Neil Sedaka, the hit-making singer-songwriter whose boyish soprano and shiny melodies made him a prime act within the early years of rock ‘n’ roll and led to a second run of success within the Nineteen Seventies, has died.
Sedaka, whose hits included “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Laughter in the Rain,” died Friday at age 86.
“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” his household mentioned in an announcement. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”
No different particulars of his loss of life have been instantly out there.
A key member of the Brill Building songwriting manufacturing unit, Sedaka teamed with lyricist and boyhood neighbor Howard Greenfield on songs that mirrored the teenager innocence of the post-Elvis, pre-Beatles period of the late 1950 and early Sixties, together with “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Calendar Girl” and “Oh! Carol,” a lament for his highschool sweetheart, Carole King.
After an extended dry spell, he reemerged with such smashes as “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood.” The Captain & Tennille’s cowl of his “Love Will Keep Us Together” was a chart-topper in 1975.
Short and dark-haired, with an enormous smile and high-pitched voice, he was a Juilliard-trained, Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish taxi driver who started performing as a teen and stored at it for many years.
Sedaka nonetheless performed dozens of live shows a 12 months properly into his 80s. He retained the keenness and broad vocal vary of his youth and by no means bored with the requirements he had sung a whole bunch of occasions.
“Past 70, Pavarotti told me the vocal cords are not what they used to be. I’m very fortunate that my voice has held,” he advised The Associated Press in 2012. “It’s nice to be a legend, but it’s better to be a working legend.”
Sedaka’s songs offered thousands and thousands worldwide and have been lined by a spread of performers, from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to The fifth Dimension and Nickelback. Sedaka helped propel the profession of Connie Francis with “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are,” the latter for the soundtrack of the film with the identical title. The Captain & Tennille obtained a best-album Grammy thanks largely to “Love Will Keep Us Together” and included a nod to Sedaka on the finish of the tune, when Toni Tennille exclaimed “Sedaka’s back!”
Sedaka grew up in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, pampered by his grandparents, aunts and mom in a two-bedroom condominium he shared with 11 family members. He has a avenue there named in his honor, Neil Sedaka Way.
But his music compensated for his unpopularity as a child, he as soon as recalled. His expertise was acknowledged by a second-grade trainer who urged his homemaker mom, Eleanor, to purchase him a piano. She went to work in a division retailer to pay for a secondhand upright and managed his profession for years, as did his spouse, Leba.
Sedaka beloved songwriting and by no means stop, however he craved performing.
“Once a performer, always a performer. It’s that adrenaline rush. It’s like a natural high when you’re in front of an audience, and if you get that standing ovation, it’s infectious,” he advised the AP.
At 16, Sedaka was chosen by Arthur Rubenstein in a contest as the town’s greatest highschool piano pupil and carried out on a classical radio station as a prize. It was the identical 12 months he found rock ‘n’ roll, when he carried out a tune, “Mr. Moon,” he had written with Greenfield, his classmate at Abraham Lincoln High School.
“I sang it in the auditorium for a ballyhoo show and I remember there was a bit of a riot. The kids were jumping and screaming,” Sedaka mentioned. “After that I was able to go into the sweet shop with the tough kids with the leather jackets.”
After highschool, after which Julliard, Sedaka and Greenfield have been signed to Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music, the place they scored their first hit with Francis, “Stupid Cupid.”
In 1958, at age 19, Sedaka signed with RCA Victor Records and his first single, “The Diary,” loved modest success. He started touring and selling his songs by common TV appearances on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and “Shindig!”
At the Brill Building, Sedaka and Greenfield have been joined by different up-and-coming writers and lyricists together with King, Neil Diamond and Paul Simon.
From 1959 to 1962, Sedaka had 10 information within the Top 10, together with “Calendar Girl,” “Oh! Carol,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” and “Next Door to an Angel.” But within the mid-Sixties, the Brill Building sound, influenced by the doo-wop teams of the New York City streets, was pushed off the charts by the Beatles -led British Invasion and the psychedelic and protest music that adopted. Sedaka would endure 13 years “in the wilderness,” as he described it to the AP.
Sedaka was among the many fortunate, nevertheless, having fun with a renaissance that started within the mid-’70s because of the patronage of Elton John, whom he met at a celebration after Sedaka moved his spouse and two children to England to make the most of his lingering reputation there. John signed him to his fledgling, U.S.-based Rocket Records label, offering him an opportunity at extra hits with the album “Sedaka’s Back.”
At Rocket, Sedaka and a brand new writing companion, Philip Cody, topped charts with “Bad Blood” and the joyous “Laughter in the Rain.” He additionally achieved a uncommon feat with “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.” His unique up-tempo model went No. 1 in 1962. He rerecorded it as a sluggish ballad in 1975 and that, too, went No. 1.
He recorded 5 albums from 1972 to 1976. They included hits “Standing on the Inside,” “That’s Where the Music Takes Me” and “Our Last Song Together,” about his breakup with Greenfield, with whom he started writing songs when Sedaka was solely 13 and Greenfield 16.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, however the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame eluded him regardless of a fan petition drive.
Sedaka married spouse Leba in 1962. They had two youngsters. Daughter Dara recorded a duet with dad in 1980, “Should’ve Never Let You Go.” It was successful, however she by no means joined him within the music enterprise. Son Marc is a movie and tv author.
AP Entertainment Writers Mark Kennedy in New York and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed. Leanne Italie, the principal author of this story, retired in January.
© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
