Neil Sedaka, the veteran pop singer-songwriter who penned some of the most enduring hits of the 1960s and early 1970s, has died. His family confirmed the news on social media, writing, “Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka. 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.” He was 86.
Sedaka wrote dozens of No. 1 hits for the Billboard charts, many of which he sang and performed himself, from the cheeky “Oh! Carol,” about his ex-girlfriend Carole King, to the hook-forward favorite “Calendar Girl.” His biggest single, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” earned him a nomination for Song of the Year at the 1976 Grammy Awards. Onstage, Sedaka was cheeky at the piano and even more charming while parading around with dance moves. While his peers crafted personas rife with wild spunk or smooth-talking suaveness, he opted for a goodhearted grin and a vintage sheen.
After dropping his debut full-length, Rock with Sedaka, in 1959, Sedaka went on to release four original studio albums and scored back-to-back hits on the radio. He kept his head further down in the following decade, putting out nine records in the 1970s and reinventing his sound with singles like “Laughter in the Rain,” “The Immigrant,” “Bad Blood,” and “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.” The bulk of his success arrived in that initial stretch, though, with Sedaka earning 25 million by 1963—roughly half of his lifetime sales.
When the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the rest of the British Invasion bands took over the music world, Sedaka accepted that he may no longer have the attention of his local American fans. Instead, he offered up his songwriting skills to other artists—Connie Francis (“Stupid Cupid,” “Where the Boys Are”), LaVern Baker (“I Waited Too Long”), and Dinah Washington (“Never Again”)—and reworked his own hits into other languages, singing in Italian, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and more to great fanfare overseas.
In his later years, Sedaka continued to push himself creatively: He wrote lyrics for classical melodies by the likes of Chopin and Tchaikovsky for 1995’s Classically Sedaka, penned symphonic pieces like “Joie de Vivre,” and wrote the 2009 children’s album Waking Up Is Hard to Do. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sedaka stayed busy, recording live performances from the comfort of his home to share music with others, near and far.
In a 2020 interview, Sedaka was asked what advice he would give to aspiring songwriters. His answer was simple and to the point: “The advice I give to all aspiring songwriters and performers is ‘Don’t repeat yourself. Develop and grow. Raise the bar. And reinvent your creativity.’”