Silky smooth: that was Brook Benton's byword from his first record to his very last, as the singer parlayed his rich baritone pipes into seven number one R&B hits and eight Top Ten items. Stints on the gospel circuit preceded Benton's first secular session for Okeh in 1953, but his career didn't begin to take off until he teamed with writer/producer Clyde Otis. Benton co-wrote and sang hundreds of demos for other artists before frequent collaborator Otis signed his friend to Mercury; together they pioneered a lush, violin-studded variation on the standard R&B sound, which beautifully showcased Benton's intimate vocals.
Benton crashed the top spot on the R&B charts in early 1959 with his moving "It's Just a Matter of Time," then rapidly encored with three more R&B chart-toppers: "Thank You Pretty Baby," "So Many Ways," and "Kiddio." Pairing with Mercury labelmate Dinah Washington, their delightful repartee on "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and "A Rockin' Good Way" paced the R&B lists in 1960.
The early '60s were a prolific period for Benton, but he left Mercury a few years later and bounced between labels before reemerging with the atmospheric Tony Joe White ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia" on Cotillion in 1970. Benton later made a halfhearted attempt to cash in on the disco craze, but his hitmaking reign was at an end long before his death in 1988.
Born on January 31, 1981, Justin Timberlake began his career on The New Mickey Mouse Club, starring with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. In 1995, he became a teen heartthrob with the pop group 'N Sync. After the pop groups immensely successful run in the '90s, Timberlake went solo in 2002, releasing his own album, Justified. Timberlake proved he could stand alone with the Grammy-winning album, and continued his success as a solo artist with FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006) and The 20/20 Experience (2013). Aside from a prominent singing career, Timberlake also proved himself a talented actor, starring in Alpha Dog (2006), The Social Network (2010) and In Time (2011).
Justin Randall Timberlake was born on January 31, 1981, in
Memphis, Tennessee. Raised a Baptist, Timberlake grew up singing in the
church choir. From 1993 to 1995, he performed on The New Mickey Mouse Club, along with pop stars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and JC Chasez. Afterward, Timberlake and Chasez, along with Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, formed the all-male singing group 'N Sync. The boy band would go on to become one of the hottest pop groups of the 1990s, releasing No Strings Attached in 2000 and Celebrity in 2001.
In 2002, Timberlake decided to pursue a solo career, debuting
with the hit song "Like I Love You." Later that year, he released his
first solo album, Justified, which sold more than 7 million
copies worldwide. He received two Grammy Awards in 2004 for Best Pop
Vocal Album and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The wins came on the
heels of a controversial Super Bowl performance with Janet Jackson in which Timberlake accidentally tore off a portion of Jackson's costume revealing her bare breast.
As a solo artist, Timberlake has often collaborated with the
Black Eyed Peas, receiving an Grammy nomination with the band for "Where
Is The Love?" He has also worked with Nelly, Snoop Dogg and Nelly Furtado and started his own record company, JayTee Records, in 2005. The following year, he released his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds,
which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart. The album's lead single,
"SexyBack", spent several consecutive weeks at No. 1. In 2008,
Timberlake helped make Madonna's
single, "4 Minutes", a Top 10 hit. Not only did he provide
complimentary vocals, he was also a co-writer of the song. Timberlake
also contributed to several other tracks on Madonna's Hard Candy album.
Also in pursuit of an acting career, Timberlake has experienced success in both film and television. While parts in Alpha Dog (2006) and Black Snake Moan (2006) garnered little notice, he did hit it big as the voice for a young King Arthur in 2007's smash animated film Shrek the Third, which featured Mike Myers
as the title character. Other work soon followed, as Timberlake teamed
up with Myers once again when he appeared in the 2008 comedy The Love Guru.
He also had a role in the drama The Open Road (2009) with Jeff Bridges and Mary Steenburgen.
One of Timberlake's most notable performances to date was in 2010's The Social Network, the drama about the creation of Facebook. Timberlake played real-life internet tycoon Sean Parker in the film. Turning to more comedic fare, he starred in Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz and in Friends with Benefits with Mila Kunis, both in 2011. Timberlake also has a leading role in the 2013 thriller Runner Runner with Ben Affleck. Keeping in stride with his latest string of more serious roles, Timberlake has also taken on the part of Neil Bogart in the film Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).
In addition to his roles on film, Timberlake has made a name for
himself in the television industry as well. Timberlake made his first
appearance on Saturday Night Live as both a host and musical guest in
2006. His routines and comedic timing made him a fan favorite among the
hosts who have graced the stage. Having won two Emmy Awards for
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2009 and 2011, he has
proven himself as a versatile actor with his work in TV.
Timberlake has also opened several restaurants, started a clothing
line and participated in humanitarian efforts in his native Tennessee.
Timberlake once dated fellow pop singer Britney Spears and actress Cameron Diaz. In 2007, he began dating actress Jessica Biel.
After an on-and-off relationship that lasted several years, the couple
got married in October of 2012, in Puglia, Italy. They later issuing the
following statement to People magazine: "It's great to be
married, the ceremony was beautiful and it was so special to be
surrounded by our family and friends."
In January 2013, Timberlake returned to the music scene with the hit single "Suit & Tie." The song appeared on his album The 20/20 Experience
released that March, reaching the top of the album charts in its first
week. Before the long-awaited album was released, Timberlake performed
"Pusher Love Girl" and "Suit & Tie" alongside Jay-Z
at the 2013 Grammy Awards ceremony. Timberlake continued to enjoy this
wave of success in August when he picked up the VMA Vanguard Award at
the MTV Video Music Awards. At the ceremony, he gave an impressive
performance, which also featured a reunion with his 'N Sync bandmates.
He quickly followed The 20/20 Experience with The 20/20 Experience Part 2 of 2
in October of the same year. The follow-up album didn't find the same
critical acclaim that the previous iteration found, however the album
still produced the hit single "Take Back the Night."
A leader in the parade of Mickey Mouse Club veterans who stormed pop at the turn of the millennium, Christina Aguilera was the sexy, brassy diva of the bunch -- the Rolling Stones to Britney Spears’ Beatles, as it were. Initially, it was difficult to see Christina outside of the prism of Britney, whose 1999 success launched the new millennium's teen pop boom, but Christina’s big hits of 1999 -- “Genie in a Bottle,” “What a Girl Wants,” “Come on Over” -- more than held their own with “Baby One More Time,” while revealing a vocalist with considerably more power and range than her erstwhile rival. Soon, Aguilera distanced herself from the rest of the teen pop pack beginning with her carnal sophomore set, Stripped, a heavy R&B album from 2002 that found its greatest success with the ballad “Beautiful.” Christina may have overemphasized her sexual side with singles like “Dirrtty,” but by the time of 2006’s Back To Basics, it was clear that Aguilera was the most musically ambitious, and reliable, pop diva of the boom.
Born on Staten Island on December 18, 1980, Aguilera spent her early childhood in Pittsburgh, PA. By age six, she began performing regularly in local talent shows, working her way to an appearance on the nationally televised competition Star Search. This was the true beginning of Aguilera’s professional career, leading her to joining Disney Channel’s reboot of The Mickey Mouse Club in 1992. Christina joined a cast that also featured future stars Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, and Keri Russell. The New Mickey Mouse Club lasted for two years and after its cancellation, Aguilera began working behind the scenes of the pop machine, cutting a duet with Japanese pop singer Keizo Nakanishi called “All I Wanna Do,” then representing the U.S. three years later in the Golden Stag International Festival. Her first big break arrived in 1998, when she recorded “Reflection” for the soundtrack of Disney’s Mulan, a performance that lead to a contract with RCA Records.
RCA released Christina Aguilera late in the summer of 1999, several months after Britney’s “Baby One More Time” began the teen pop boom. Christina’s debut reached the top of the U.S. charts on the momentum of the number one single “Genie in a Bottle,” which was followed in short order by another chart-topper in “What a Girl Wants,” which happened to be the first number one of 2000. Aguilera racked up recognition in a number of ways, playing the Superbowl halftime show and winning the Grammy for Best New Artist, as “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)” gave her a third number one single. Aguilera kept new product flowing, too, releasing the Spanish-language Mi Reflejo -- she didn’t speak the language, so she learned lyrics phonetically -- and My Kind of Christmas by the end of the year, while other labels attempted to cash in on her success via an unauthorized collection of old demos called Just Be Free. Christina Aguilera drifted down the charts in 2001 but she stayed in the spotlight via her participation of a remake of Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade” for the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.
When Aguilera resurfaced with new material in 2002, she began using the appellation Xtina, which was not the only “X” on her sophomore effort, Stripped. A carnal collection of risqué R&B largely produced by Scott Storch, Stripped was a defiant break from her teenybopper past, and Aguilera promoted it by flashing lots of skin on the covers of her album, Rolling Stone, and Maxim. Such striking sexuality earned mixed reviews and the lead single “Dirrty” failed to replicate her early success, but she straightened the ship with “Beautiful,” a ballad that turned into an anthem of sorts and peaked at number two on the Top 100.
Aguilera took another left turn for her next album, 2006’s Back To Basics. The title suggested something simple but the album was anything but, spilling out over two discs and running the gamut from brassy swing to modern dance. Its lead single, “Ain’t No Other Man,” was another blockbuster and Grammy winner for Christina, and the tour was her most ambitious to date. In 2008, Aguilera released her first hits collection, Keeps Gettin' Better, which was available exclusively via Target in the U.S. After a four-year break, Aguilera returned with her fourth album, Bionic, in the spring of 2010. Bionic proved to be Aguilera's first flop, earning decidedly mixed reviews, generating no hits, and failing to go gold. It was followed by a second stumble in Burlesque, Aguilera's first starring role on the big screen which was greeted to mediocre reviews and lackluster box office.
These were sudden unexpected setbacks, but Aguilera's comeback came just as quickly, arriving in the form of NBC's televised singing competition The Voice. As one of the four celebrity judges -- the others being Maroon 5's Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, and Blake Shelton -- Christina found herself on a hit show that elevated her profile and gave her another hit single as Levine's duet partner on Maroon 5's 2011 chart-topper "Moves Like Jagger."The Voice retained its popularity in its second season in early 2012, and Aguilera spent much of the year prepping her fifth album, Lotus, which was released in November 2012.
Destiny's Child rose to become one of the most popular female R&B groups of the late '90s, eventually rivaling even TLC in terms of blockbuster commercial success. Their accomplishments came in spite of several abrupt personnel changes, which were accompanied by heated, well-publicized feuds in the media and the courts. In fact, for a time, Destiny's Child were known for that drama just as much as their music. Once the group stabilized again, though, they emerged with even more hitmaking power than ever before. Destiny's Child were formed in Houston, Texas, in 1990, when original members Beyoncé Knowles and LaTavia Roberson were just nine years old; the two met at an audition and became friends, and Knowles' father Mathew set about developing an act based on their singing and rapping, taking their name from a passage in the Book of Isaiah. Beyoncé's cousin Kelendria "Kelly" Rowland joined the group in 1992, and shortly thereafter they landed an appearance on Star Search, where they performed a rap song. The quartet's lineup was finalized (for the time being) when LeToya Luckett joined in 1993, and they spent the next few years working their way up from the Houston club scene, eventually opening for artists like SWV, Dru Hill, and Immature. Finally, in 1997, Destiny's Child were offered a recording contract by Columbia.
The group made its recorded debut on 1997's "Killing Time," a song included on the soundtrack of the blockbuster Men in Black. Their self-titled debut album was released in early 1998, featuring production by Wyclef Jean and Jermaine Dupri, among others. Its lead single, the Jean-produced "No No No," was a smash hit, selling over a million copies and topping the R&B charts. The follow-up singles -- "With Me" and "Get on the Bus," the latter of which was taken from the soundtrack of Why Do Fools Fall in Love? -- didn't quite duplicate the success of "No No No," although Destiny's Child would eventually go platinum (after the group's later success). Destiny's Child reentered the studio quickly, bringing in producer Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs to handle the majority of their next record. Lead single "Bills, Bills, Bills" became the group's first number one pop hit (and second R&B number one) in the summer of 1999 and, paced by its success, the accompanying album, The Writing's on the Wall, entered the charts at number six upon its release.
That was just the beginning of the group's breakout success. The second single, "Bug a Boo," didn't perform as well, but the third single, "Say My Name," was another massive hit, their biggest so far; it hit number one on both the pop and R&B charts for three weeks apiece in early 2000, and made Destiny's Child a pop-cultural phenomenon. However, at the peak of "Say My Name"'s popularity, the group splintered. In December 1999, Roberson and Luckett attempted to split with manager Mathew Knowles, charging that he kept a disproportionate share of the band's profits, attempted to exert too much control, and unfairly favored his daughter and niece. While they never intended to leave the group, relations naturally grew strained, and when the video for "Say My Name" premiered in February 2000, many fans (not to mention Roberson and Luckett) were surprised to find two new members -- Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin -- joining Knowles and Rowland. Infuriated, Roberson and Luckett took legal action in March, suing both Knowles and their former bandmates for breach of partnership and fiduciary duties. A war of words followed in the press; meanwhile, the next Destiny's Child single, "Jumpin' Jumpin'," hit the Top Ten, and The Writing's on the Wall went on to sell a whopping eight million copies.
The personnel-turnover drama still wasn't over; in July 2000, just five months after joining, Farrah Franklin split with the group. The official reason was that Franklin missed several promotional appearances and concert gigs, although in later interviews she spoke of too much negativity and too little control in the group environment. Now reduced to a trio, Destiny's Child was tapped to record the theme song for the film version of Charlie's Angels; released as a single in October, "Independent Women, Pt. 1" raced up the charts and spent an astounding 11 weeks at number one. Destiny's Child were now indisputable superstars, the biggest female R&B group on the scene, and they quickly began work on a new album to capitalize. In the meantime, toward the end of 2000, Roberson and Luckett dropped the portion of their lawsuit aimed at Rowland and Knowles in exchange for a settlement, though they continued to pursue action against Knowles' father; as part of the agreement, both sides were prohibited from ripping each other publicly. Beyoncé had long since emerged as the group's focal point, and on the third Destiny's Child album, she assumed more control than ever before, taking a greater hand in writing the material and even producing some of the record herself. While recording sessions were going on, Rowland released the first Destiny's Child solo track; "Angel" appeared on the soundtrack of Chris Rock's Down to Earth. Former members Roberson and Luckett also announced the formation of a trio called, coincidentally, Angel, and Farrah Franklin set about starting a solo career.
Survivor -- whose title was reportedly inspired by a DJ's crack about Destiny's Child members voting one another off the island, much like the popular CBS reality series -- hit stores in the spring of 2001, and entered the charts at number one. The first two singles, "Survivor" and "Bootylicious," were predictably huge hits, with the latter becoming the group's fourth number one pop single. A cover of Samantha Sang's "Emotion" was also successful, albeit less so, and Survivor sold well -- over four million copies -- but not as well as its predecessor. Toward the end of the year, the group released a holiday album, 8 Days of Christmas, and announced plans for a series of side projects, including solo albums from all three members (to be staggered over the next year and a half, so as to avoid competition). In early 2002, shortly after This Is the Remix was released to tide fans over, Roberson and Luckett sued the group again, claiming that some of the lyrics in "Survivor" made reference to them (in violation of the earlier lawsuit settlement).
The first Destiny's Child solo album, Michelle Williams' all-gospel project Heart to Yours, was released in April and featured a duet with gospel legend Shirley Caesar. Meanwhile, Beyoncé won a leading role opposite Mike Myers in the third Austin Powers film, Goldmember, playing blaxploitation-style heroine Foxy Cleopatra; her first solo single, the Neptunes-produced "Work It Out," appeared on the soundtrack, and her full solo album, Dangerously in Love, became a huge hit upon release in mid-2003. Despite much critical speculation, the trio reunited the following year and released Destiny Fulfilled in November 2004. In October 2005, the #1's compilation was issued, followed by the Live in Atlanta DVD and CD sets in 2006 and 2007. The members continued solo careers. Rowland had considerable success with Ms. Kelly and Here I Am, both of which reached the Top Ten. Meanwhile, Beyoncé, who married Jay-Z in 2008, solidified her status as the planet's biggest pop star with the platinum albums B'day, I Am...Sasha Fierce, and 4. The group reunited in 2012 to record a new song, the Pharrell-produced "Nuclear," for the Love Songs compilation, which was released in January 2013 -- just prior to their halftime performance at Super Bowl XLVII.
As one of the biggest new stars to emerge during the mid-'80s, singer Gloria Estefan predated the coming Latin pop explosion by a decade, scoring a series of propulsive dance hits rooted in the rhythms of her native Cuba before shifting her focus to softer, more ballad-oriented fare. Born Gloria Fajardo in Havana on September 1, 1957, she was raised primarily in Miami, Florida, after her father, a bodyguard in the employ of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, was forced to flee the island following the 1959 coup helmed by Fidel Castro. In the fall of 1975, Fajardo and her cousin Merci Murciano auditioned for the Miami Latin Boys, a local wedding band headed by keyboardist Emilio Estefan. With their addition, the group was rechristened Miami Sound Machine and four years later, Fajardo and Estefan were wed. As Miami Sound Machine began composing their own original material, their fusion of pop, disco, and salsa earned a devoted local following, and in 1979 the group issued their first Spanish-language LP on CBS International. Despite a growing Hispanic fan base, they did not cross over to non-Latin audiences until "Dr. Beat" topped European dance charts in 1984.
With 1985's Primitive Love, Miami Sound Machine recorded their first English-language effort, scoring three Top Ten pop hits in the U.S. alone with the infectious "Conga," "Bad Boy," and "Words Get in the Way." For 1988's triple-platinum Let It Loose, the group was billed as Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, reeling off four Top Ten hits -- "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," "Can't Stay Away from You," the chart-topping "Anything for You," and "1-2-3." 1989's Cuts Both Ways was credited to Estefan alone and generated her second number one hit, "Don't Wanna Lose You"; however, while touring in support of the album, on March 20, 1990, her bus was struck by a tractor trailer. She suffered a broken vertebrae that required extensive surgery and kept her off the road for over a year. Emilio Estefan and the couple's son were injured in the crash as well, but all three recovered. Estefan resurfaced in 1991 with Into the Light, again topping the charts with "Coming Out of the Dark," a single inspired by her near-fatal accident; two more cuts from the album, "Can't Forget You" and "Live for Loving You," secured her foothold on the adult contemporary charts.
With 1993's Mi Tierra, Estefan returned to her roots, recording her first Spanish-language record in close to a decade and earning a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album; on the follow-up, 1994's covers collection Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me, she also recalled her dance-pop origins with a rendition of the Vicki Sue Robinson disco classic "Turn the Beat Around." Another all-Spanish effort, Abriendo Puertas, earned the Grammy as well, while Destinyfeatured "Reach," named the official theme of the 1996 Summer Olympics. As Latin pop made new commercial headway thanks to the efforts of acts like Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, Estefan reigned as the most successful crossover artist in Latin music history, with international record sales close to the 50 million mark. In 1999, she also made her feature film debut alongsideMeryl Streep in Music of the Heart, recording the film's title song as a duet with *NSYNC and scoring both a massive pop hit and an Oscar nomination in the process.
A new Spanish-language album, Alma Caribeña, followed in the spring of 2000. Several months later, Estefan was awarded a Grammy for Best Music Video for "No Me Dehes de Querer" at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards. Her husband, Emilio, won for Producer of the Year. In 2003, she released Unwrapped, an English-language effort that met with a lukewarm reception from consumers and critics. She didn't return with another new album for several years, as stop-gap compilations such as Amor y Suerte: Exitos Romanticos (2004), The Essential Gloria Estefan (2006), and Oye Mi Canto: Los Éxitos (2006) were released from time to time. When she did return, with 90 Millas in 2007, it was with a splash. The Cuban-themed, Spanish-language effort hearkened back to Mi Tierra and was a big hit on the Latin music scene; its lead single, "No Llores," quickly scaled Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart, and the album itself was a chart-topper as well. Estefan returned to English-language pop with 2011's Miss Little Havana, a dance-pop album produced by Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes. Estefan went in the opposite direction for her next album, tackling the Great American Songbook on the aptly titled 2013 album The Standards.
Bridging the era between late-'50s rock and the British Invasion, Dion DiMucci (born July 18, 1939) was one of the top white rock singers of his time, blending the best elements of doo wop, teen idol, and R&B styles. Some revisionists have tried to cast him as a sort of early blue-eyed soul figure, although he was probably more aligned with pop/rock, at first as the lead singer of the Belmonts, and then as a solo star. Drug problems slowed him down in the mid-'60s, yet he made some surprisingly interesting progressions into blues-rock and folk-rock as the decade wore on, culminating in a successful comeback in the late '60s, although he was unable to sustain its commercial and artistic momentum for long.
When Dion began recording in the late '50s, it was as the lead singer of a group of friends who sang on Bronx street corners. Billing themselves as Dion & the Belmonts (Dion had released a previous single with the Timberlanes), their first few records were prime Italian-American doo wop; "I Wonder Why" was their biggest hit in this style. His biggest single with the Belmonts was "A Teenager in Love," which pointed the way for the slightly self-pitying, pained odes to adolescence and early adulthood that would characterize much of his solo work.
Dion went solo in 1960 (the Belmonts did some more doo wop recordings on their own), moving from doo wop to more R&B/pop-oriented tunes with great success. He handled himself with a suave, cocky ease on hits like "The Wanderer," "Runaround Sue," "Lovers Who Wander," "Ruby Baby," and "Donna the Prima Donna," which cast him as either the jilted, misunderstood youngster or the macho lover, capable of handling anything that came his way (on "The Wanderer" especially).
In 1963, Dion moved from Laurie to the larger Columbia label, an association that started promisingly with a couple of big hits right off the bat, "Ruby Baby" and "Donna the Prima Donna." By the mid-'60s, his heroin habit (which he'd developed as a teenager) was getting the best of him, and he did little recording and performing for about five years. When he did make it into the studio, he was moving in some surprisingly bluesy directions; although much of it was overlooked or unissued at the time, it can be heard on theBronx Blues reissue CD.
In 1968, he kicked heroin and re-emerged as a gentle folk-rocker with a number four hit single, "Abraham, Martin and John." Dion would focus upon mature, contemporary material on his late-'60s and early-'70s albums, which were released to positive critical feedback, if only moderate sales. The folk phase didn't last long; in 1972 he reunited with the Belmonts and in the mid-'70s cut a disappointing record with Phil Spector as producer. He recorded and performed fairly often in the years that followed (sometimes singing Christian music), to indifferent commercial results. But his critical rep has risen steadily since the early '60s, with many noted contemporary musicians showering him with praise and citing his influence, such as Dave Edmunds (who produced one of his periodic comeback albums) and Lou Reed (who guested on that record). Dion continued to be active as the 21st century opened, releasing Déjà Nu in 2000, Under the Influence in 2005, and Bronx in Blue in 2006. His first major-label album since 1989's Yo Frankie, entitled Son of Skip James, was released by Verve in 2007, while 2008's Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock saw him tackling 15 songs from the classic rock & roll era. Influenced by a conversation with rock critic Dave Marsh about his long and still relevant career, and a dare from his wife Susan to prove it, Dion cutTank Full of Blues, producing and playing the guitars on the recording himself and writing or co-writing all but one track on the set. Issued on Blue Horizon, it is the final recording in the trilogy that began with Bronx in Blue.
Singer, songwriter, and pianist Neil Sedaka enjoyed two distinct periods of commercial success in two slightly different styles of pop music: first, as a teen pop star in the late '50s and early '60s, then as a singer of more mature pop/rock in the '70s. In both phases, Sedaka, a classically trained pianist, composed the music for his hits, which he sang in a boyish tenor. And throughout, even when his performing career was at a low ebb, he served as a songwriter for other artists, resulting in a string of hits year in and year out, whether recorded by him or someone else. For himself, he wrote eight U.S. Top Ten pop hits, including the chart-toppers "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Laughter in the Rain," and "Bad Blood." The most successful cover of one of his compositions was Captain & Tennille's recording of "Love Will Keep Us Together," another number one. And over the years his songs were recorded by a wide range of pop, rock, country, R&B, and jazz performers including ABBA, Frankie Avalon, LaVern Baker, Shirley Bassey, Teresa Brewer, Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, the Carpenters, Nick Carter, David Cassidy, Cher, Petula Clark, Richard Clayderman, Patsy Cline, Rosemary Clooney, Sheryl Crow, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, John Davidson, Neil Diamond, Gloria Estefan, the 5th Dimension, the Four Seasons, Connie Francis, Crystal Gayle, Lesley Gore, the Happenings, Engelbert Humperdinck, Wanda Jackson, Jan & Dean, Tom Jones, Carole King, Earl Klugh, Peggy Lee, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Tony Martin, Johnny Mathis, Susannah McCorkle, Clyde McPhatter, Mandy Moore, Nana Mouskouri, Maria Muldaur, the Monkees, Jim Nabors, Wayne Newton, Jane Olivor, Donny Osmond, Patti Page, the Partridge Family, Bernadette Peters, Wilson Pickett, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, the Searchers, Sha Na Na, Kay Starr, John Travolta, Dinah Washington, Andy Williams, and Glenn Yarbrough, among many others. Sedaka was born in Brooklyn on March 13, 1939. His father, Mac Sedaka, a taxi driver, was the son of Turkish immigrants; his mother, Eleanor (Appel) Sedaka, was of Polish-Russian descent. He first demonstrated musical aptitude in his second-grade choral class, and when his teacher sent a note home suggesting he take piano lessons, his mother got a part-time job in a department store for six months to pay for a second-hand upright. He took to the instrument immediately. In 1947, he auditioned successfully for a piano scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School of Music's Preparatory Division for Children, which he began to attend on Saturdays. He also maintained an interest in popular music, and when he was 13, a neighbor heard him playing and introduced him to her 16-year-old son, Howard Greenfield, an aspiring poet and lyricist; the two began writing songs together.
In high school, Sedaka formed a vocal group, the Tokens. After singing at local functions, they got an audition with a music publisher in Manhattan at 1619 Broadway -- the famed Brill Building. This, in turn, led to an audition with the head of a small label, Melba Records, which released a single containing two Sedaka/Greenfield compositions, "I Love My Baby" and "While I Dream," in 1956. It achieved some airplay locally, but did not become a national hit, and Sedaka left the group, which later reorganized and went on to professional success in the '60s. Around the same time, another song written by Sedaka earned a more prominent recording. He had collaborated with his brother-in-law, Eddie Grossman, on "Never Again," which Grossman arranged to have published and which was recorded by Dinah Washington for Mercury Records.
Meanwhile, the budding composer continued to attend Lincoln High School in Brooklyn and to pursue his classical studies. In 1956, he was one of a small group of New York City high school students chosen in a competition judged by Artur Rubinstein to play on the local classical radio station, WQXR. Upon his graduation from high school, Sedaka was accepted by the college division of Juilliard. At the same time, however, he and Greenfield continued writing songs and taking them to publishing companies at the Brill Building and another Manhattan office building just up the street at 1650 Broadway. There they encountered a new firm, Aldon Music, run by Al Nevins and Don Kirshner, who signed them to a songwriting contract and also signed Sedaka to a management contract as a performing artist. In 1957, without his prior knowledge, two demonstration recordings he had made of his songs "Laura Lee" and "Snowtime" were released as a single by Decca Records, giving him his first solo disc. Again, the record was not a hit. But the team of Sedaka and Greenfield finally did reach the charts when they placed "Stupid Cupid" with the new singing star Connie Francis in 1958. Francis had broken through with a revival of the '20s ballad "Who's Sorry Now," while "Stupid Cupid" was up-tempo rock & roll. It peaked at number 14 on Billboard's Hot 100 in September, and Francis followed it with another Sedaka/Greenfield composition, "Fallin'," which peaked at number 30 in November. (As a harbinger of things to come, the songs were even more successful in the U.K., where "Stupid Cupid" hit number one and "Fallin'" made the Top 20.)
Another of Sedaka's demos, "Ring-a-Rockin'," turned up on disc in 1958 and even earned an airing on the American Bandstand television series, but did not become a hit. Nevertheless, interest in Sedaka as both a songwriter and a performer was clearly growing. In the fall of 1958, he took a leave of absence from Juilliard, and he auditioned at RCA Victor Records. He was signed, and RCA quickly issued his first formal solo single, the Sedaka/Greenfield song "The Diary," which peaked at number 14 in February 1959. But its follow-up, the uptempo "I Go Ape," missed the Top 40 (despite reaching the Top Ten in Great Britain), and his third RCA single, "Crying My Heart Out for You," was a flop.
In his 1982 autobiography, Laughter in the Rain: My Own Story, Sedaka writes that, after the disappointing performance of his second RCA single and the failure of his third, "I knew I had to have a hit. I would get no more chances." To come up with that hit, he consulted the international charts in Billboard, then went out and bought the three most successful records he saw listed and listened to them repeatedly, "analyzing what they had in common. I discovered," he writes, "they had many similar elements: harmonic rhythm, placement of the chord changes, choice of harmonic progressions, similar instrumentation, vocals phrases, drum fills, content, even the timbre of the lead solo voice. I decided to write a song that incorporated all these elements in one record." The result of this deliberate effort was his fourth RCA single, "Oh! Carol" (dedicated to songwriter Carole King, an early girlfriend of his), which turned his performing career around, becoming his first American Top Ten hit as an artist in December. (In 1962, the Four Seasons covered it on their chart album Sherry & 11 Others.)
Meanwhile, RCA had released his debut album, Neil Sedaka, and it earned a nomination for the 1959 Grammy Award for Best Performance by a "Top 40" Artist, losing to Nat King Cole's "Midnight Flyer." And as a songwriter, he had other hits during the year: LaVern Baker reached the Top Five of the R&B chart with "I Waited Too Long"; Connie Francis took "Frankie" into the pop Top Ten; Clyde McPhatter reached the R&B Top 20 with "Since You've Been Gone"; and Roy Hamilton had a pop chart entry with "Time Marches On."
After the success of his fifth RCA single, "Stairway to Heaven," which peaked in the Top Ten in May 1960, the 21-year-old Sedaka finally began making personal appearances to support his records. Soon, he was touring extensively, including shows in South America, the Far East, and Europe. (He also began recording in Italian, German, Japanese, and Spanish, increasing his international popularity.) Meanwhile, the hits kept coming. His next single was a double-sided success, with "You Mean Everything to Me" making the Top 20 and "Run Samson Run" the Top 30, and his third 45 of 1960, "Calendar Girl," gave him his third Top Ten hit with a number four peak in February 1961. He seemed to have less time to write songs for other artists, but Jimmy Clanton peaked in the Top 30 in June 1960 with "Another Sleepless Night." Clanton had another Sedaka/Greenfield song, "What Am I Gonna Do," out by the end of the year, and it charted in January 1961.
The busy pace seemed to take a toll on Sedaka by 1961. "Little Devil" gave him his sixth consecutive Top 40 hit in May, but his next single, "Sweet Little You," was his first with a song that he had not composed himself (it was written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber), and it broke his string of hits. "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen," another Sedaka/Greenfield composition, was out before the end of the year and returned him to the Top Ten with a peak at number six in January 1962, however. (Neil Diamond covered it on his 1993 chart album Up on the Roof: Songs from the Brill Building.) Also in 1961, Sedaka released his second album of new studio recordings, Circulate, on which he sang pop standards. And his pen was far from idle otherwise. He and Greenfield had written the song score for the film Where the Boys Are, Connie Francis' acting debut, which resulted in a Top Five, gold-selling hit in her recording of the title song in early 1961.
"King of Clowns," Sedaka's first single of 1962, missed the Top 40, but he scored his biggest hit yet with "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," which went to number one in August. It was nominated for the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Recording, but lost out to Bent Fabric's "Alley Cat." The song went on to become perhaps Sedaka's most valuable copyright, being revived for a pop singles chart entry by the Happenings in 1968, an R&B Top 30 and pop Top 40 hit by Lenny Welch in 1970, and a Top 30 pop hit (and U.K. Top Five) by the Partridge Family in 1972, while also appearing on chart LPs by the Four Seasons, Little Eva, and Sha Na Na, all before Sedaka himself revived it for a hit again in the mid-'70s.
Sedaka's third single of 1962, "Next Door to an Angel," reached the Top Five. RCA marked the completion of his fourth year as a hitmaker by releasing Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits, which became his first LP to reach the charts. Meanwhile, the Sedaka/Greenfield team placed "Venus in Blue Jeans" with Jimmy Clanton for a Top Ten hit (it also made the U.K. Top Ten in a rendition by Mark Wynter), and "Keep a Walkin'" on Bobby Darin's chart album Twist with Bobby Darin.
By 1963, Sedaka reportedly had sold 25 million records worldwide. But at this point his career began to go into decline. He released four singles in 1963, and all of them charted, with three in the Top 40 and one, "Alice in Wonderland," even making the Top 20, but that was a disappointing performance after his previous successes. 1964, the year the Beatles arrived in America and launched the British Invasion, was worse, with Sedaka's three single releases resulting in only one brief appearance in the Hot 100 for "Sunny," and 1965 wasn't much better, as another three Sedaka singles produced only two chart entries for "The World Through a Tear" and "The Answer to My Prayer" (both written by Chris Allen, Peter Allen, and Richard Everitt). In 1966, Sedaka released two last singles on RCA, but they failed to chart, and by early 1967 he was without a record label. He was not, however, without a publisher. Aldon had been sold to Screen Gems and offered him plenty of opportunities to place his compositions. Screen Gems' main priority at the time was the Monkees, the group created for a television series patterned on the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night, and the Sedaka/Greenfield song "When Love Comes Knockin' (At Your Door)" appeared on their second album, More of the Monkees; it was a number one hit in early 1967. That spring the Cyrkle reached the charts with Sedaka/Greenfield's "We Had a Good Thing Goin'." "Workin' on a Groovy Thing," written by Sedaka with Roger Atkins, was a Top 40 R&B hit and pop chart entry for Patti Drew in the summer of 1968, and a year later earned Top 20 rankings in the pop and R&B charts in a cover by the 5th Dimension. Also in 1968, Sedaka had a cut on Frankie Valli's chart album Timeless called "Make the Music Play." In 1969, Sedaka/Greenfield's "The Girl I Left Behind Me" appeared on the Monkees LP Instant Replay. Also, for the first time in three years, Sedaka had his own release, on Screen Gems' SGC label, the single "Star-Crossed Lovers," which became a hit in Australia, but not in the U.S. Nevertheless, he had a second SGC release in 1970, "Rainy Jane," a song covered by former Monkees singer Davy Jones for a chart entry in 1971. Also in 1970, the 5th Dimension recorded Sedaka/Greenfield's "Puppet Man" for a Top 30 pop hit, and a year later Tom Jones also had a Top 30 hit with it. Peggy Lee cut Sedaka/Greenfield's "One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round" for her 1970 chart album Make It with You, and the team also wrote songs for an animated children's TV series about the comic basketball troupe the Harlem Globetrotters called The Globetrotters.
Perhaps the most significant recording in Sedaka's career in 1971 was one he himself was not involved with, Carole King's breakthrough album Tapestry, which topped the charts. The LP demonstrated the new appeal of soft rock singer/songwriters and made veteran writers from the Brill Building era hip again. Don Kirshner negotiated a manufacturing and distribution deal with RCA for his new Kirshner Records label, and he signed Sedaka to a contract, resulting in the release of Sedaka's first album of new original material in 12 years, Emergence, in September 1971. He also began performing in showcase clubs like New York's Bitter End. The album didn't chart, but it was a new beginning. Meanwhile, Sedaka continued to place songs with other performers. Tony Christie scored a Top 20 hit in the U.K. with "Is This the Way to Amarillo" (aka "Amarillo") in the fall of 1971; TV star Carol Burnett gave great prominence to a Sedaka tune on her early 1972 chart album by calling it Carol Burnett Featuring "If I Could Write a Song"; and Cher had a chart entry in September 1972 with "Don't Hide Your Love."
At this point, Sedaka made two important changes in his attempt to resurrect his career. First, he decided, after 20 years, to sever his songwriting partnership with Howard Greenfield in favor of a new partner who could write in a style more consistent with what he called in his autobiography the "more elusive, more poetic" lyrics of the '70s singer/songwriters, rather than Greenfield's "very slick and polished" words. (He did continue to work with Greenfield occasionally thereafter.) At his publisher's, he met Phil Cody, and they began to write. Second, finding that he was getting a better reception in Great Britain than in the U.S., he moved to London to concentrate on mounting a comeback there. His increasing profile was confirmed by the Top 20 British success of a maxi-single containing three of his old songs, "Oh! Carol," "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," and "Little Devil," in the fall of 1972. Also that fall, Kirshner Records released his next album, Solitaire, which he had recorded in England with a backup band that would emerge later as 10cc. The album did not chart, but it produced two chart singles in the U.K., "Beautiful You" and "That's When the Music Takes Me," the latter reaching the Top 20. Glen Campbell recorded "That's When the Music Takes Me" for his concert album Live at the Royal Festival Hall, which charted in 1977, and other singers found material on Solitaire. Donny Gerrard scored an R&B chart entry in 1975 with "(Baby) Don't Let It Mess Your Mind," and Yvonne Elliman put the same song on her 1978 chart album Night Flight. But it was the title song from Solitaire that became another of Sedaka's most successful copyrights. Andy Williams' cover became a Top Five hit in Britain in the winter of 1973-1974; the Carpenters' version was a Top 20 hit in the U.S. in 1975; and the song appeared on chart albums by Johnny Mathis, Elvis Presley, and Jane Olivor on its way to being a much-performed standard. Sheryl Crow sang it on the Carpenters tribute album If I Were a Carpenter in 1994, and in 2004 Clay Aiken, a runner-up from the American Idol TV talent show, took his recording to number four.
Having reestablished himself in the U.K., Sedaka signed to the European label Polydor, which assigned him to its MGM subsidiary, and he recorded a new album, The Tra-La Days Are Over, which was released in the U.K. in the summer of 1973. In the U.S., MGM tested the waters with a couple of singles, but when they did not succeed, the LP was not released in America. In Britain, it was a different story. "Standing on the Inside" and "Our Last Song Together" (the latter, appropriately, the last song Sedaka had written with Greenfield before their split) both made the Top 40, and the LP made the Top 20. Sedaka followed in 1974 with Laughter in the Rain, released on the main Polydor label, which also made the Top 20 and threw off two Top 40 hits, "A Little Lovin'" and the title song. Again, the album was not released in the U.S. Around this time, Sedaka and Cody's expertise was called upon by Swedish songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus when they wrote English lyrics for "Ring Ring," one of ABBA's early songs.
While in England, Sedaka met Elton John, at the time the top pop recording star in the world, who was about to launch his own label, Rocket Records. John agreed to sign Sedaka for the U.S., and for his first release they assembled a compilation album drawn from Solitaire, The Tra-La Days Are Over, and Laughter in the Rain. The album was called Sedaka's Back, and it lived up to its name. It was preceded by the release of "Laughter in the Rain" as a single, and the song topped the charts in February 1975, Sedaka's first number one single in nearly 13 years. (To become a hit, the Sedaka version had to outdistance one by Lea Roberts that made the R&B charts; the song was also recorded on chart albums by Johnny Mathis and Earl Klugh.) The album made the Top 30 and went gold, and it spawned two more Top 40 hits, "The Immigrant" and "That's When the Music Takes Me." After "Our Last Song Together" appeared on the album, Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods covered it for a singles chart entry. In addition, Captain & Tennille covered "Love Will Keep Us Together" (another of Sedaka's final collaborations with Greenfield) from the album and released their version as a single that hit number one in June 1975. (Among the many other recordings of the song, Wilson Pickett revived it for a pop chart entry in 1976 and James Taylor Quartet featuring Alison Limerick had an R&B chart entry in 1995.) Captain & Tennille also tapped Sedaka's Back for "Sad Eyes," which they recorded for their 1977 Come in from the Rain LP (that album also contained the Sedaka song "Let Mama Know"). "Sad Eyes" earned another cover by Maria Muldaur on her 1976 chart album Sweet Harmony, after having been a number 11 hit on the Easy Listening chart for Andy Williams in the fall of 1975. "The Other Side of Me," another track from Sedaka's Back, gave Williams a British chart entry in 1976 and was featured on U.S. chart albums by Shirley Bassey and Crystal Gayle. But Donny Osmond had beaten them all by putting it on his chart album Alone Together back in 1973, just after its initial appearance on The Tra-La Days Are Over.
Sedaka toured the U.S. as an opening act for the Carpenters; by the end of the year, he was a Las Vegas headliner. Meanwhile, he had continued to record for the U.K. market, issuing a concert LP, Live at the Royal Festival Hall, in the fall of 1974 and, in the spring of 1975, a new studio album, Overnight Success, featuring the Top 40 hit "The Queen of 1964." Again, this LP was not issued in the U.S., but in the late summer, with Sedaka reestablished, American disc jockeys began playing a cut from it, "Bad Blood," which featured a prominent backup vocal by Elton John. This forced a quick U.S. release for the song, and Overnight Success, with a couple of track substitutions, appeared in America in September 1975 under the title The Hungry Years. "Bad Blood" soared to number one and went gold, and the album made the Top 20 and went gold, while also throwing off a new slow-tempo version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" that peaked in the Top Ten in early 1976, leading to the odd occurrence that the 14-year-old tune earned a nomination for the 1976 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, which it lost to Bruce Johnston's "I Write the Songs." "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" was given a new lease on life. Jimmy Bee and Ernie Fields & His Orchestra covered it for an R&B chart entry in 1976, and the same year the Carpenters put it on their chart LP A Kind of Hush. In 1983, the American Comedy Network had a pop chart entry with a parody, "Breaking Up Is Hard on You," and Gloria Estefan sang it on her double-platinum 1994 album Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me. Also, Captain & Tennille located another Sedaka-penned hit on The Hungry Years, recording "Lonely Night (Angel Face)" for a gold-selling Top Five hit in early 1976, and Wayne Newton scored a chart entry with the album's title song, which also earned covers in 1976 on chart albums by Johnny Mathis, Engelbert Humperdinck, Shirley Bassey, and Rita Coolidge.
Sedaka finally managed to put out the same album in the U.S. and overseas at the same time in the spring of 1976 with Steppin' Out, but it was not as big a hit as its predecessors, even though it reached the Top 30 and contained three chart hits, "Love in the Shadows," "You Gotta Make Your Own Sunshine," and the title song. None of the album's songs became hits for other performers, but John Travolta recorded a new Sedaka composition, "I Don't Know What I Like About You Baby," for his self-titled 1976 chart album. Steppin' Out concluded Sedaka's contract with Rocket Records, and he moved to Elektra for 1977's A Song, produced by George Martin of Beatles fame, another modest success that contained his chart revival of his song "Amarillo" as well as "You Never Done It Like That," which Captain & Tennille covered for a Top Ten hit. The duo also recorded "Love Is Spreading Over the World," a new Sedaka song, on their Dream album in 1978, while Jane Olivor put "The Big Parade," another song Sedaka himself had not recorded, on her 1977 Chasing Rainbows LP.
Sedaka's second Elektra album, All You Need Is the Music (1978), missed the charts, suggesting that his second commercial resurgence as a record seller had subsided. But he returned in the spring of 1980 with In the Pocket. It was preceded by the single "Should've Never Let You Go," which he sang as a duo with his daughter Dara Sedaka. The single made the Top 40 and earned a cover by Bernadette Peters on her self-titled chart album released at the same time. In the Pocket only made the lower reaches of the charts, however, and 1981's Neil Sedaka: Now, Sedaka's fourth and last Elektra album, did not chart at all. He switched to MCA/Curb, which had him record oldies in the company of other veteran stars, resulting in an Adult Contemporary chart hit with Dara Sedaka on the old Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell hit "Your Precious Love" in 1983-1984, an Adult Contemporary chart entry with a revival of the Cascades' 1963 hit "Rhythm of the Rain," and the LP Come See About Me.
Clearly, Sedaka's days as a major recording act were over by the mid-'80s, but he had amassed a sufficient backlog of hits that he could perform successfully for decades in theaters and hotel casinos in the U.S. and internationally. That's what he did, meanwhile issuing occasional new recordings and re-recordings of his old songs. The death of Howard Greenfield from AIDS in 1986 prompted the release of the double-album My Friend, containing the duo's best-known work. In 1991, Polydor's Timeless: The Very Best of Neil Sedaka became a Top Ten hit in the U.K. Varèse Sarabande's 1995 collection Tuneweaver found Sedaka revisiting many of his old hits, and the same year saw the release of Classically Sedaka on Vision, an album on which he adapted classical themes into songs with new lyrics that he wrote himself. Tales of Love and Other Passions, featuring a jazz trio, appeared in 1997. In 1999, a TV-advertised collection, The Very Best of Neil Sedaka, charted in the U.K. Brighton Beach Memories: Neil Sedaka Sings Yiddish was released on Sameach in 2003, and the same year Sedaka self-released an album of new songs to which he had written both music and lyrics, The Show Goes On. Early 2010 brought another set of new songs, The Music of My Life, which was packaged with a disc of his greatest hits. As the decade rolled on, Sedaka remained a fixture in the U.K., calling the country his home and, appropriately, most of his albums were released primarily in Britain. This included reissues -- Ace compiled his songwriting efforts with Howard Greenfield on a 2011 set called Where the Boys Are, a two-fer of his Rocket albums. The Tra-La Days Are Over and Overnight Success appeared the following year -- as well as the new album The Real Neil, which comprised new songs with re-recordings of old tunes.
![Neil Sedaka [Forever Classic]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_250/MI0001/769/MI0001769497.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
![Solitaire [Compilation]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_250/MI0001/506/MI0001506645.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
