
songs with a jazz trio, which includes the renowned jazz piano player,
Andy LaVerne. Judging by
these cds equally strong sales, it is clear that Sedaka’s worldwide
appeal and ever-increasing fan base show no signs of slowing down.
With
a career spanning five decades, a rare feat in the entertainment
world, Sedaka never
ceases to amaze. He has
written a new collection of songs and has plans to release a cd by the
end of the year. Several
reissues of his recordings are released every year in America and
abroad. And as in the
past, when singers as diverse as Patsy Cline, Rosemary Clooney, the
Swedish group Abba, and Cher recorded Sedaka songs, contemporary
performers such as Gloria Estefan and Sheryl Crow continue to record
his music. Sedaka also
continues to appear in television specials about his music.
Most recently, he has been the focus of the programs“Words
and Music” for CPTV/PBS and“The Voice” for Channel 4 (UK) and
Bravo. In November,
an hour long program on Neil Sedaka for A & E’s acclaimed “Biography”
series will be shown. Sedaka
has written an autobiography entitled Laughter in the Rain: My Own Story for Putnam Books and has performed on behalf
of the American Cancer Society and the Alzheimer
Association, among many other charities.
All of these ventures will no doubt add to his legend – that
of a consummate musician, an extraordinary vocalist, and an ageless
songwriting talent.
Neil
Sedaka is the "perfect act" for your next corporate event.
Call CJ DiRoma at 856-665-5513 for more information and availability
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