Neil Sedaka, singing craftsman of memorable pop songs, dies at 86

His celebrated career that spanned seven decades. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Neil Sedaka, who went from classical music prodigy to precocious songwriter to teenage idol to pop music fixture in a celebrated career that spanned seven decades, died on Feb 27 in Los Angeles. He was 86.

His son, Marc, said Sedaka had been taken to a hospital earlier in the day and died there. He said the cause was not immediately known.

Sedaka co-wrote and sang some of the definitive teenage anthems of the late 1950s and early ’60s, hits of the pre-Beatles rock ’n’ roll era that include Calendar Girl, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.

He also co-wrote hits like Stupid Cupid and Where the Boys Are for Connie Francis and, much later, Love Will Keep Us Together for the Captain and Tennille.

Sedaka intersected in his career with a remarkably diverse array of musicians – classical pianist Arthur Rubenstein and violinist Jascha Heifetz as well as Carole King, Elton John, and the Captain and Tennille, to name just a few.

He combined a genius for melody, the commercial instincts of a pop savant, a boyish high tenor and an unabashed enthusiasm for performing onstage. And he had a story that was both universal and indelibly rooted in a specific place: the Brooklyn of the 1950s and its Jewish culture, which played a disproportionate role in the early history of rock ’n’ roll.