{"id":504530,"date":"2026-02-28T04:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504530\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T04:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:32:10","slug":"neil-sedaka-singer-songwriter-behind-hits-in-1960s-and-1970s-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504530\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil Sedaka, singer-songwriter behind hits in 1960s and 1970s, dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Neil Sedaka poses for a portrait in New York in 2010.Jeff Christensen\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Neil Sedaka, the hit-making singer-songwriter whose boyish soprano and bright melodies made him a top act in the early years of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll and led to a second run of success in the 1970s, has died.<\/p>\n

Sedaka, whose hits included Breaking Up Is Hard to Do and Laughter in the Rain, died Friday at age 86.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,\u201d his family said in a statement. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

No other details of his death were immediately available.<\/p>\n

A key member of the Brill Building songwriting factory, Sedaka teamed with lyricist and boyhood neighbour Howard Greenfield on songs that reflected the teen innocence of the post-Elvis\/pre-Beatles era of the late 1950s to early 1960s, including Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Calendar Girl and Oh! Carol, a lament for his high school sweetheart, Carole King.<\/p>\n

After a long dry spell, he re-emerged with such smashes as Laughter in the Rain and Bad Blood. The Captain & Tennille\u2019s cover of his Love Will Keep Us Together was a chart-topper in 1975.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cPast 70, Pavarotti told me the vocal cords are not what they used to be. I\u2019m very fortunate that my voice has held,\u201d he told the Associated Press in 2012. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be a legend, but it\u2019s better to be a working legend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedaka\u2019s 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 \u201cSedaka\u2019s back!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedaka grew up in Brooklyn\u2019s Brighton Beach neighbourhood, 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 honour, Neil Sedaka Way.<\/p>\n

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 second-hand upright and managed his career for years, as did his wife, Leba.<\/p>\n

Sedaka loved songwriting and never quit, but he craved performing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a performer, always a performer. It\u2019s that adrenaline rush. It\u2019s like a natural high when you\u2019re in front of an audience, and if you get that standing ovation, it\u2019s infectious,\u201d he told the AP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Neil Sedaka poses for a portrait in New York in 2010.Jeff Christensen\/The Associated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,75,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,341,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-504530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-music","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}