{"id":25870,"date":"2026-02-27T23:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=25870"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:17:14","slug":"neil-sedaka-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-singer-and-pop-song-hitmaker-dies-aged-86-neil-sedaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=25870","title":{"rendered":"Neil Sedaka, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do singer and pop song hitmaker, dies aged 86 | Neil Sedaka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwriter behind Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Oh! Carol, Calendar Girl and Bad Blood as well as many hits performed by other artists included Stupid Cupid and Love Will Keep Us Together, has died aged 86.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A representative confirmed his death to Variety on Friday, hours after he was reportedly rushed to hospital in Los Angeles. No cause of death was given.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cOur family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,\u201d a statement from Sedaka\u2019s family reads. \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<figure id=\"3ee13765-c7c8-4218-b72d-9387429b2ebb\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-fd61eq\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Neil Sedaka, at a piano in 1960.<\/span> Photograph: Bettmann Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Born in 1939, Sedaka was a child prodigy at the piano: he was nine when he got a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York. \u201cMusic is so much a part of me: my parents told me that when I was an infant, I wouldn\u2019t eat unless the radio was playing music,\u201d he<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2012\/sep\/04\/neil-sedaka-singer-songwriter\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"> told the Guardian in 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">At first he studied to be a concert pianist, before realising his talent for singing and writing pop music, At 13, he befriended his 16-year-old neighbour, Howard Greenfield, and they began writing songs together, the start of a songwriting partnership that would last more than a decade. Sedaka was briefly invited to play for a place at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow in 1956, before being disinvited as \u201cthey had heard that my name was associated with writing American capitalistic rock\u2019n\u2019roll\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"00c30d6d-d1b4-47b9-876e-9089d9f52622\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.VideoYoutubeBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\">\n<div data-component=\"youtube-embed\" class=\"dcr-1y1vf5o\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/7nEKDWtocGA?wmode=opaque&amp;feature=oembed\" title=\"Neil Sedaka - Love Will Keep Us Together (In Concert: Neil Sedaka, April 26th, 1975)\" height=\"480\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sedaka became a teen idol in the pre-rock\u2019n\u2019roll era of assembly-line pop songwriting, producing hits like 1959\u2019s Oh! Carol, Calendar Girl and Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen: \u201cWhen we ran out of lyrics we\u2019d use a doo-bee-doo,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/2015\/apr\/30\/when-life-was-brill-review-neil-sedaka\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">he once joked<\/a> of this time. He was one of many musicians to go through the Brill Building, the Manhattan songwriting hub that also nurtured the early careers of Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach and Carole King \u2013 who Sedaka dated in high school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Between 1959 and 1963, Sedaka sold more than 25m records, and was nominated for his first Grammy in 1962. But the arrival of the Beatles-led British invasion almost ended his career. \u201cBetween 1963 and 1975, I worked very little. The Beatles had come to New York and changed music \u2013 all the solo singers were out of work,\u201d he once said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sedaka was a major influence on Elton John, to whose Rocket label he briefly signed in the 1970s. Aside from his own hits, Sedaka wrote many for other artists, including Connie Francis\u2019 1958 hit Stupid Cupid, and Captain and Tennille\u2019s Love Will Keep Us Together. In 1973 he collaborated with Abba to write the English lyrics for their hit Ring Ring, and wrote songs for Rosemary Clooney, Patsy Cline, Engelbert Humperdinck, the Carpenters and Cher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sedaka maintained a six-decade career by touring and performing. Of fame, he told the Guardian in 2012: \u201cYou do have to give up your privacy. But the good thing is that you can get a table in a restaurant or a seat at the theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Neil #Sedaka #Breaking #Hard #singer #pop #song #hitmaker #dies #aged #Neil #Sedaka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwr&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}