Althouse: Goodbye to Neil Sedaka.

February 27, 2026

Goodbye to Neil Sedaka.

"Neil Sedaka, Legendary Singer-Songwriter Behind ‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,’ ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Love Will Keep Us Together,’ Dies at 86" (Variety).

22 comments:

Lazarus said...: "Calendar Girl" -- better known to some of us as "Calendar Cat" -- too. He was a talented guy and I still remember the surprise on learning that he was heterosexual.; 2/27/26, 4:38 PM
NeggNogg said...: One of the last great songwriters of innocent, puppy-love bubble-gum. May he RIP.; 2/27/26, 4:45 PM
Iman said...: Good grief, I’d heard on the radio that he was recovering… just a couple of hours ago. Iconic old songs and one, a little newer in the mid-70s (“Bad Blood”) with Elton John. RIP.; 2/27/26, 4:47 PM
Political Junkie said...: Did he write My Way for Frank?; 2/27/26, 4:59 PM
Wince said...: Who could forget?

Da-da-da-da
Sedaka is back.
Da-da-da-da; 2/27/26, 5:05 PM
tcrosse said...: "Did he write My Way for Frank?"

That was Paul Anka.; 2/27/26, 5:07 PM
Lance said...: I'd even give up a month's supply of chewin' tobacky
Just to be known as Mrs. Neil Sedaky; 2/27/26, 5:11 PM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: That is some collar he's sporting there. And in purple no less.; 2/27/26, 5:18 PM
Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...: RIP.

As a kid, I remember hearing “Laughter in the Rain”, on AM radio, and was shocked when it was announced as Neil Sedaka, a clearly male name; I would have sworn it was a woman singing.; 2/27/26, 5:24 PM
john mosby said...: Speaking of Paul Anna, he was on Maher last week. Still a swingin Rat Packer. Said he wanted “Put Your Head on my Shoulder” to be “Put Your Legs on my Shoulders.”

Speaking of Sedaka, he started so early that it was so weird to see him popular in the 70s and 80s. Kind of like Dion. Or Kylie Minogue today. But Kylie doesn’t seem as weird because of the continuity of later pop music. Sedaka and his mates seemed more like emissaries from a distant past. Probably because of the lower quality of early mono records, as someone here pointed out a while back.

Also Sedaka z’’l was Sephardic on his father’s side and Ashkenazi on his mother’s. CC, JSM; 2/27/26, 5:27 PM
Crimso said...: Unlike Anka, the legendary Sedaka never insisted the guys get shirts, nor did he insist that he sliced like a fucking hammer.; 2/27/26, 5:34 PM
Howard said...: I miss the Mike Douglas Show; 2/27/26, 5:39 PM
Lazarus said...: After SNL there was 'Don Kirschner's Rock Concert' (or maybe 'Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special'). Neil Sedaka was on a lot, so 70s/80s people got an introduction to him there. That is at least my recollection, though I can't find any corroboration online. I did find this on imdb.com:

In early 1965, at the height of the Cold War, he was invited to appear in concert in Moscow -- as a classical pianist at the 1966 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, not as a rock-and-roll singer! This same competition was earlier won by Van Cliburn.

They also tell me that he and Eydie Gormé were cousins, but not how close cousins.; 2/27/26, 5:45 PM
rehajm said...: …he got a lot of play in the 70s. There was one of those extra long commercials for his album…; 2/27/26, 6:05 PM
Yancey Ward said...: We were discussing Sedaka just a couple of weeks ago on Discord- someone remarked that it seemed odd that he was only 86 since he had been around basically forever.; 2/27/26, 6:22 PM
Josephbleau said...: I am familiar with him only from the Frank Zappa song about driving a Studebaker Hawk with Neil Sadaka in the back.; 2/27/26, 6:49 PM
Not an oldster. said...: He's no Bob Dylan
Another teenage crush?; 2/27/26, 7:07 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Another one of those mediocre, bland, pop singers from the 60s and 70s. Steve Lawerance. Paul Williams. The Captain and Tenille. And endless string of them, vaguely remembered from my childhood and teenage years.

Glad he lived a long time and made a lot of money with so little talent.; 2/27/26, 7:22 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: WHen people remember "The good ol' days" they forget that pop music was top down until well into the 90s. A small group of people decided who got signed to a record contact, who got played on the radio, and who got on TV.

I rewatched SNL from the 70s, and this was supposed to edgy hip music for "the youngsters". And God - its just awful.

We wanted Frank Sinatra or the Beatles and we got Sonny Bono and Neil Diamond.; 2/27/26, 7:27 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: “Another one of those mediocre, bland, pop singers from the 60s and 70s. Steve Lawerance. Paul Williams. The Captain and Tenille. And endless string of them, vaguely remembered from my childhood and teenage years.”

Yes, and I loathed the vomitous output of every one of them. Wonderful and worthy people, I’m sure, but how any of their music was ever popular this side of, oh, 1965, is a complete mystery to me.

There was a couple of footloose summers at the end of the ‘70’s where my only source of music was a clock radio that would typically only pull in the nearest AM pop station spewing the worst crap of the waning decade. Sheer torture.; 2/27/26, 7:49 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: The decision to re-record "Breaking Up..." as a ballad was sheer genius. I was a little shocked to see this news as I have been seeing him on FB Reels fairly recently. And despite his high voice, he wasn't gay. Him and Carole King! In high school! He wrote, "Oh, Carol!" and she responded with a song, "Oh, Neil!" that was not a predictive indication of her songwriting abilities to come. R.I.P.; 2/28/26, 5:06 AM
Earnest Prole said...: If you have a moment for youtube pull up his live performances of “Laughter in the Rain,” “Bad Blood,” and the “Love Will Keep Us Together” duet with Toni Tennille. The past is another country.; 2/28/26, 6:36 AM