Neil Sedaka–Videos
Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do – Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET 16
Oh! Carol – Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka “Calendar Girl” (Scopitone)
Captain and Tenille & Neil Sedaka – Love Will Keep Us Together
LITTLE DEVIL : Neil Sedaka Live in Vina del Mar Festival Chile 1980
ONE WAY TICKET (To The Blues -: Neil Sedaka Live in Vina del Mar Festival Chile 1980
‘STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN : Neil Sedaka Live in Vina del Mar Festival Chile 1980
Oh! Carol – Neil Sedaka
Laughter in the rain
Happy birthday sweet sixteen
Neil Sedaka – Bad Blood
Neil Sedaka – our last song together (live)
Neil Sedaka – Calendar Girl
Neil Sedaka – Solitaire
NEIL SEDAKA (Live) – Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Neil Sedaka – Is This The Way To Amarillo
Neil Sedaka – The Hungry Years
Neil Sedaka New Appearance LUNCH WILL KEEP US TOGETHER + BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
CALENDAR GIRL – NEIL SEDAKA
♫♪ CLASSICALLY SEDAKA LIVE Chopin Etude No 3 in E Major
♫♪ CLASSICALLY SEDAKA LIVE – Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu
♫♪ CLASSICALLY SEDAKA LIVE – Rachmaninov Rhapsody & Variations
♫♪ CLASSICALLY SEDAKA LIVE – Verdi’s ‘Sempre Libera’
♫♪ CLASSICALLY SEDAKA LIVE ♫♪♫♪ CLaire De Lune – Debussy
♫♪ CLASSICALLY SEDAKA Beethoven Fur Elise & Liszt Liebestraume
Waking Up Is Hard To Do – Neil Sedaka
Background Articles and Videos
Neil Sedaka
“…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.
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); his mother, Eleanor (Appel) Sedaka, was of Polish-Russian Jewish descent. He grew up in an apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.[1] He is the cousin of singer Eydie Gorme. [citation needed]
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.
The best-known Billboard Hot 100 hits of his early career are “The Diary” (#14, 1958), a song that he offered to Little Anthony and the Imperials; “Oh! Carol” (#9, 1959); “You Mean Everything to Me” (#17, 1960); “Calendar Girl” (#4, 1960); “Stairway to Heaven” (#9, 1960); “Run Samson Run” (top 30, 1960); “Little Devil” (#11, 1961); “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” (#6, 1961); “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” (#1, 1962); and “Next Door to an Angel” (#5, 1962). “Oh! Carol” refers to Sedaka’s Brill Building compatriot and former girlfriend Carole King. King responded with her answer song, “Oh, Neil” and, by using the same chord progression, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”. A Scopitone exists for “Calendar Girl”.
A similar sharing came earlier with Sedaka and singer 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 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 in writing 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 “Where the Boys Are”.
In 1961, Sedaka began to record some of his hits in Italian. At first he published “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”) to name only a few. Sedaka also recorded in Spanish, German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Japanese.
Between 1960 and 1962, Sedaka had eight Top 40 hits, but he was one of many American performers of the era whose popularity declined due to the British Invasion and the evolution of the Rock and Pop genres of music. His commercial success declined rapidly after 1964: he scored only two minor hits in 1965, and none of his 1966 singles charted. His RCA contract was not renewed when it ended in 1967, and he was left 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 US Top 20 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 and roll. Sedaka’s participation in the competition, which Van Cliburn had won in 1958, was canceled by the USSR because of Sedaka’s rock and roll connection.[original research?]
Sedaka also made an appearance in the 1968 movie “Playgirl Killer”, with a scene of him performing a song called “The Waterbug” …”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Sedaka
Neil Sedaka interviewed at CBS News
Neil Sedaka Plays Chopin on I’ve Got a Secret!
“Words and Music with Lich” Interviews Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka Should’ve Never Let You Go (with Dara Sedaka)
Neil Sedaka & Don Kirshner – The Brill Building Days…
GUYS NAMED NEIL FROM BROOKLYN NEW YORK
Neil Sedaka sings “Yiddishe Mama” on the Chabad “To Life!” Telethon
NEIL SEDAKA Dinosaur Pet – From the new album ‘Waking Up Is Hard To Do’
Live It All Again, NEIL SEDAKA The 2009 Salsa Song
Pronk Palisades 
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