Sedaka Isn't Back; He Never Left

An 81-year-old man is trying to cheer us up as we attempt to deal, as best as we can, with a worldwide pandemic.

He’s not just any 81-year-old man. He’s Neil Sedaka.

A number of singers/musicians known better to boomers than anyone else have been showing up on social media to give us one more rendition of songs we first heard many years ago.

I was a teenage disc jockey when I played Neil Sedaka on the air. That was 45 years ago, give or take a few months. And that was during Sedaka’s second career; 15 years before that he had huge pop hits. The songs were almost like commercial jingles. Bouncy. Fairly predictable chord changes. Easy and simple lyrics. But record stores racked up huge sales with them. They were radio’s dose of fun.

Today, Sedaka has been getting hits on his hits. He’s put up little medleys on social media of songs familiar to a generation, with warm and friendly introductions.



We’ll take a little intermission and give you a chance to read a review from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of August 22, 1975. Sedaka talks about his comeback and how it happened.

Today's Music
'Sedaka's Back' on Album Tour
By GARRY BARKER
The bright silver banner suspended above the stage at Six Flags' Music Mill Theater said it all in a nutshell:
"Sedaka's Back!"
Neil Sedaka, who's had a land in writing some 75 gold records since 1959, made a spectacular recording comeback last year with "Sedaka's Back" on Elton John's Rocket Records label.
Already Sedaka has scored three hit singles off that LP with "Laughter In the Rain," "The Immigrant" and his latest, "That's When the Music Takes Me."
ARTISTS ARE MINING gold from it as well. The Captain and Tennille scored with "Love Will Keep Us Together," Andy Williams and the Carpenters took "Solitaire" and Maria Muldaur has recorded "Sad Eyes."
His two shows at Six Flags last Friday night packed the outdoor theater to overflowing and saw a horde of young people push against the stage hoping to shake his hand. Backstage, a relaxed Sedaka said the latter really amazed him.
"If my 12-year-old daughter saw that she wouldn't believe it," he said.

Sedaka lives in New York with his wife and two children and presently is on an extended tour of the United States.
An immediate eye-catcher are the two gold medallions he wears, which he said were presents from Elton John and John's management.
"It was Elton who convinced me to release my come back album in America," he said.
Sedaka and his new Rocket album is due to be released Sept. 22. It's called "The Hungry Years," after one of the songs on it.
"It's similiar to the last album," Sedaka told me. "Phil Cody and Howard Greenfield are on it and Robert Appere is the producer again."
SEDAKA RETIRED FROM performing in 1964, after a string of hit records that included "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen," "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and "Calendar Girl," which is his favorite from the old era.
He quit because "I felt I had seen the world and I just wanted to get away from it all, relax and write."
His knack for hit songs certainly continued. He's been in on composing such standards as "Puppet Man" and "Workin' On a Groovy Thing."
When did he know it was time to get back to performing?
"When music became fun again," he said. "When artists such as James Taylor and Carole King (his old friend from high school) started showing up on the charts."
Later this year Sedaka will be appearing on the "Tony Orlando and Dawn" and "Cher" television shows.
Would he like to have a show of his own?
"Yes!" was the immediate reply.
With a warm and gracious personality and a string of hits that won't quit, Sedaka has an excellent shot at that last one.

Well, our intermission is over. Back to the performance. Bless you, Neil Sedaka.