Neil Sedaka, the prominent singer-songwriter whose string of hits in the 1960s and '70s included "Laughter in the Rain," "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" and "Calendar Girl," has died, a representative confirmed to CBS News on Friday. He was 86.
"Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka," a statement from the family read. "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."
A cause of death was not immediately available.
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, including "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen," "Calendar Girl" and "Oh! Carol," a lament for his high school sweetheart, Carole King.
Sedaka was a Juilliard-trained, Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish taxi driver who began performing as a teen and kept at it for decades. His talent was recognized by a second-grade teacher who urged his homemaker mother, Eleanor, to buy him a piano. At 9 years old, Sedaka had already begun intensive classical piano training at the Juilliard School.
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 once told The Associated Press.
At 16, Sedaka was chosen by legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein in a contest as the city's best high school piano student and performed on a classical radio station as a prize. It was the same year he discovered rock 'n' roll, when he performed a song, "Mr. Moon," he had written with Greenfield, his classmate at Abraham Lincoln High School.
In 1958, at age 19, Sedaka signed with RCA Victor Records and his first single, "The Diary," enjoyed modest success. He began touring and promoting his songs through regular TV appearances on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" and "Shindig!"
At the Brill Building, Sedaka and Greenfield were joined by other up-and-coming writers and lyricists including King, Neil Diamond and Paul Simon.
From 1959 to 1962, Sedaka had 10 records in the Top 10, including "Calendar Girl," "Oh! Carol," "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" and "Next Door to an Angel." But in the mid-1960s, the Brill Building sound, influenced by the doo-wop groups of the New York City streets, was pushed off the charts by the Beatles-led British Invasion and the psychedelic and protest music that followed. Sedaka would endure 13 years "in the wilderness," as he described it to the AP.
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.
Sedaka told "CBS This Morning" in 2012 that Elton John rediscovered him in the 1970s when he was trying to start his record company. John signed him to his fledgling, U.S.-based Rocket Records label, providing him a chance at more hits with the album "Sedaka's Back."
Of the time between jobs, Sedaka said, "The creative mind is still working and it's a drive. You have you to prove yourself each time. You have to raise the level of Neil Sedaka. You have to top yourself."
At Rocket Records, Sedaka and a new writing partner, Philip Cody, topped charts with "Bad Blood" and the joyous "Laughter in the Rain." He also achieved a rare feat with "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." His original up-tempo version went No. 1 in 1962. He re-recorded it as a slow ballad in 1975, and that, too, went No. 1.
Sedaka was nominated for five Grammy awards throughout his career. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame eluded him despite a fan petition drive.
He still played dozens of concerts a year well into his 80s. Sedaka 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 sold millions worldwide and 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. The 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 is survived by his wife, Leba Strassberg, whom he married in 1962, and his two children, Dara and Marc.
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