Neil Sedaka. Any good?

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I mean, aren't some of those songs pretty damned good despite the cheese factor of much of his output. I'm thinking of "Happy birthday sweet 16" "laughter in the rain" and "Solitare"

Any others?

Kris.

― Kris England., Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i love his song 'going nowhere', a ballad of swelling high cheese proportions... if you have no trouble losing yourself in the sentimentality and ridiculous, almost-camp sense of drama, you'll have a blast!

also, i was name after his song 'stephen' which, rather embarrassingly, was about stephen foster.

― stevie, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love the way that it all seems so effortless to him, kinda like Dean Martin but with a much better voice.

Whats that Boo Radleys song with the line "Hits those notes like Neil Sedaka"

Kris.

― Kris England, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i hate the word "cheese"

― mark s, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Stevie. I am definitely going to use the line "Swelling high cheese proportions" sometime in the near future (of course I'll give you a credit)

Sounds like an early 80's american punk band.

Kris.

― Kris England, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Toni Tenille sounded more butch than him. Did he write any girl- group or early 60's pop hits? Regardless, I'd never sit still for that voice. Blech.

― Sean, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I heard his "Breakin' Up is Hard to Do" on the radio yesterday, and for the life of me I can't hear any bass in that record. How did people used to pump up the bass when there was none?

Also, he wrote world's finest 70s warm feelings anthem: "Love Will Keep Us Together". His own version can't touch the C&T hit though. Furthermore, he contributed English lyrics to Abba's "Ring Ring". He's ILM's guy-behind-the-guy.

― dleone, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Neil Sedaka was one of the original 'brill building' writers along with Mann/Weil and Gerry Goffin/Carole King (who did a reply to Neil's "Oh Carol" called "Oh Neil" in 1959....

He didn't have as many hits as Goffin/King who i rate as possible the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century.........

― Baxter Wingnut, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

10cc wrote, co-produced, and played on 'the tra-la days are over' album which came out mid 70's. can't remember what it was like.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

I've never quite made up my mind about Sedaka - the early, slightly icky teenpop stuff I can take or leave, frankly, but the '70s canon is rather weird - "Going Nowhere" is superb, sincere bombast (and a vocal performance so undemonstrative in his way that you don't realise until almost the end of the song that technically it's astonishing - three-and-a-half octaves?), "The Immigrant" (pro-Lennon Green Card IIRC) and "Betty Grable" are very touching songs, and "Laughter In The Rain" I've always liked because of its simple depth (caught in the rain sans umbrella but hey they love each other so what the hell? - it's like Scott's "Always Coming Back To You" but with a happy ending). But there is also a rather nasty locker room side to his work: e.g. the Elton duet "Bad Blood" which relishes the word "bitch" a little too much for my liking, and "Queen Of 1964" which might be one of the sickest songs ever written.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 07:58 (twenty years ago)

An excellent pop music composer, or tunesmith if you will. Studied at (reverent pause) Juilliard and put his lessons to good use. Apparently he and Howard Greenfield wrote his first big hit scientifically. They bought copies of all the biggest hit records of the day, studied them, took note of all the many commonalities and employed them all in a brand new song. Like the saying goes: Stealing from one source=plagiarism; steatling from many sources=research. A method that many critics would scorn, and consider cynical and too cerebral and soulless, and maybe so. But I'm not a critic.

I wish I could find a compilation that includes his mid-'70s comeback stuff as well as the original '50s-60s hits. I don't think there is one...

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 09:26 (twenty years ago)

They bought copies of all the biggest hit records of the day, studied them, took note of all the many commonalities and employed them all in a brand new song.

Which song was that first big hit?

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 09:47 (twenty years ago)

"Oh Carol," actually, because that was Sedaka's last chance on RCA, "I Go Ape" having flopped in America.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 10:02 (twenty years ago)

There's a new compilation out which has some of his '70s stuff on it, but from the sleeve a lot of it looks suspiciously to me like re-recordings.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 10:03 (twenty years ago)

"Bad Blood" may be the great forgotten '70s Elton John duet; I've always thought it was great. Ditto "Laughter in the Rain," from an earlier era. Beyond that, I really don't no Neil.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 29 March 2006 10:48 (twenty years ago)

Just checked on "Bad Blood." I never knew what the title was, and I haven't heard it for years, but yes, from what I remember of it, that's a good song. (I don't remember the lyrics either, so can't say anything about Marcello's remarks.)

I thought JBR would have something to say abouot Neil Sedaka.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 11:56 (twenty years ago)

"Bad Blood" lyrics.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 12:07 (twenty years ago)

I think, in junior high, the "bitch" is part of what I liked about it (somehow connecting it with all those other great '70s bitch-rock songs by Rod Stewart, the Stones, Nazareth, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Charlie Daniels, and of course Elton himself.) I've still got the 45.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 29 March 2006 12:29 (twenty years ago)

I note that "Bad Blood" wasn't a hit at all in Britain. This was our big-selling duo of 1975:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp2/features/wallpaper/images/640/don_estelle_and_windsor_davies.jpg

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 12:49 (twenty years ago)

eight years pass...

you can't turn on bbc four these days without seeing a 3-hour neil sedaka special, it's kind of bumming me out

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 4 May 2014 16:52 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

Sedaka has weird stuff, agreed, but his biggest American hit of the seventies sucks

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 30 June 2018 01:16 (seven years ago)

seven years pass...

RIP, 86 is a good damn run.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 27 February 2026 22:23 (two months ago)

Jamming some tunes in his honor. What a songwriter. RIP

― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Friday, 27 February 2026 22:45 (two months ago)

Imagine being 20 years old and dressing like this (great song of course)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e72tG80LmsU

― Francis Ford Coprophagia (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 27 February 2026 23:08 (two months ago)

showing my age but i've turned firstly to (is this the way to) amarillo, tony christie version and then one of neil's own recordings, cus it really is pure joy to me

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Friday, 27 February 2026 23:15 (two months ago)

Always had a soft spot for "Breaking Up is Hard to Do," which is transformed in the Carol King version to something sublime imo (as with most of her cuts of that era)

― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Friday, 27 February 2026 23:26 (two months ago)

Imagine being 20 years old and dressing like this

same goes for everyone in the audience!

― visiting, Friday, 27 February 2026 23:42 (two months ago)

The modulations in the bridge of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do are really cool.

― timellison, Friday, 27 February 2026 23:59 (two months ago)

I always liked "Next Door to an Angel." Oldies radio used to play it a lot and it really popped. Just so much glee.

Dooba bop bop
Oh doo bop she down down

― Josefa, Saturday, 28 February 2026 00:14 (two months ago)

RIP. He definitely wrote some great songs, although more often than not I preferred other people singing them.

― Galactic Poetaster (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:17 (two months ago)

Might be time to revisit Ken Emerson's book about the Brill Building again.

― Galactic Poetaster (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:18 (two months ago)

So the '50s Pop/Rock crew is down to Wanda Jackson, Dion DiMucci, Pat Boone, Paul Anka, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Valli, Gary US Bonds, Little Anthony, Frankie Avalon, and...?

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:23 (two months ago)

As I've suggested before, there must be some original doo-wop members still around, they just didn't have identities outside of their groups. If you were 20 in 1955, you'd be about 90.

― clemenza, Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:29 (two months ago)

On the other hand...

Spaniels:

The original members included:

Thornton James "Pookie" Hudson (June 11, 1934 – January 16, 2007)
Ernest Warren (December 2, 1933 – May 7, 2012)
Willie C. Jackson (April 22, 1935 – February 18, 2015)
Opal Courtney Jr. (November 22, 1936 – September 18, 2008)
Gerald Gregory (June 10, 1934 – February 12, 1999)

― clemenza, Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:31 (two months ago)

On the Brill Building tip, Tom & Jerry (Simon & Garfunkel) and Carole King put records out in the '50s, as did the pre-Motown Smokey Robinson.

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:33 (two months ago)

Oh, and Brenda Lee!

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:34 (two months ago)

Google led me to Norman Fox of the Rob Roys, who did a great song called "Tell Me Why" in 1957. Alive, performing, and, as of a month ago, posting on Facebook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLdgqXYzlLQ

― clemenza, Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:38 (two months ago)

Terry Johnson, a founding Flamingo, just died a few months ago (October).

― clemenza, Saturday, 28 February 2026 01:44 (two months ago)

man i love so many of his songs! RIP to a true goat
hitmaker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcDP6G341Jw

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 28 February 2026 02:02 (two months ago)

Bobby Vinton is still with us at 90. He had singles out in the '50s but his hits started in the '60s.

― Josefa, Saturday, 28 February 2026 02:25 (two months ago)

Neil's first hit was '59 but I think he's definitely a '60s guy

― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Saturday, 28 February 2026 02:44 (two months ago)

Maybe decades aren't super helpful. It's more like pre-British invasion pop music, '55-'64 or so

― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Saturday, 28 February 2026 02:46 (two months ago)

Don't want to ruin all the nostalgic remembrances here, but: Sedaka's nephew, through his marriage to Strassberg, is CNN Politics writer Harry Enten. Polling swing states is hard to do.

― clemenza, Saturday, 28 February 2026 03:11 (two months ago)

RIP Neil.

― Schlub 7 (Tom D.), Saturday, 28 February 2026 09:55 (two months ago)

Somebody played his version of "Love Will Keep Us Together" last night on the radio, holy shit it's so good? His voice!

― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Saturday, 28 February 2026 16:14 (two months ago)

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