 Back
in the late 1950’s, Neil Sedaka’s self-penned
songs charted a course for him that was destined to make his
a voice heard all over the world. Now this October, celebrating
his 50th anniversary in show business, Sedaka is still going
“where the music takes him” – to the Orleans
September 26-30, among other places.
The prolific songwriter/entertainer is also
proving that he still has the “write” stuff –
it began showing itself again about five years ago with 12
new songs that he composed for one of his CD’s. The
whole experience found Sedaka, who has written more than 1,000
songs of which 200 have become hits, once again singing a
new tune.
“I hadn’t written in six years,”
he reveals. “I was busy working on the road and I just
didn’t have the inspiration to compose. Then one day
I realized that the only way to immortality is to create something
that outlives you. I decided to write again because I’m
a writer – that’s how I started. For many years,
I had collaborated with great lyricists but now I find that
my own words come from my inner soul and the audience can
sense it. It’s different than when people put words
in your mouth. Now I compose the music and write the lyrics.”
 Sedaka
wrote with lyricist Howie Greenfield, who died in 1984, for
30 years, producing such hits as “Love Will Keep Us
Together,” “The Hungry Years,” “Breaking
Up Is Hard To Do” and “Calendar Girl.” He
began writing with lyricist Phil Cody even before Greenfield’s
death, turning out such smashes as “Laughter In The
Rain,” “Solitaire” and “Bad Blood.”
He also wrote with the likes of Carole Bayer Sager.
In
fact, in the late 50’s, the Brooklyn-born-and-raised
Sedaka and Greenfield were the first team to be signed by
the famed Brill Building in New York, which was a small publishing
firm made up of young teenaged composers writing songs about
teenage life. Sedaka also brought Carole King to the Brill
Building and the three songwriters controlled the Top 10 for
five years, making demos and writing for the likes of the
Righteous Brothers, Tony Orlando, Connie Francis and The Chiffons.
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 Although
Sedaka did begin writing both music and lyrics by himself
during the 70’s, composing such songs as “Standing
On The Inside” and “That’s Where The Music
Takes Me,” the new CD will be the first album of songs
totally composed by Sedaka alone. It will either be called
“Letters From the Road” or “Been There,
Done That” (both are names of cuts on the album).
Sedaka
began his career as a young concert pianist attending Juilliard
who discovered at 13 years of age that he could write. Before
Rock ‘n’ Roll, he wrote in the style of Les Paul
and Mary Ford and Johnny Ray. When Rock ‘n’ Roll
came in, all of that quickly changed.
“I was kind of nerdy in school,” Sedaka recalls.
“I wanted to be a hit; I wanted to be invited to things
– I wasn’t a jock. Writing Rock ‘n’
Roll opened the doors for me. I became very popular and was
invited to all the parties. I had my own band and I also had
my own vocal group called The Tokens. They went on to record
‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight.’”
“As
for me, I went solo at 19,” he continues. “I had
written several hits for Connie Francis – ‘Stupid
Cupid,’ ‘Where The Boys Are’ and ‘Frankie.’
I also wrote a lot for the black artists at Atlantic Records,
such as Laverne Baker, Dinah Washington and Clyde McPhatter.
But no one would record my voice because they said that it
was kind of different for the market. They said it was very
high and kind of androgynous – no one knew if it was
a girl or boy singing.”
Then,
one day, the young singer/songwriter auditioned for Steve
Sholes of RCA Records, who had just signed Elvis. Sedaka walked
in with a song called “The Diary,” which he had
written for Little Anthony and The Imperials as a follow-up
to their big hit “Tears On My Pillow” (which Sedaka
did not compose).
“The group recorded it and it was lousy,” Sedaka
admits. “So RCA signed me and told me to do ‘The
Diary’ as my first single, It sold 600,000 copies, My
mom and my dad, who was a cab driver for 30 years, wanted
me to be a concert pianist – I practiced six or seven
hours a day. They started to get excited though when they
heard my voice on the radio and. I wanted to make money; I
wanted to travel the world. Between 1958 and 1963, I had 10
hits in a row and sold 40 million records. And then the Beatles
came.”
 During
the period that followed, Sedaka spent time with his wife,
Leba, raised their children, Dara and Mark, and took stock
of himself. For the next 10 years, he wrote for Andy Williams,
Johnny Mathis, Elvis, Karen Carpenter and the Captain and
Tennille. Then, in 1973, a fortuitous thing occurred –
he met Elton John at a Bee Gees concert.
“Elton
was buying a record company and he said to me, ‘You
know, you’re better than Carole King,’ who was
my old girlfriend, by the way,” Sedaka smiles. “I
had two albums out in England at the time and Elton wanted
to put them out in America under his company. Lo and behold,
the first was a smash. It was called “Sedaka’s
Back” and had all new songs on it, including ‘Laughter
In The Rain,’ ‘Solitaire’ and ‘Love
Will Keep Us Together.’ It reinvented Sedaka in the
70’s and fooled a lot of people. Many had told me that
I was a ghost from the past and that I would never make it.
But I was driven.”
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Sedaka went on to have three hits albums in
the 70’s and one in the 80’s, which was his last.
After that, he became a performing artist.
“I
don’t have to rely on having hits anymore,” he
says matter-of-factly. “I’ve had so many over
the years that people will buy a ticket to hear those songs.
I love performing -- I’ve been performing for 50 years.
I grew up with these people and they grew up with me. There
are also young people who listen to oldies on the radio who
come to the show.”
Insofar as his writing, when he was younger,
Sedaka’s inspiration for composing music was to have
a hit single. As a result, he had to write for the market.
Today, the market is so wide open that he can write what he
wants when he wants to. With his roots in the Tin Pan Alley
days, Sedaka is able to compose all kinds of music. The new
album “mixes it up” where style is concerned.
According to Sedaka, one song sounds like Matchbox 20, one
like Nellie Fertado and another like Alicia Keyes.
“I
was the king of the tra-la-las and the dooby-doos,”
he laughs. “Every song had a tra-la-la or a dooby-doo
in it and it became a Neil Sedaka trademark. Now I have more
freedom. I can write songs that are not exactly for the market
and even if they’re not hits, I get to sing them on
stage. And I sell 150-200 CD’s after my show.”
Sedaka
sees his biggest contribution to the music world as being
the fact that he has written songs that will outlast him.
He says that all of his songs have been very heartfelt and
that when he gets on stage, he gives his heart to the audience
and when he’s finished, he puts it back. He says that
he is happy to be still performing and that his health and
energy are holding. He proclaims that music has kept him young
and that he’ll keep doing what he’s doing as long
as his voice holds. He does consider himself semi-retired
although he still plays dates two weeks a month, six months
a year.
“I
love performing and relating to people,” Sedaka enthuses.
“I feel more comfortable on stage than in a room full
of people. I’m in control for that hour and a half or
two hours that I’m on stage. I would be at a loss if
I stopped performing because I’m so used to it. My wife
jokes that I’ll start singing when she opens the refrigerator
door and the light goes on. But I’ll go to a party and
start to itch after an hour if there’s a piano in the
room. That’s who I am.”
<TOP>
Admittedly,
looking back over his career, there are a few things Sedaka
would change if he could, namely the mismanagement that took
place early in his career. However, he is walking example
of “out of something bad, comes something good.”
For the last 30 years, his wife has been his manager. And
insofar as his early management making him play a lot of foreign
countries when he should have been concentrating on America,
well that hasn’t turned out too badly, either.
“In
some ways, it was good – I’m still remembered
in Italy, for example,” Sedaka muses. “I was the
first American Rock ‘n’ Roller to play Italy,
Japan, South America, the Philippines and Australia. I used
to sing in five languages.
In
fact, when I first went to Tokyo back in 1958, there was a
big poster of me with slanted eyes. They thought that I was
Japanese.”
All of this leads to the fact of what has
kept Sedaka a viable player on the musical stage today –
music is a universal language with the power to move people
all over the globe.
“When
a note with a chord is married to the right voice, it stirs
a certain emotion,” Sedaka explains. “It hits
the heart. Music brings back memories – people remember
where they were and who they were with when they hear a certain
song. For a song to have longevity, it has to be hummable,
memorable, hooky with a phrase that’s catchy -- a memorable
tune with words that can relate to the masses, whereby people
think that a song has been written about them.”
With Sedaka’s music filling that important
bill, there could be a show for theater called “The
Neil Sedaka Story” happening in the near future.
“For two years, Andrew Lloyd Webber held a great script
written by a British friend of mine named Phillip Norman,
who wrote the definitive books on Elton John, the Beatles
and the Rolling Stones,” Sedaka reveals. “We couldn’t
come to terms. Now there’s another producer talking
about doing the show but he wants me to be on stage at the
end as the real Neil Sedaka, doing a 15 minute medley of my
songs. For me, it would mean being on stage every night and
moving to London because it would be launched there. So I
don’t know. But a one-man show would be great –
I still have the energy. Or maybe a revue like ‘Smokey
Joe’s Café.’”
Wherever the music takes him is where Neil
Sedaka will be.
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ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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That's
All He Wrote
