Singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka who rose to fame in the ‘60s with hits like “Calendar Girl” and “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” has died at the age of 86, according to multiple reports.
A statement to Variety said his family was “devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather.”
“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,” they said in the statement.
He had a string of hits in the early ‘60s, such as “Oh! Carol,” “Little Devil” and “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen.”
In addition to his own recordings, Sedaka also wrote hits for several top musicians, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Tom Jones, according to his official website bio.
A key member of the Brill Building songwriting factory, Sedaka teamed with lyricist and boyhood neighbor Howard Greenfield on songs that reflected the teen innocence of the post-Elvis/pre-Beatles era of the late 1950s-early 1960s.
After a long dry spell, he reemerged with such smashes as “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood.” The Captain & Tennille’s cover of his “Love Will Keep Us Together” was a chart-topper in 1975.
Short and dark-haired, with a big smile and high-pitched voice, he was a Juilliard-trained, Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish taxi driver who began performing as a teen and kept at it for decades.
Sedaka still played dozens of concerts a year well into his 80s. He retained the enthusiasm and broad vocal range of his youth and never tired of the standards he had sung hundreds of times.
“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 told The Associated Press in 2012. “It’s nice to be a legend, but it’s better to be a working legend.”
Sedaka’s songs have been covered by a range of performers, from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to The 5th Dimension and Nickelback.
Sedaka helped propel the career of Connie Francis with “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are,” the latter for the soundtrack of the movie with the same name.
Captain & Tennille received a best-album Grammy thanks largely to “Love Will Keep Us Together” and included a nod to Sedaka at the end of the song, when Toni Tennille exclaimed “Sedaka’s back!”
Sedaka grew up in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, pampered by his grandparents, aunts and mother in a two-bedroom apartment he shared with 11 relatives. He has a street there named in his honor, Neil Sedaka Way.
But his music compensated for his unpopularity as a kid, he once recalled. His talent was recognized by a second-grade teacher who urged his homemaker mother, Eleanor, to buy him a piano. She went to work in a department store to pay for a secondhand upright and managed his career for years, as did his wife, Leba.
Sedaka loved songwriting and never quit, but 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 told the AP.
He was a five-time Grammy nominee and sold tens of millions of records over his decades-long career.
Sedaka has been married to his wife Leba since 1962, and they have two children together.
The Associated Press contributed to the report.
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