| Name | Neil Sedaka |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Born | March 13, 1939 |
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| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
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| Nationality | American |
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| Instrument | Vocals, Multiple instruments |
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| Genre | Pop |
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| Occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer |
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| Years active | 1955–present |
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| Label | RCA Victor Records, MGM Records, Polydor Records, Rocket Records, Elektra Records, Razor & Tie Records |
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| Url | www.neilsedaka.com |
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Neil Sedaka (born March 13, 1939) is an
American pop singer,
pianist, and
songwriter. His career has spanned over 50 years, during which time he has written many songs for himself and others, often working with
lyricists
Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody.
Early life
Sedaka was born in
Brooklyn,
New York. His father, Mac Sedaka, a taxi driver, was the son of
Turkish Jewish immigrants ("Sedaka" is a variant of
tzedaka — Hebrew for charity, and it is sedaka for charity in Arbic); his mother, Eleanor (Appel) Sedaka, was of
Polish-
Russian Jewish descent. He grew up in an apartment in
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. He is the cousin of singer
Eydie Gorme.
He demonstrated musical aptitude in his second-grade choral class, and when his teacher sent a note home suggesting he take piano lessons, his mother took a part-time job in an Abraham & Straus department store for six months to pay for a second-hand upright. He took to the instrument immediately. In 1947, he auditioned successfully for a piano scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music's Preparatory Division for Children, which he attended on Saturdays. He also maintained an interest in popular music, and when he was 13, a neighbor heard him playing and introduced him to her 16-year-old son, Howard Greenfield, an aspiring poet and lyricist. The two began writing together.
Early career
Rise to fame with RCA Victor
After graduating from Lincoln High School, Sedaka and some of his classmates formed a band called
The Tokens. The band had minor regional hits with songs like "While I Dream", "I Love My Baby", "Come Back Joe", and "Don't Go", before Sedaka launched out on his own in 1957. However, after a few personnel changes, in 1961, The Tokens would hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts with the international smash "
The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Meanwhile, the very young Sedaka's first three solo singles, "Laura Lee", "Ring-a-Rockin'", and "Oh, Delilah!" failed to become hits (although "Ring-a-Rockin'" earned him his first of many appearances on
Dick Clark's
American Bandstand). But they demonstrated his ability to perform as a solo singer, so
RCA Victor signed him to a recording contract.
His first single for RCA, "The Diary" (a song he offered to Little Anthony and the Imperials), reached #14 on the Billboard charts in 1958-59. His second single, "I Go Ape", was a modest success at #42, and his third single, "Crying My Heart Out for You", was a flop at #111. Desperate for a hit, he bought several hit singles and listened to them over and over, studying the chord progressions and lyrics to figure out what made them so popular. Based on that, he crafted a new song, "Oh! Carol", dedicated to his then-girlfriend and fellow pop star, Carole King. The song reached #9 on the charts. (Carole King would respond with the answer song, "Oh, Neil!" later that year.)
Sedaka kept churning out new hits from 1960 to 1962. The best known are "Stairway to Heaven" (#9, 1960); "Calendar Girl" (#4, 1961); "Little Devil" (#11, 1961); "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" (#6, 1961); his signature song, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (#1, 1962); and "Next Door to an Angel" (#5, 1962). He also had modest successes with "You Mean Everything to Me" (#17, 1960); "Run Samson Run" (#27, 1960); "Sweet Little You" (#59, 1961); and "King of Clowns" (#45, 1962). RCA issued four LPs in the US and Britain of his works during this period, and also produced a Scopitone video of "Calendar Girl".
Writing for Connie Francis
When Sedaka wasn't recording his own songs, he was writing for other performers, most notably
Connie Francis. As Francis explains at her concerts, she began searching for a new hit after her 1958 single "
Who's Sorry Now?". She was introduced to Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who played every ballad they had written for her. Francis began writing in her diary while the two played the last of their songs. After they finished, Francis told them they wrote beautiful ballads but that they were too intellectual for the young generation. Sedaka suggested to Greenfield a song they had written that morning for a girl group. Greenfield protested because the song had been promised to the girl group, but Sedaka insisted on playing "
Stupid Cupid". Francis told them they had just played her new hit. Francis' song reached #14 on the Billboard charts.
While Francis was writing in her diary, Sedaka asked her if he could read what she had written. After she refused, Sedaka was inspired to write "The Diary", his first hit single. Sedaka and Greenfield wrote many of Connie Francis' hits, such as "Fallin'" and the theme to the film "Where the Boys Are", in which she starred.
Foreign-language recordings
Neil Sedaka was popular in Italy. In 1961, Sedaka began to record some of his hits in Italian, starting with "Esagerata" and "Un Giorno Inutile", local versions of "Little Devil" and "I Must Be Dreaming". Other recordings were to follow, such as "Tu Non Lo Sai" ("Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"), "Il Re Dei Pagliacci" ("King of Clowns"), "I Tuoi Capricci" ("Look Inside Your Heart"), and "La Terza Luna" ("Waiting For Never"). "La Terza Luna" reached #1 on the Italian pop charts in April 1963.
Cinebox videos exist for "La Terza Luna" and "I Tuoi Capricci".
Sedaka also recorded in Spanish, German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Japanese. He enjoyed popularity in Latin America for his Spanish-language recordings. Many of these were pressed onto 78 rpm discs.
Decline
Between 1960 and 1962, Sedaka had eight Top 40 hits, but after the success of "Next Door to an Angel," he would not see the Top 10 again in the 1960s. His singles for 1963 were modest successes: "Alice in Wonderland" (#17), "Let's Go Steady Again" (#26), "The Dreamer" (#47), and "Bad Girl" (#33). He would not crack the Top 40 again after "Bad Girl."
The British Invasion of 1964 eroded Sedaka's career further, and from then until 1966, only three of his singles made it into the Hot 100: "Sunny" (#86, 1964), "The World through a Tear" (#76, 1965), and "The Answer to My Prayer" (#89, 1965). It didn't help matters when RCA rejected his demo recording of "It Hurts to Be in Love", which Gene Pitney then took and, by merely removing Sedaka's lead vocals and inserting Pitney's, note-for-note and with full orchestration intact, made into a #7 hit for himself and his Musicor label. RCA Victor chose not to renew Sedaka's contract when it expired at the end of 1966, leaving him without a record label.
Although Sedaka's stature as a recording artist was at a low ebb in the late 1960s, he was able to maintain his career through songwriting. Thanks to the fact that his publisher, Aldon Music, was acquired by Screen Gems, two of his songs were recorded by The Monkees, and other hits in this period written by Sedaka included The Cyrkle's version of "We Had a Good Thing Goin'" and "Workin' on a Groovy Thing," a Top 40 R&B; hit for Patti Drew in 1968 and a Top 20 pop hit for The 5th Dimension in 1969. Also, "Make the Music Play" was included on Frankie Valli's charting album Timeless.
On an episode of the quiz show I've Got a Secret in 1965, Sedaka's secret was that he was to represent the United States in classical piano at the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, and he played "Fantasie Impromptu" on the show. Panelist Henry Morgan made a point that the Russians, at least older ones, hated rock 'n' roll. Sedaka's participation in the competition, which Van Cliburn had won in 1958, was cancelled by the USSR because of Sedaka's rock 'n' roll connection.
Sedaka also made an appearance in the 1968 movie Playgirl Killer, with a scene of him performing a song called "The Waterbug."
The lean years
Sedaka worked to revive his solo career in the early 1970s. Despite his waning chart appeal in the USA in the late 1960s, he remained very popular as a concert attraction, notably in the UK and Australia. Years later he thanked
Bob Rogers and
Australia for standing by him, "... you know Bob, in my lean years, I called them the hungry years, it was Bob Rogers and Australia who welcomed me." He made several trips to Australia to play cabaret dates, and his commercial comeback began when the single "Star Crossed Lovers" became a major hit there. The song went to #5 nationally in April 1969—giving Sedaka his first charting single in four years—and it also came in at #5 in
Go-Set magazine's list of the Top 40 Australian singles of 1969.
Later that year, with the support of Festival Records, he recorded a new LP of original material entitled Workin' on a Groovy Thing at Festival Studios in Sydney. It was co-produced by Festival staff producer Pat Aulton, with arrangements by John Farrar (who later achieved international fame for his work with Olivia Newton-John) and backing by Australian session musicians including guitarist Jimmy Doyle (Ayers Rock) and noted jazz musician-composer John Sangster.
The single lifted from the album, "Wheeling, West Virginia," reached #20 in Australia in early 1970. The LP is also notable because it was Sedaka's first album to include collaborations with writers other than longtime lyricist Howard Greenfield; the title track featured lyrics by Roger Atkins and four other songs were co-written with Carole Bayer Sager (who subsequently embarked on a successful collaboration with expatriate Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen).
In 1971, Sedaka released the album Emergence. Singles from that album included "I'm A Song (Sing Me)," "Silent Movies," "Superbird," and "Rosemary Blue." Emergence and the next year's Solitaire album were both released on the RCA Victor label, marking a short-lived reunion between Sedaka and RCA. Good friend and New York music impresario Don Kirshner attempted to make the U.S. release of Emergence a comeback for Sedaka, but the album and single releases had no appreciable success. After the failure of Emergence in the U.S., Sedaka left his hometown of New York and moved his family to the UK.
In 1972, Sedaka embarked on a successful English tour and in June recorded the
Solitaire album at
Strawberry Studios in
Stockport, working with the four future members of
10cc. As well as the title track, which was successfully covered by
Andy Williams and
The Carpenters, it included two UK Top 40 singles, including "Beautiful You," which also charted in America, Sedaka's first US chart appearance in ten years, but its minor performance did little to generate interest in restarting Sedaka's career.
The 1970s: Return to major success
A year later he reconvened with the Strawberry team, who had by then charted with their own debut
10cc album, to record
The Tra-La Days Are Over for
MGM Records, which started the second phase of his career and included his original version of the hit song "Love Will Keep Us Together" (a US #1 hit two years later for
The Captain & Tennille). This album also marked the effective end of his writing partnership with Greenfield, commemorated by the track "Our Last Song Together." They would reunite, however, and begin composing together again before Greenfield's death in 1986.
Sedaka worked with Elton John, who signed Sedaka to John's Rocket Records label; during the ensuing years, Sedaka's records would be distributed in Europe on the Polydor label. Sedaka returned to the U.S. with the release of the 1974 album Sedaka's Back, a shelf-ready blend of cuts he had already recorded in Britain with 10cc and Elton John. Although the single was released in the autumn of 1974 and was slow in building, eventually Sedaka found himself once again topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts with "Laughter in the Rain" in early 1975, and then later again that year with "Bad Blood" (and continuing into 1976, staying at #1 for three weeks and being certified gold by the RIAA, the most commercially successful single of his career). Elton John provided uncredited backing vocals for the latter song and has been credited by Sedaka as being responsible for his breakthrough back into the US pop music scene.
Another well-known song from this period was "The Immigrant" (US pop #22, US AC #1), a wistful, nostalgic piece dedicated to John Lennon, which recalled the bygone era when America was welcoming of immigrants, in contrast to the U.S. government's then-refusal to grant Lennon permanent resident status. The third consecutive Billboard Top 25 hit from Sedaka's Back was the uptempo "That's When the Music Takes Me" (US pop #25, US AC #7); this song has been Sedaka's standard curtain-call concert closer.
Sedaka and Greenfield co-wrote "Love Will Keep Us Together", a No. 1 hit for The Captain & Tennille and was the biggest hit for the entire year of 1975. Toni Tennille paid tribute to Sedaka's welcome return to music-business success with her ad lib of "Sedaka is back" in the outro while she was laying down her own background vocals for the track. "Captain" Daryl Dragon and Toni also recorded a Spanish-language version of the song the same year that cracked the top half of Billboard's Hot 100 chart ("Por Amor Viviremos," US pop #49).
In 1975, Sedaka was the opening act for The Carpenters on their world tour. According to The Carpenters: The Untold Story by Ray Coleman, manager Sherwin Bash fired Sedaka at the request of Richard Carpenter. The firing resulted in a media backlash against The Carpenters after Sedaka publicly announced he was off the tour. This, however, was before Karen and Richard recorded Sedaka's "Solitaire" which became a Top 20 hit for the duo. Richard Carpenter denied that he fired Sedaka for "stealing their show", stating they were proud of Sedaka's success. However, Bash was fired as The Carpenters' manager a short time after.
In 1975, Sedaka recorded a new version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." The 1962 original #1 hit was an upbeat pop song, while the remake was a ballad. Lenny Welch had recorded the song in this style in 1970. Sedaka's new version hit #8 on the Hot 100 in early 1976, making him the first artist—and after 35 years, he remains the only one—to hit the U.S. Top 10 twice with entirely different versions and arrangements of the same song. (Eric Clapton's "Layla" nearly pulled off the same feat, but his acoustic version of the song only peaked at #12). Sedaka's second version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in 1976. The same year, Elvis Presley recorded the Sedaka song "Solitaire". This was followed by Sedaka's Top 20 hit "Love in the Shadows", also from 1976.
Later in 1976, Sedaka released a second (and final) collaboration with Elton John, with Elton once again on uncredited backing vocals on the title song to Sedaka's album "Steppin' Out". While it would crack the Hot 100's Top 40, it would also signal the beginning of a slowdown in Sedaka's music sales and radio play not unlike what he experienced in 1964 when The Beatles and the "British Invasion" arrived. In this version of another fading of his music sales, it was the arrival of the disco era. While Sedaka attempted to release disco-themed music himself in the late 1970s, his album sales were weak and singles could not get a foothold on the radio. In 1980, Sedaka had his final Top 20 hit with "Should've Never Let You Go", which he recorded as a duet with his then 17-year-old daughter, Dara.
Throughout the 1970s, Sedaka's old record company, RCA, would re-issue his 1960s-era songs on several compilation LPs on the RCA Victor and RCA Camden labels, a practice which continues to this day.
Into the 1980s
A change in record companies in the early 1980s also required him to, for the first time in his career, record cover versions of other artists' "oldies". Only two singles on two albums, spaced three years apart, managed to land on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart; none charted on the Hot 100 at all. Another duet with Dara, a remake of the
Marvin Gaye-
Tammi Terrell 1967 Top 5 smash "
Your Precious Love", placed high enough on the AC chart (making the Top 15) for one final album to be released. But the second album's only release did not fare well on the AC chart, barely cracking its Top 40, and by 1985, Neil Sedaka was once again without a recording contract. Concertgoers filled theatre seats while Sedaka created his own music label. That would assure that his catalog of hits would find the marketplace, and he released occasional CDs of self-produced new, original material.
Other successes
Sedaka is also composer of "
Is This the Way to Amarillo?", a song initially recorded by
Britain's
Tony Christie when Sedaka had moved his family to the UK in the early 1970s. It reached only #18 on the UK charts in 1971, but then hit #1 for seven consecutive weeks on the UK singles charts when reissued in 2005, thanks to a music video starring comedian
Peter Kay. It was Britain's most popular single for the year. Sedaka had also recorded and released the song in the US in 1977, when it became a #44 hit on
Billboard's Hot 100, although the U.S. release was titled as the shorter "
Amarillo." On April 7, 2006, during a concert at the
Royal Albert Hall in
London, Sedaka was presented with an award from the
Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums, as writer of the best-selling single of the 21st century (thus far) for "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" The interruption seemed to be quite a genuine surprise for Sedaka, because it occurred just before Sedaka was to begin "Amarillo" and Christie was to join Sedaka onstage for a duet of the song. The presentation and eventual duet appear on Sedaka's filmed DVD of the concert at the Royal Albert, subtitled "The Show Goes On."
Ben Folds, an American pop singer, credited Sedaka on his "iTunes Originals" album as an inspiration for song publishing. Hearing Sedaka had a song published by the age of 13 gave Folds the goal of also getting a song published by his 13th birthday, despite the fact that Sedaka didn't actually publish his first song until he was 16.
In 1985, songs composed by Sedaka were adapted for the Japanese anime TV series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. These included the two opening themes "Zeta - Toki wo Koete" (originally in English as "Better Days Are Coming") and "Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete" (originally in English as "For Us to Decide", but the English version was never recorded), as well as the end theme "Hoshizora no Believe" (written as "Bad and Beautiful"). Due to copyright, the songs were replaced for the North American DVD.
In 1994, Sedaka provided the voice for Neil Moussaka, a parody of himself in Food Rocks, an attraction at Epcot from 1994-2006.
A musical comedy based around the songs of Sedaka, titled Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, was written in 2005 by Erik Jackson and Ben H. Winters; it is now under license to Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
A biographical musical, Laughter in the Rain, produced by Bill Kenwright and Laurie Mansfield and starring Wayne Smith as Sedaka, had its world premiere at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley (in London, UK) on 4 March 2010. Sedaka attended the opening and joined the cast on stage for an impromptu curtain call of the title song.
Sedaka in the 21st century: Popularity yet again
Sedaka maintains a rigorous concert schedule in the second decade of the 21st century, in the U.S. and around the world, despite having passed the age of 70. He was inducted into the
Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1983, has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was an October 2006 inductee of the
Long Island Music Hall of Fame. His devoted fans are livid that he has not yet been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, citing his longevity, contributions to contemporary music, and hit songwriting for himself and countless other artists.
His 1972 song "Solitaire" found success again in the 21st century, when American Idol runnerup Clay Aiken sang the song when Sedaka appeared as a guest judge in the second season. Aiken explained the song was his mother's favorite, and she begged him to sing it when she learned that Sedaka would be on the show and that the remaining finalists would be singing songs from Sedaka's impressive songbook. After Aiken was awarded a recording contract, although it did not appear on his debut CD itself, he added "Solitaire" as the B-side to the single "The Way", whose sales were faltering. "Solitaire" was moved to the A-side and radio airplay and single and download sales responded immediately. The single hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart, the Top 5 on Billboard's Hot 100, and was one of the biggest hits of 2004. Sedaka was invited back to American Idol to celebrate its success and continues to be seen in the audience.
A concert performance on 26 October 2007 at the Lincoln Center in New York City paid homage to the 50th anniversary of Sedaka's debut in show business. Guests included The Captain and Tennille, Natalie Cole, Connie Francis, Clay Aiken, music impresario David Foster, and many others.
During his 2008 Australian tour, Sedaka premiered a new classical orchestral composition entitled "Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life)." Sedaka also toured The Philippines for his May 17, 2008 concert at the Araneta Coliseum.
He continues to release recordings. His three most recent U.S. releases — The Definitive Collection, Waking Up Is Hard to Do, and The Music of My Life — all appeared on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, in May 2007, May 2009, and February 2010, respectively. None of his album releases had appeared on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart since In the Pocket in 1980, when his duet with daughter Dara, "Should've Never Let You Go," was a Top 20 hit on the Hot 100 singles chart.
The Definitive Collection reached the Top 25 of the albums chart, one of the highest-charting albums of his entire career. It is a life-spanning compilation of his hits, along with previously unreleased material and outtakes. Waking Up is a children's album, inspired by his three grandchildren, in which he takes his best-known songs and changes the lyrics to delight babies, toddlers, and their elders alike. Music is a new release of original material.
Also, in early 2010, his original uptempo version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (performed by a group of uncredited singers) was being heard as the impetus for a series of insurance TV commercials, featuring actor Dennis Haysbert assuring that TV viewers not insured by Allstate can break up with their current insurer without much ado at all.
On September 11, 2010, Sedaka performed to a public and TV audience at the Hyde Park, London, venue of the "Proms in the Park" for the BBC. The UK continues to be probably Sedaka's most welcoming nation, and has been since first moving his family there (temporarily) four decades ago. The irony of the place whose music scuttled his "first" career, namely The Beatles and the British Invasion, and yet has constantly welcomed him with open arms for more than 40 years, is not lost on him, he has stated in many interviews. Indeed, it was his work with the musicians who would, in a few years, become the hit-making group 10cc that brought him back to the U.S. as a major star with #1 hits and a number of other major Top 40 singles. The UK always takes up a major portion of Sedaka's touring year in the 21st century.
Personal life
Sedaka attended
Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, graduating in 1956. He has been married to his wife, Leba (Strassberg), since 1962. They have two children: a daughter, Dara, a recording artist and vocalist for television and radio commercials (who sang the female part on the Sedaka duet "Should've Never Let You Go"), and a son, Marc, a
screenwriter who lives in
Los Angeles with his wife Samantha and three children.
Pop culture references
In the
Friends episode "The One With the Two Parties",
Ross says that he is wearing the same glasses frames as Neil Sedaka.
In the lyrics to mini-opera "Billy the Mountain", on the album Just Another Band from L.A. by Frank Zappa and The Mothers, it is alleged that Studabacher Hoch "could sing like Neil Sedaka."
In the Boy Meets World episode "Killer Bees", Alan Matthews is being sarcastic when he says he couldn't find tickets to the Neil Sedaka concert.
In the That '70s Show first season episode "Career Day", there is a scene featuring Kitty and Eric in the car, and Fez and Hyde's mother in the lunchroom, singing along to "Bad Blood" while it's playing on the radio.
The indie compilation album Young Savage Florida contains a cover of "Stupid Cupid" by The Vodkats.
Sedaka appeared on an episode of "King Of Queens" entitled "Sandwiched Out" in 2005. On a different episode of "King Of Queens", Deacon sings Karaoke to "Laughter In The Rain".
On the Canadian sketch comedy show Second City Television, Eugene Levy portrays Sedaka during a sketch entitled Farm Film Report Celebrity Blowup. The sketch also features John Candy and Joe Flaherty who make references to Sedaka's career and then watch as he explodes while performing.
Discography
Albums
1959
* Rock with Sedaka (or just Neil Sedaka) (re-released in 1995 alongside Circulate)
1961
* Circulate (re-released in 1995 alongside Rock with Sedaka)
* Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits (re-released in 1993 with eight bonus tracks; re-released in 2010 in combination with the 1978 "Many Sides" album)
1963
* Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits (also known as Greatest Hits 1959-1963) (re-released in 1975 and 1992)(RCA 2627)
* Three Great Guys (with Paul Anka and Sam Cooke)
* Neil Sedaka Canta en Espanol
1964
* Mas Neil Sedaka en Espanol
* Neil Sedaka Italiano
* Neil Sedaka Italiano Volume 2
1965
* Smile
1969
* Sounds of Sedaka
* Workin' on a Groovy Thing
1970
* Oh! Carol (RCA International album)
1971
* Emergence (re-released in 2009)
1972
* Neil Sedaka (UK)
* Solitaire (UK)(re-released in 2010)
1973
* The Tra-La Days Are Over (UK)
1974
* Laughter in the Rain (UK)
* Live at the Royal Festival Hall (UK; live)
* Sedaka's Back (US) (re-released in 1997 with four bonus tracks)
* Oh, Carol! (RCA Camden album)
* On Stage (RCA International album; issued in the US in 1976 as Live in Australia)
1975
* Overnight Success (UK)
* The Hungry Years (US) (re-released in 1998 with four bonus tracks)
* Pop Power: The Fantastic Neil Sedaka
1976
* Let's Go Steady Again (RCA Victor edition; compilation of mid-1960s hits)
* Pure Gold
* Sedaka Live in Australia at the South Sydney Junior Leagues Club (Previously released in 1974 in UK as Neil Sedaka On Stage)
* Steppin' Out (re-released in 1998 with four bonus tracks)
* Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: The Original Hit
* Stupid Cupid (RCA Camden album)
* Laughter And Tears: The Best Of Neil Sedaka Today (re-released in 1987)
1977
* Neil Sedaka's Greatest Hits
* Neil Sedaka and Songs — A Solo Concert (live 2-LP)
* A Song (new material)
* Neil Sedaka and Songs
* Neil Sedaka: The '50s and '60s
* Neil Sedaka: 14 Knockouts
1978
* All You Need Is the Music (new material)
* The Many Sides of Neil Sedaka (rereleased in 2010 combined with the 1961 "Little Devil" album)
1979
* Oh! Carol and Other Big Hits (re-released in 1989)
* Let's Go Steady Again (RCA Camden edition; different compilation from the 1976 RCA Victor album of the same name)
* Sunny
1980
* In the Pocket
1981
* Now!
1984
* Come See About Me
1986
* The Good Times
* My Friend (dedicated to the memory of Howard Greenfield)
1988
* All Time Greatest Hits
1991
* All Time Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
* Timeless — The Very Best of Neil Sedaka (includes both old and new songs)
1993
* Love Will Keep Us Together (compilation and new songs)
1994
* Laughter in the Rain: The Best of Neil Sedaka, 1974-80
1995
* Song Cycle (songs culled from "Emergence" [1971] and "Solitaire" [1972], the latter previously unavailable in US)
* Classically Sedaka
* Tuneweaver
1998
* Tales of Love (and Other Passions)
1999
* Neil Sedaka in Italiano (2-CD edition of his 1960s Italian recordings)
2000
* The Singer and His Songs
2001
* RCA 100th Anniversary Series: The Very Best of Neil Sedaka
2003
* Brighton Beach Memories — Neil Sedaka Sings Yiddish
* (8-CD box with previously unreleased material)
2004
* Stairway to Heaven: The Best of Neil Sedaka
2005
* Love Songs
2006
* The Very Best of Neil Sedaka: The Show Goes On (2-CD, 46-track career retrospective [UK import] with 7 "new" [2003] recordings)
* Neil Sedaka: Live at the Royal Albert Hall — The Show Goes On (2 DVD set filmed 7 April 2006 in London)
2007
* The Definitive Collection (2-CD career retrospective including never-released early-career demos; Sedaka's first return to Billboard Top 200 Albums chart since 1980, peaking in the Top 25)
* Oh! Carol (LT Series album, compilation of 1970s hits recorded live in concert)
2008
* The Miracle of Christmas
2009
* Waking Up Is Hard to Do (children's recording; Billboard Top 200 Albums chart entry)
* Flashback (compilation of Italian recordings)
* The Music of My Life (UK)
* The Miracle of Christmas: The Deluxe Edition
2010
* The Music of My Life (US release; Billboard Top 200 Albums chart entry)
* Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits / The Many Sides of Neil Sedaka (A combo re-release of his 1961 and 1978 albums as listed above)
Singles
Italian-language Singles
Filmography
1968 - Playgirl Killer
Autobiography
Laughter in the Rain: My Own Story. New York: Putnam 1982. ISBN 0-399-12744-5
References
Sources
Bloom, Ken. American song. The Complete musical Theater Companion. 1877–1995, vol. 2, 2nd edition, Schirmer Books, 1996.
Clarke, Donald. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Viking, 1989.
Ewen, David. American Songwriters. An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson Company, 1987.
Friedrich, Gary; Brown, Len. Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Tower Publications, 1970.
Lablanc, Michael. Contemporary Musicians, vol. 4, Gale Research, 1991.
Larkin, Colin. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Macmillan, 1992.
Lyman, Darryl. Great Jews in Music, J. D. Publishers, 1986.
Martino, Dave di. Singer-songwriters, Pop Music's Performer-composers, from A to Zevon, Billboard Books, 1994.
Sadie, Stanley; Hitchcock, H. Wiley (Ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1986.
Stambler, Irwin. Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul, St. Martin's Press, 1974.
Sumrall, Harry. Pioneers of Rock and Roll. 100 Artists Who Changed the Face of Rock, Billboard Books, 1994.
White, Mark. You Must Remember This ... Popular Songwriters 1900-1980, Frederick Warner, 1983.
External links
Neil Sedaka's official site
Neil Sedaka For Fans
Petition: Send Neil Sedaka to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
The Neil Sedaka videos
Neil Sedaka's Biography by Michael Turner
The Neil Sedaka Appreciation Society
Category:1939 births
Category:1950s singers
Category:1960s singers
Category:1970s singers
Category:1980s singers
Category:1990s singers
Category:2000s singers
Category:2010s singers
Category:Living people
Category:Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn, New York) alumni
Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters
Category:American singer-songwriters
Category:American pop pianists
Category:People from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
Category:American male singers
Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Category:American people of Turkish descent
Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Category:People from New York City
Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees
Category:RCA Victor artists
Category:Turkish Jews
