Jerry Butler's career spans four decades; he recorded more than 50 albums and his voice is one of the most distinguished voices in all of music. As soulful as ever, yet smooth as ice, his nickname "the Ice Man" epitomizes his demeanor -- and sound. In spite of his status as a true music icon, he remains humble. Butler moved from Sunflower, MS, to Chicago, IL, at the age of three during the mass migration of blacks from the South to the North. (He grew up in an area which is now known as the Cabrini-Green Housing Projects.)
Butler acquired his initial music lessons as a young boy while a member of the church choir in Chicago. Curtis Mayfield, who was three years younger, was also a member of the same choir. The two befriended each other and began a collaboration that would have an everlasting impact on music. The twosome joined up with brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks and Sam Gooden to form the R&B group the Roosters. In fact, the Brooks brothers, Gooden, and a female had migrated to Chicago from Tennessee, and were called the Roosters & a Chick. But when Butler and Mayfield joined them, the group became simply the Roosters. In 1957, the quintet's name was changed to Jerry Butler & the Impressions.Butler scored his first hit with the Impressions in 1958 with the timeless ballad "For Your Precious Love." (He'd written the lyrics to the song when he was just 16.)
That same year Butler and the Impressions cordially split, and Butler began his solo career. He released his first single, "Lost," on the Abner label. It peaked at number 17 on the Billboard R&B charts. Jumping over to Vee-Jay in late 1960 where his career blossomed, Butler had his first hit as a solo artist with "He Will Break Your Heart." The single popped to the top of the charts at number one and stayed there for seven consecutive weeks. In 1961, Butler bounced back with two Top Ten singles: "Find Another Girl" and "I'm a Telling You." In 1967, he signed with Mercury and teamed up with the production duo of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. His work with these two master producers and songwriters resulted in some classic recordings, including the outstanding album The Ice Man Cometh. The album featured one superb track after another, including two number-one singles ("Hey, Western Union Man," "Only the Strong Survive") and two Top Ten singles ("Never Give You Up," "Are You Happy"). Always known for being a crooner, "Hey, Western Union Man" revealed to many that Butler was more than capable of singing up-tempo songs.
In 1971, Gamble and Huff formed their own label and subsequently Butler formed a creative workshop to help provide material for his forthcoming albums. Material that did not make his albums, he marketed to other artists. In the spring of 1971, Butler hit the Top Ten with the number-eight single "If It's Real What I Feel," which was written by Chuck Jackson (the younger brother of Rev. Jesse Jackson). Butler continued his hit-making tradition with "Ain't Understanding Mellow," a classic soul-ballad duet with Brenda Lee Eager that peaked at number three on the Billboard R&B charts. Butler scored a number-six single with Eager with a remake of the Carpenters' "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and a solo hit with a remake of the O'Jays' "One Night Affair," which was also his last song to crack the Top Ten.
Never one to categorize singers because he believes that a singer is a singer -- not based on genre, but on a person's mere ability to sing -- Butler himself covered several styles of music during his lengthy music career. He had many highs in his career; ranging from sharing the spotlight with such greats as Aretha Franklin to being the chairman of the board for the Rhythm and Blues Foundation (a non-profit organization). Butler also became a force in another field: politics. In the mid-'80s, he was a significant campaign supporter of Chicago's first black mayor Harold Washington. A short time later, Butler himself became the Cook County (IL) Commissioner and by the late '90s he was a Chicago City Alderman. When the great Jerry Butler is not lobbying for his constituents, he can be found on-stage giving one of his spine-chilling performances with Ice Man-cool delivery.
Decision: A legendary R&B performer, but not a Pop HOFer...
Neil Sedaka
Sedaka was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Mac Sedaka, was a taxi driver and a Sephardic Jew of Lebanese descent. Sedaka's mother, Eleanor, is an Ashkenazi Jew of Polish-Russian descent. He grew up in the then-heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach, which lies on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Sedaka is a cousin of singer Eydie Gormé.
He demonstrated musical aptitude in his second-grade choral class, and when his teacher sent a note home suggesting he take piano lessons, his mother took a part-time job in anAbraham & Straus department store for six months to pay for a second-hand upright. In 1947, he auditioned successfully for a piano scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music's Preparatory Division for Children, which he attended on Saturdays. His mother wanted him to become a renowned classical pianist such as the contemporary of the day, Van Cliburn, but Sedaka was discovering pop music. When Sedaka was 13, a neighbor heard him playing and introduced him to her 16-year-old son, Howard Greenfield, an aspiring poet and lyricist. They became two of the legendary Brill Building's composers.
Sedaka and Greenfield wrote songs together throughout much of their young lives, with Sedaka going on to being a major teen pop star and the pair also writing hits for a litany of other artists as well as for Sedaka's own career. However, when The Beatles and the British Invasion took American music in a different direction, Sedaka was left without a recording career and decided a major change in his life was necessary, moving his family to Britain in the early 1970s. Sedaka and Greenfield mutually agreed that their partnership was at an end with "Our Last Song Together". Sedaka began a new composing partnership with lyricist Phil Cody, who was born and raised in Pleasantville, NY. After Sedaka returned to the US, however, the Sedaka-Greenfield team eventually reunited and continued until Greenfield's death in 1986.
After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School, Sedaka and some of his classmates formed a band called The Tokens. The band had minor regional hits with songs like "While I Dream", "I Love My Baby", "Come Back, Joe", and "Don't Go", before Sedaka launched out on his own in 1957. Eventually, after a few personnel changes, in 1961, the Tokens hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts with the international smash "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Meanwhile, the very young Sedaka's first three solo singles, "Laura Lee", "Ring-a-Rockin'", and "Oh, Delilah!" failed to become hits (although "Ring-a-Rockin'" earned him the first of many appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand), but they demonstrated his ability to perform as a solo singer, so RCA Victor signed him to a recording contract.
His first single for RCA, "The Diary", was inspired by Connie Francis, one of Sedaka and Greenfield's most important clients, while the three were taking a temporary break during their idea-making for a new song. Francis was writing in her diary, Sedaka asked if he could read it, and Connie promptly replied no. After Little Anthony and the Imperials passed on the song, Sedaka recorded it himself, and his debut single hit the Top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 14 in 1958. His followup, a novelty tune titled "I Go Ape", just missed the Top 40, peaking at No. 42. The third single, "Crying My Heart Out for You", did even worse, missing the Hot 100 entirely, peaking at No. 111 (although it went to No. 6 on the pop charts in Italy). Desperate for another hit, he bought several hit singles and listened to them repeatedly, studying the song structure, chord progressions, lyrics and harmonies—and he discovered that the hit songs of the day all shared the same basic musical anatomy. Armed with his newfound arsenal of musical knowledge, he set out to craft his next big hit song, and he promptly did exactly that: "Oh! Carol" delivered Sedaka his first domestic Top 10 hit, reaching No. 9 on the Hot 100 in 1959 and going to No. 1 on the Italian pop charts in 1960, giving Sedaka his first No. 1 ranking. Sedaka had dated Carole King when he was still at high school, and she was still called Carol Klein, so he used her name; Gerry Goffin - King's husband - took the tune, and wrote the playful response "Oh! Neil", which King recorded and released as an unsuccessful single the same year.
After establishing himself in 1958, Sedaka kept churning out new hits from 1960 to 1962. His flow of Top 30 hits during this period included: "Stairway to Heaven" (No. 9, 1960); "You Mean Everything to Me" (No. 17, 1960); "Run, Samson, Run" (No. 27, 1960); "Calendar Girl" (No. 4, 1961; also reached No. 1 on the Japanese pop charts); "Little Devil" (No. 11, 1961); "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" (No. 6, 1961); his signature song, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" (No. 1, two weeks: August 11 and 18, 1962); and "Next Door to an Angel" (No. 5, 1962). Singles not making the Top 30 during this time period included "Sweet Little You" (No. 59, 1961) and "King of Clowns" (No. 45, 1962). RCA issued four LPs in the U.S. and Britain of his works during this period, and also produced Scopitone and Cinebox videos of "Calendar Girl" in 1961, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" in 1962, and "The Dreamer" in 1963. He made regular appearances on such TV programs as American Bandstand and Shindig! during this period.
When Sedaka was not recording his own songs, he and Howard Greenfield were writing for other performers, most notably in their earliest days Connie Francis. Francis began searching for a new hit after her 1958 single "Who's Sorry Now?". She was introduced to Sedaka and Greenfield, who played every ballad they had written for her. Francis began writing in her diary while the two played the last of their songs. After they finished, Francis told them they wrote beautiful ballads but that they were too intellectual for the young generation. Sedaka suggested to Greenfield a song they had written that morning for a girl group. Greenfield protested because the song had been promised to the girl group, but Sedaka insisted on playing "Stupid Cupid". Francis told them they had just played her new hit. Francis' song reached No. 14 on the Billboard charts.
While Francis was writing in her diary, Sedaka asked her if he could read what she had written. After she refused, Sedaka was inspired to write "The Diary", his own first hit single. Sedaka and Greenfield wrote many of Connie Francis' hits, such as "Fallin'" and the "Theme from Where the Boys Are", the film in which she starred. This hit the Top 5 on theBillboard pop singles chart and Francis had several No. 1 singles. "Where the Boys Are" eventually became her signature song.
Sedaka and Greenfield also wrote some of Jimmy Clanton's hits, such as "Another Sleepless Night," "What Am I Gonna Do?" and "All the Words in the World." Sedaka himself recorded each of these three songs: "Another Sleepless Night" appears on his Rock With Sedaka debut album; "What Am I Gonna Do?" was the B-side of "Going Home to Mary Lou" and appeared on his 1961 album Neil Sedaka Sings "Little Devil" and His Other Hits; and "All the Words in the World" was recorded but was kept in the RCA vaults until 1977, at the height of Sedaka's return to popularity, when it was released on the album Neil Sedaka: The '50s and '60s.
Foreign-language recordings
Sedaka was very popular in Italy. Many of his English-language records were released there and proved quite successful, especially "Crying My Heart Out For You" (Italian No. 6, 1959) and "Oh! Carol" (Italian No. 1, 1960).
In 1961, Sedaka began to record some of his hits in Italian, starting with "Esagerata" and "Un Giorno Inutile", local versions of "Little Devil" and "I Must Be Dreaming". Other recordings were to follow, such as "Tu Non Lo Sai" ("Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"), "Il Re Dei Pagliacci" ("King of Clowns"), "I Tuoi Capricci" ("Look Inside Your Heart"), and "La Terza Luna" ("Waiting For Never"). "La Terza Luna" reached No. 1 on the Italian pop charts in April 1963. Cinebox videos exist for "La Terza Luna" and "I Tuoi Capricci". From a language standpoint, his recordings in Italian had very little American accent. RCA Victor's Italiana office distributed his records in Italy and released three compilation LPs of Sedaka's Italian recordings.
Sedaka also recorded in Spanish, German, Hebrew, and Japanese. Even in these countries, his English-language recordings were quite popular; "Calendar Girl" scored a No. 1 on the Japanese pop charts in the autumn of 1961. He enjoyed popularity in Latin America for his Spanish-language recordings. Many of these were pressed onto 78 rpm discs.
The year 1962 provided Sedaka with one of his career's most important years, as Sedaka scored a No. 1 with "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" and a No. 5 with "Next Door To An Angel". But after 1962, Sedaka's popularity began to wane. His singles for 1963 enjoyed modest success: "Alice In Wonderland" (No. 17), "Let's Go Steady Again" (No. 26), "The Dreamer" (No. 47), and "Bad Girl" (No. 33). "Bad Girl" would be Sedaka's last Top 40 hit in the US until 1974.
Starting in 1964, Sedaka's career went into a sharp decline, hastened by The Beatles' arrival on the radio and especially their much-hyped February 1964 appearance on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show and the rest of the British Invasion. When describing the Beatles' effect on his career in the mid-1960s, he puts it brusquely: "The Beatles—not good!" From 1964 to 1966, only three of his singles cracked the Hot 100: "Sunny" (No. 86, 1964), "The World through a Tear" (No. 76, 1965), and "The Answer to My Prayer" (No. 89, 1965). His other singles from this era - "The Closest Thing To Heaven", "I Hope He Breaks Your Heart", "Let The People Talk", "The Answer Lies Within" and "We Can Make It If We Try" - were all commercial failures.
To make matters worse, Sedaka's employers at RCA Victor refused to release his new recording, "It Hurts to Be in Love", because he had not recorded it in their studios, as stipulated by his contract. Sedaka attempted another recording of this song in RCA's studios, but the results were unsatisfactory. Howard Greenfield and Helen Miller, the song's co-writers, offered it to Gene Pitney instead, and he took the existing musical track, replacing Sedaka's lead vocal track with Pitney's own. Everything else was Sedaka's, including his own arrangement and backing vocals, piano-playing, and usual female backup singers. Pitney ended up with a No. 7 hit for himself and his record label, Musicor, in 1964.
For the remainder of his tenure with RCA Victor, Sedaka never fully recovered from the effects of Beatlemania, the loss of "It Hurts to Be in Love" to Pitney, or the failure of his recordings. RCA chose not to renew his contract when it expired in 1966, leaving him without a record label.
Although Sedaka's stature as a recording artist was at a low ebb in the late 1960s, he was able to maintain his career through songwriting. Thanks to the fact that his publisher, Aldon Music, was acquired by Screen Gems, two of his songs were recorded by The Monkees, and other hits in this period written by Sedaka included The Cyrkle's version of "We Had a Good Thing Goin'" and "Workin' on a Groovy Thing", a Top 40 R&B hit for Patti Drew in 1968, and a Top 20 pop hit for The 5th Dimension in 1969. Also, "Make the Music Play" was included on Frankie Valli's charting album Timeless.
Sedaka worked to revive his solo career in the early 1970s. Despite his waning chart appeal in the USA in the late 1960s, he remained very popular as a concert attraction, notably in the UK and Australia. Years later he thanked Bob Rogers and Australia for standing by him. "...You know, Bob, in my lean years — I called them The Hungry Years — it was Bob Rogers and Australia who welcomed me." He made several trips to Australia to play cabaret dates, and his commercial comeback began when the single "Star-Crossed Lovers" became a major hit there. The song went to No. 5 nationally in April 1969 — giving Sedaka his first charting single anywhere in four years. It also came in at No. 5 in Go-Set magazine's list of the Top 40 Australian singles of 1969.
Later that year, with the support of Festival Records, he recorded a new LP of original material entitled Workin' on a Groovy Thing (released in the United Kingdom as Sounds of Sedaka) at Festival Studios in Sydney. It was co-produced by Festival staff producer Pat Aulton, with arrangements by John Farrar (who later achieved international fame for his work with Olivia Newton-John) and backing by Australian session musicians including guitarist Jimmy Doyle (Ayers Rock) and noted jazz musician-composer John Sangster.
The title track from the album, "Wheeling, West Virginia," reached No. 20 in Australia in early 1970. The LP is also notable because it was Sedaka's first album to include collaborations with writers other than longtime lyricist Howard Greenfield; the title track featured lyrics by Roger Atkins and four other songs were co-written with Carole Bayer Sager.
In 1971, Sedaka released the Emergence album. Singles from that album included "I'm A Song (Sing Me)," "Silent Movies," "Superbird," and "Rosemary Blue." Emergence and the next year's Solitaire album were both released on the RCA Victor label, marking a short-lived reunion between Sedaka and RCA. Good friend and New York music impresario Don Kirshner attempted to make the U.S. release of Emergence a comeback for Sedaka, but the album and single releases had no appreciable success. After the failure of Emergence in the U.S., Sedaka left his hometown of New York and moved his family to the UK.
In 1972, Sedaka embarked on a successful English tour and in June recorded the Solitaire album at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, working with the four future members of 10cc(best known to American audiophiles for "I'm Not in Love" and "The Things We Do for Love"). As well as the title track, which was successfully covered by Andy Williams (UK Top 5 singles chart) and The Carpenters (US Top 20), it included two UK Top 40 singles, including "Beautiful You", which also charted briefly in America, Sedaka's first US chart appearance in ten years; but its minor performance did little to generate interest in restarting Sedaka's career.
Neil Sedaka in 1974A year later he reconvened with the Strawberry team, who had by then charted with their own debut 10cc album, to record The Tra-La Days Are Over for MGM Records, which started the second phase of his career and included his original version of the hit song "Love Will Keep Us Together" (also a US No. 1 hit two years later for The Captain & Tennille). This album also marked the effective end of his writing partnership with Greenfield, commemorated by the track "Our Last Song Together." They would reunite, however, and begin composing together again before Greenfield's death in 1986. From 1974 onward, Sedaka's records were issued in Europe and around the world on the Polydor label. His first album of new material with Polydor was Laughter in the Rain.
Elton John and Sedaka met at a party in London in 1973. When John realized Sedaka had no American record label, John suggested he sign with The Rocket Record Company, and Sedaka accepted the proposition. When John visited Sedaka's London apartment, they discussed the plans for relaunching his career in the US.
John said he had "always been a Sedaka fan anyway". He went on to say: So the basic plan was as simple as finding out what he wanted to have on his album - which turned out to be a compilation from his British albums. It had been like Elvis coming up and giving us the chance to release his records. We couldn't believe our luck.
Sedaka returned to the U.S. album charts with the release of Sedaka's Back, a compilation of songs from three albums he had already recorded in the UK—namely "Solitaire," "The Tra-La Days Are Over," and "Laughter in the Rain." It was only the second Sedaka album ever to chart in the U.S. Sedaka was known principally as a singles artist up to that point in his career; his only other American charting album was Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits, a compilation of his early singles.
Although the single was released in the autumn of 1974 and was very slow in building in sales and at radio, eventually Sedaka found himself once again topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (February 1, 1975) with "Laughter in the Rain." It was Sedaka's second No. 1 single thus far at that point in his career (after 1962's original version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do") and solidly reestablished Sedaka's popularity in America.
One of Sedaka's most well-received compositions during this period was the second single, "The Immigrant" (US pop No. 22, US AC No. 1). Critics hailed its beautiful orchestration and evocative lyrics: wistful, nostalgic, and no doubt enhanced and embellished by both pride and disillusion with the state of affairs in the contemporary life in the nation in which Sedaka was raised. It was at one time welcoming of strangers from afar, willing to allow emigrants from faraway lands to enter our shores as immigrants, being allowed to try to find a place in that new home of their dreams – possibly not necessarily as perfect as initially hoped – but still the great land called America. But it was also was a protest ode dedicated to his friend (ironically, a former Beatle who had shooed him across the Atlantic in the opposite direction), John Lennon.
The third consecutive Billboard Top 25 hit from Sedaka's Back was the uptempo rocker "That's When the Music Takes Me" (US pop No. 25, US AC No. 7), originally from the 1972 Solitaire album. This song was a rarity at the time as it was one of the few songs Sedaka had written by himself, without a collaborator. It remains today his standard curtain-call concert closer.
In the US, Sedaka's records were issued first on the Rocket label (1974–77) and on the Elektra label (1977–81).
Sedaka and Greenfield co-wrote "Love Will Keep Us Together," a No. 1 hit for The Captain & Tennille and the biggest hit for the entire year of 1975. Toni Tennille paid tribute to Sedaka's welcome return to music-business success with her ad lib of "Sedaka is back" in the outro while she was laying down her own background vocals for the track. "Captain"Daryl Dragon and Toni also recorded a Spanish-language version of the song the same year that cracked the top half of Billboard's Hot 100 chart ("Por Amor Viviremos," US pop No. 49).
In 1975, Sedaka was the opening act for The Carpenters on their world tour. According to The Carpenters: The Untold Story by Ray Coleman, manager Sherwin Bash fired Sedaka at the request of Richard Carpenter, allegedly because Sedaka was becoming more popular than the Carpenters. The firing resulted in a media backlash against The Carpenters after Sedaka publicly announced he was off the tour.[citation needed] This, however, was before Karen and Richard recorded Sedaka's "Solitaire," which became a Top 20 hit for the duo. Richard Carpenter denied that he fired Sedaka for "stealing their show," as was the widespread rumour; Richard Carpenter responded that he and Karen were proud of Sedaka's success. However, Bash was fired as The Carpenters' manager a short time after.
In late 1975, Sedaka's most successful year of his career continued as he earned yet more chart success with the release of his second Rocket Records album, The Hungry Years. This album was an American edition of Sedaka's British Polydor album "Overnight Success." The first single, "Bad Blood," hit No. 1 on the Billboard 100 and stayed there for three weeks (October 11, 18, and 25, 1975), was certified Gold® by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and was the most individual commercially successful single of his career. Elton John provided uncredited backing vocals for "Bad Blood." Despite their later falling out that would result in a change from Sedaka's record label from Elton's Rocket Records to Elektra, Elton has been credited by Sedaka as being responsible for his breakthrough back into the U.S. pop music scene. Elton has been quoted as saying: "I only appear on the records of people I really know or like."
Another highlight from "The Hungry Years" was Sedaka's new version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." His 1962 original, a No. 1 hit single, was an upbeat pop song, while the remake was a jazz ballad, based on a similar arrangement by a Lenny Welch 1970 recording. Sedaka's version hit No. 8 on the Hot 100 in early 1976, making him the only artist to ever record entirely reworked and rearranged versions of the same song to both reach the Billboard Top 10. The 1976 ballad version also hit No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
Later in 1976, Sedaka released a third (and final) album with Elton John's label The Rocket Record Company, Steppin' Out. The first single, "Love in the Shadows," was an uncharacteristeringly solid rock song featuring a scorching guitar solo. While it peaked at #16 on the Hot 100, it was the first of his three "comeback" albums' debut singles to not hit #1--or even the Top 10, for that matter. Once again, but for the last time, Sedaka and Elton John collaborated, with Elton receiving uncredited backing vocals. The single was on the album's title track, "Steppin' Out." While it would crack the Top 40, it would also signal the beginning of a slowdown in Sedaka's music sales and radio play not unlike what he experienced in 1964 when The Beatles and the "British Invasion" arrived.
Sedaka left the Rocket label in 1977 and signed with Elektra Records for the distribution of his albums in the US. Elektra did not put as much effort into promoting Sedaka's music as Elton John did at Rocket Records, and that, combined with the arrival of the disco era, marked another downturn in Sedaka's career.
His first Elektra album, A Song, enjoyed only moderate success. Things got worse with his 1978 album All You Need Is The Music which was a dismal failure, because as Sedaka attempted to release disco-themed music himself in the late 1970s, his album sales were weak and singles could not get a foothold on the radio. However, on one track of "All You Need Is the Music" was a beautiful ballad called "Should've Never Let Her Go." Sedaka released the song but it was not a success. In his next album, 1980's In the Pocket, he released an early single in the autumn of 1979, "Letting Go," which peaked just above the Hot 100. For the second single in the winter of 1980, Sedaka changed the lyrics and title to "Should've Never Let You Go," and re-recorded the song with his then-17-year-old daughter, Dara. As Sedaka explained in a 2006 London concert, their father-daughter duo would join only Frank and Nancy Sinatra, and Nat "King" (posthumously) and Natalie Cole (via recording manipulation in "Unforgettable", 1991, to achieve a "duet") to ever have father-daughter duets to reach the Top 40 on the Hot 100. Neil and Dara's pairing would return Neil to the Top 20 for his last Hot 100 charted single, but also the Top 5 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.
Sedaka released one final album with Elektra - Neil Sedaka: Now in 1981. None of the songs on this album made any significant waves on the pop music charts. After the failure ofNow, Sedaka left Elektra and signed with Curb Records.
He recorded two albums on the Curb label - Come See About Me in 1983 and The Good Times in 1986. Both of these albums fared poorly on the charts and in sales, with only modest success for the singles released from those albums. After 1986, Sedaka was once again left without a record label.
But Sedaka was not finished yet. He created his own music label, ensuring that his catalog of hits would find the marketplace, and he released occasional CDs of self-produced new, original material. He also proved to be a popular concert draw on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, performing for thousands of adoring fans. To this day, he maintains a rigorous tour schedule.
Other successes[edit]
Ben Folds, an American singer-musician-songwriter and judge on NBC's a cappella vocal-group competition series The Sing-Off, credited Sedaka on his "iTunes Originals" album as an inspiration for song publishing. Hearing Sedaka had a song published by the age of 13 gave Folds the goal of also getting a song published by his 13th birthday, despite the fact that Sedaka did not actually publish his first song until he was 16.
In 1985, songs composed by Sedaka were adapted for the Japanese anime TV series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. These included the two opening themes "Zeta - Toki wo Koete" (originally in English as "Better Days Are Coming") and "Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete" (originally in English as "For Us to Decide", but the English version was never recorded), as well as the end theme "Hoshizora no Believe" (written as "Bad and Beautiful"). Due to copyright, the songs were replaced for the North American DVD.
In 1994, Sedaka provided the voice for Neil Moussaka, a parody of himself in Food Rocks, an attraction at Epcot from 1994-2006.
A musical comedy based around the songs of Sedaka, titled Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, was written in 2005 by Erik Jackson and Ben H. Winters; it is now under license to Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
A biographical musical, Laughter in the Rain, produced by Bill Kenwright and Laurie Mansfield, starring Wayne Smith as Sedaka, had its world premiere at the Churchill Theatre, in the London borough of Bromley, on 4 March 2010. Sedaka attended the opening and joined the cast onstage for an impromptu curtain call of the title song.
Sedaka in 2005Sedaka maintains a rigorous concert schedule in the second decade of the 21st century, in the U.S. and around the world, despite having passed the age of 70. He was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1983, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was an October 2006 inductee of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. His ardent fans have appealed for his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, due to his longevity, contributions to contemporary music, and hit songwriting for himself and dozens of other artists.
In May 2003, near the end of the second season of the Fox TV series American Idol, Sedaka appeared as a guest judge and mentor to the five remaining finalists. (The "guest judge" aspect of the series has long since been discontinued.) Several of the contestants' performances from Sedaka's songbook sparked particular praise from the guest judge. One of those performances came from eventual third-place finalistKimberley Locke, who sang the "Theme from Where the Boys Are." The Sedaka/Greenfield composition was originally recorded by Connie Francis and has gone on to become her signature song. Sedaka termed Locke's performance "ear-licious."
Eventual Season 2 runnerup Clay Aiken chose Sedaka's 1972 song "Solitaire" for his performance. As Aiken explained to the studio and TV audiences, host Ryan Seacrest, and the four total judges, "Solitaire" had long been one of his mother's all-time favorite songs. When she learned that Sedaka was going to be a guest judge and that the finalists would be singing Sedaka's songs, she begged him to sing "Solitaire." The performance was uniformly given extraordinarily high praise by the judges (including perennial skeptic Simon Cowell). Sedaka dissolved into tears, telling Aiken that he officially passed ownership of the performance of "Solitaire" to Clay, offering to record and produce a single of the song or an entire CD with him.
Although it did not appear on his debut CD itself, Aiken recorded and added "Solitaire" as the B-side to the single "The Way," whose sales were faltering. "Solitaire" was quickly moved to the A-side, and radio airplay and single and download sales responded immediately. "Solitaire" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart and was, in fact, the top-selling single for all of 2004. It also hit the Top 5 on Billboard's Hot 100. Sedaka was invited back to American Idol to celebrate the success of "Solitaire" several times, as it continued to reach new milestones. Since then, Aiken has mined the Sedaka songbook again, recording a cover of probably Sedaka's best-known song, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," on the "deluxe version" of his 2010 CD release, Tried and True.
Sedaka continues to be seen in the American Idol studio audience on at least an annual basis — most recently on May 19, 2011, when Seacrest had Sedaka stand and greet the audience on-camera during Season 10's "Top 3" results show.
Since Sedaka had lost his recording contract in the mid-1980s, he had used his own business, Neil Sedaka Music, to finance the recording, production, and distribution of new CDs and repackaging of his existing catalog of music. Because of ongoing disputes with RCA Victor Records over the ownership of Sedaka's original late 1950s/early 1960s hits, in 1991, Sedaka re-recorded those early recordings, note-for-note. Sedaka had taken meticulous care of his voice over the years and still sang in the original keys recorded in his youth (and still does today). This allowed him to repackage his catalog to include both his early recordings along with his mid- to late 1970s hits and later recordings.
In early 2007, Sedaka signed his first recording contract in nearly two decades with Razor and Tie Records, a small-but-growing, New York-based independent label with a talent roster that also includes Joan Baez, Vanessa Carlton, Foreigner, Joe Jackson, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The first release was The Definitive Collection, a life-spanning compilation of his hits, along with outtakes and songs previously released but unavailable in CD and/or download format. It debuted in the Top 25 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart in May 2007, one of the highest-charting albums of his entire career. Best known as a "singles artist," this album chart activity was considered a significant comeback for the veteran entertainer. The last time Sedaka had an album on the Top 200 albums chart was in 1980, with his 1979 album In the Pocket – when "Should've Never Let You Go," the 1980 duet with Sedaka and daughter Dara, was Sedaka's last Top 20 hit on the Hot 100 singles chart.
Waking Up Is Hard to Do was Sedaka's next release with Razor and Tie, hitting the albums chart in May 2009. The CD was a children's album that used the melodies of many of Sedaka's best-known songs but changed the lyrics to fit, and hopefully have fun with, the everyday lives of babies and toddlers, along with their parents, grandparents, babysitters, and other caregivers. The CD title is an example. Lastly, The Music of My Life entered the albums chart in February 2010[23] and comprised almost all new material. The first track, "Do You Remember?," is Sedaka's first foray into spicy salsa and was produced by music producer, composer, and pianist David Foster. "Right or Wrong," co-written with original music partner Howard Greenfield, was done in traditional street-corner, layered doo-wop vocal harmonies with Sedaka overlaying his own voice to achieve the effect for which he was well known in his "early" heyday of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The final track, "You", has been previously released, but was remastered for this project and is often one of several titles dedicated to his wife and career guide of nearly 50 years, Leba. Neil Sedaka Music continues to be listed as co-producer along with Razor and Tie.
A concert performance on 26 October 2007 at the Lincoln Center in New York City paid homage to the 50th anniversary of Sedaka's debut in show business. Music impresario (and producer for The Music of My Life track "Do You Remember?") David Foster served as emcee. Other guests included The Captain and Tennille; Natalie Cole; Connie Francis; recording legend and decades-long Sedaka friend and former manager Don Kirshner; and new Solitaire "owner" Clay Aiken, among many others. Also in 2007, Donny Osmond released a CD, Love Songs of the '70s, which included a cover of Neil's 1975 #1 hit "Laughter in the Rain."
In early 2010, his original uptempo version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (performed by a group of uncredited singers) was being heard as the impetus for a series of insurance TV commercials, featuring actor Dennis Haysbert assuring that TV viewers not insured by Allstate can break up with their current insurer without much ado at all.
On September 11, 2010, Sedaka performed to a public and TV audience at the Hyde Park, London, venue of the "Proms in the Park" for the BBC. The UK continues to be probably Sedaka's most welcoming nation, and has been since first moving his family there (temporarily) four decades ago. The irony of the place whose music scuttled his "first" career, namely the Beatles and the British Invasion, and yet has constantly welcomed him with open arms for more than 40 years, is not lost on him, he has stated in many interviews. Indeed, it was his work with the musicians who would, in a few years, become the hit-making group 10cc that brought him back to the U.S. as a major star with #1 hits and a number of other major Top 40 singles. The UK always takes up a major portion of Sedaka's touring year in the 21st century.
In early 2011, Sedaka recorded two duets ("Brighton" and "The Immigrant") with singer Jim Van Slyke for Van Slyke's Neil Sedaka tribute album, The Sedaka Sessions. LML Records released this album in August 2011.
Decision: Combining his recording success (3 #1's & 9 Top 10 hits) with his songwriting success, he belongs in the Pop HOF...
Brenda Lee
Lee was a child prodigy, appearing on national television by the age of ten, and making her first recordings for Decca the following year (1956). Her first few Decca singles, in fact, make a pretty fair bid for the best preteen rock & roll performances this side of Michael Jackson. "BIGELOW 6-200," "Dynamite," and "Little Jonah" are all exceptionally powerful rockabilly performances, with robust vocals and white-hot backing from the cream of Nashville's session musicians (including Owen Bradley, Grady Martin, Hank Garland, and Floyd Cramer). Lee would not have her first big hits until 1960, when she tempered the rockabilly with teen idol pop on "Sweet Nothin's," which went to the Top Five.
The comparison between Lee and Cline is to be expected, given that both singers were produced by Owen Bradley in the early '60s. Naturally, many of the same session musicians and backup vocalists were employed. Brenda, however, had a bigger in with the pop audience, not just because she was still a teenager, but because her material was more pop than Cline's, and not as country. Between 1960 and 1962, she had a stunning series of huge hits: "I'm Sorry," "I Want to Be Wanted," "Emotions," "You Can Depend on Me," "Dum Dum," "Fool #1," "Break It to Me Gently," and "All Alone Am I" all made the Top Ten. Their crossover appeal is no mystery. While these were ballads, they were delivered with enough lovesick yearning to appeal to adolescents, and enough maturity for the adults. The first-class melodic songwriting and professional orchestral production guaranteed that they would not be ghettoized in the country market.
Lee's last Top Ten pop hit was in 1963, with "Losing You." While she still had hits through the mid-'60s, these became smaller and less frequent with the rise of the British Invasion (although she remained very popular overseas). The best of her later hits, "Is It True?," was a surprisingly hard-rocking performance, recorded in 1964 in London with Jimmy Page on guitar. 1966's "Coming on Strong," however, would prove to be her last Top 20 entry.
In the early '70s, Lee reunited with Owen Bradley and, like so many early white rock & roll stars, returned to country music. For a time she was fairly successful in this field, making the country Top Ten half-a-dozen times in 1973-1974. Although she remained active as a recording and touring artist, for the last couple of decades she's been little more than a living legend, directing her intermittent artistic efforts to the country audience.
Decision: 12 top 10 hits in 4 years and an all-time Christmas classic "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" is enough to make the Pop HOF...
Tomorrow: 1960 Nominees: Chubby Checker, Cliff Richard, The Shirelles
No comments:
Post a Comment