Neil Sedaka

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Born: 13 March 1939 Died: 27 February 2026

Country of origin: United States

Lists

101 votes

Gone, but not forgotten (2081 items)
list by Agent Kermit D. Fonz

Published 1 year, 8 months ago

10 comments

57 votes

Happy Birthday Kathy!!! (12 items)
list by Villiana

Published 11 years, 8 months ago

48 comments

44 votes

500 Greatest Songs of all time - Updated! (262 items)
list by Happy Vader

Published 14 years, 5 months ago

7 comments

9 votes

Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists (100 items)
list by Vix

Published 17 years, 10 months ago

7 comments

8 votes

Saddest Celebrity Deaths of 2026 (45 items)
list by Leo

Published 5 months, 1 week ago

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Description: 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: "You Mean Everything To Me" (#17, 1960), "Oh, Carol" (in reference to Carole King) (#9), "Calendar Girl" (#4, 1960), "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" (#6, 1961), "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (#1) (1962), "Laughter in the Rain" (#1, 1975), and "Bad Blood" (#1, 1975). His voice was in a tenor to alto range. Sedaka 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: "You Mean Everything To Me" (#17, 1960), "Oh, Carol" (in reference to Carole King) (#9), "Calendar Girl" (#4, 1960), "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" (#6, 1961), "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (#1) (1962), "Laughter in the Rain" (#1, 1975), and "Bad Blood" (#1, 1975). His voice was in a tenor to alto range. Sedaka 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. Sedaka also recorded this song but his version was much less popular than Captain and Tennille's recording of the song, which 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 in both 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, being a jazz/torch piano centered arrangement. 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 U.S. Hot 100 singles chart. In 1962, Neil Sedaka married his wife, Leba, and they are still together. 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, California. 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. Marc and Samantha also gave birth to a son, Ethan, in 2005. Neil Sedaka hopes that all of his grandchildren will learn to play the piano. In 1985, Sedaka composed songs for the anime series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. These included the two opening themes "Zeta - Toki wo Koete" and "Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete". As well as the ending theme "Hoshizora no Believe". Due to rights issues, the production company Sunrise, Inc. could not come to an agreement for the use of the songs in North America. Controversially, the songs were then replaced with other music for the North American DVD release. 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. ... (more)

Tags: Singer (1), Born 1939 (1), Died 2026 (1)

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