62 Facts About Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka is an American singer-songwriter and pianist.

Neil Sedaka's popularity declined by the mid-1960s, but was revived in the mid-1970s, solidified by the 1975 US Billboard Hot 100 number ones "Laughter in the Rain" and "Bad Blood".

Neil Sedaka was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983 and continues to perform, mounting mini-concerts on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neil Sedaka's father, Mordechai "Mac" Sedaka, was a taxi driver of Sephardi Jewish descent from Turkey.

Neil Sedaka's mother, Eleanor, was an Ashkenazi Jew of Polish and Russian descent.

Neil Sedaka's mother had wanted him to become a classical pianist like his contemporary Van Cliburn, and Sedaka continued to show fondness for classical music throughout his life.

When Neil Sedaka was 13, a neighbor heard him playing and introduced him to her 16-year-old son, Howard Greenfield, an aspiring poet and lyricist.

When Neil Sedaka became a major teen pop star, the pair continued writing hits for Neil Sedaka and numerous other artists.

Neil Sedaka began a new composing partnership with lyricist Phil Cody, from Pleasantville, New York.

Neil Sedaka then bought the three biggest hit singles of the time and listened to them repeatedly, studying the song structure, chord progressions, lyrics and harmonies before writing his next songs.

Neil Sedaka had dated Carole King when he was still at high school, which gave him the idea to use her name in the song.

For several of those songs, Neil Sedaka was paired with Stan Applebaum and His Orchestra.

Neil Sedaka's second LP was an album mostly of old standards.

When Neil Sedaka was not recording his own songs, he and Howard Greenfield were writing for other performers, most notably in their earliest days Connie Francis.

Neil Sedaka was introduced to Sedaka and Greenfield, who played for her every ballad they had written.

Neil Sedaka protested that Francis would be insulted by being played such a puerile song, but Greenfield reminded him Francis had not accepted their other suggestions and they had nothing to lose.

Neil Sedaka contributed some work as a session pianist during his heyday as a pop singer-songwriter.

Neil Sedaka's piano playing is heard on "Dream Lover", Bobby Darin's 1959 hit.

Neil Sedaka enjoyed popularity in Latin America for his Spanish-language recordings.

Neil Sedaka stated in 2020 that he was talked into focusing on the international markets because Elvis Presley, the biggest rock star in America, never toured overseas, and because his publishers and managers considered it a much lower risk for a new performer to not face American audiences that knew him.

In 1964 Neil Sedaka's career began a sharp decline, hastened by The Beatles' arrival on the radio and TV, and the rest of the so-called British Invasion.

Neil Sedaka attempted another recording of this song in RCA's studios, but the results were unsatisfactory.

Everything else was Neil Sedaka, including his own arrangement and backing vocals, piano-playing, and usual female backup singers.

Once Neil Sedaka's secret had been revealed, he impressed the show's panelists with his performance of Frederic Chopin's "Fantaisie Impromptu".

Neil Sedaka made an appearance in the 1968 movie Playgirl Killer, where he performed a song called "The Waterbug".

Neil Sedaka worked to revive his solo career in the early 1970s.

In 1971, Neil Sedaka reunited with RCA and released the Emergence album.

In 1972, Neil Sedaka embarked on a successful British tour and was introduced by Harvey Lisberg to the four future members of 10cc with whom he recorded the Solitaire album at their Strawberry Studios in Stockport issued by RCA in 1972.

Neil Sedaka took a different approach to songwriting with Cody compared to Greenfield, with whom he was arguing frequently near the end of their collaboration; whereas he allowed Greenfield in the studio during recording, he met with Cody off-site to write songs.

Cody did not consider Neil Sedaka to be a personal friend; he mainly saw his work with Neil Sedaka as a work project to bring the singer into the modern era.

From 1974 onward, Neil Sedaka's records were issued in Europe and around the world on the Polydor label.

Elton John and Neil Sedaka met at a party in London in 1973.

Neil Sedaka followed the success of "Laughter in the Rain" with a more politically motivated song, "The Immigrant", inspired by the songwriters' parents and by John Lennon, then facing immigration issues at the time.

Neil Sedaka sent a tape of the song together with a rough translation to Sedaka, who within days returned original lyrics, co-written with Phil Cody.

Neil Sedaka's 1962 original, a No 1 hit single, was upbeat; the remake was a slow ballad, which Sedaka had arranged for Lenny Welch five years prior.

Neil Sedaka's version hit No 8 on the Hot 100 in early 1976, making him the only artist to ever record an entirely reinterpreted version of a song where both versions reached the Billboard Top 10.

Later in 1976, Neil Sedaka released a third and final album with Elton John's label The Rocket Record Company, Steppin' Out.

Neil Sedaka met John again several times after his departure from Rocket, and he described their meetings as "cordial, but cold".

Neil Sedaka released a final album of new material with RCA, consisting of a live concert he gave in Sydney.

Mac Sedaka, Neil's father, died on June 6,1981, of metastatic colon cancer; Neil was at his bedside singing his father's favorite song, Sedaka's 1965 song "Pictures From The Past", when his father briefly awoke from his coma before his death.

When Folds heard that Neil Sedaka had a song published by the age of 13, Folds set a similar goal, despite the fact that Neil Sedaka did not actually publish until he was 16.

In 1985, songs composed by Neil Sedaka were adapted for the Japanese anime television series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.

Neil Sedaka attended the opening and joined the cast onstage for an impromptu curtain call of the title song.

Neil Sedaka 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.

In May 2003, near the end of the second season of the Fox TV series American Idol, Neil Sedaka appeared as a guest judge and mentor to the five remaining finalists.

When she learned that Neil Sedaka was going to be a guest judge and that the finalists would be singing Neil Sedaka's songs, she begged Clay to sing "Solitaire".

Neil Sedaka told Aiken that he officially passed ownership of the performance of "Solitaire" to Clay, offering to record and produce a single of the song or an entire CD with him.

Neil Sedaka was invited back to American Idol to celebrate the success of "Solitaire" several times, as it continued to reach new milestones.

Kirshner took Lisberg to a small room with a piano where Neil Sedaka was already seated, and he tapped out a few songs.

Neil Sedaka released the song in the US in 1977 as the shortened "Amarillo", but it was only a mid-chart entry, peaking just shy of the Top 40.

The planned scenario was that Neil Sedaka was to begin performing "Amarillo", and after one verse, the audience was to be surprised by the appearance of Christie for an eventual duet.

In early 2007, Neil Sedaka signed his first recording contract in nearly two decades with Razor and Tie Records, a small-but-growing, New York-based independent label with a talent roster that includes Joan Baez, Vanessa Carlton, Foreigner, Joe Jackson, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Neil Sedaka toured the Philippines for his May 17,2008, concert at the Araneta Coliseum.

On September 11,2010, Neil Sedaka performed to a TV audience at the Hyde Park, London, venue of the "Proms in the Park" for the BBC.

In 2010, Neil Sedaka duetted with West End and Broadway theatre legend Elaine Paige, on their cover of "Make It With You", from Ms.

Also in 2014, Neil Sedaka duetted with up-and-coming Nashville star Mary Sarah on Connie Francis' classic, "Theme from Where the Boys Are", on her all-duets CD Bridges.

Neil Sedaka turned all four chairs around, and ultimately placed seventh in the competition.

In 2015, Neil Sedaka duetted on his No 1 hit from 1974 to 1975, "Laughter in the Rain", with Steve Tyrell, on Tyrell's 2015 album That Lovin' Feeling.

On February 1,2016, Neil Sedaka performed to a sold-out audience in The Villages.

Neil Sedaka paused the series in December due to contracting COVID-19 himself, but resumed on a reduced schedule January 4,2021, after recovering with no symptoms.

Neil Sedaka attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, from which he graduated at the age of 17 in 1956.

Neil Sedaka underwent a procedure to remove a benign skin tumor from his nose in March 2021.