Neil Sedaka is an American composer, pianist and vocalist. His career began in 1957 and, with many ups and downs, continues to this day. Worldwide, Sedaka was to sell over 40 million records and also sang such international hits as “Oh! Carol”, “Calendar Girl”, “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen”, and was also the creator of, among others, hit “Love Will Keep Us Together”.
He has also performed songs such as: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (together with the team The Tokens) and “One Way Ticket” (which in later years was promoted by the band in its disco version Eruption).
Neil Sedaka was born on March 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. However, the story of its origin is much more complicated than it may seem. His father Mordechai “Mac” Sedaka he was a taxi driver of Jewish-Lebanese origin. His grandparents came to the United States in 1910 Istanbul.
Musician’s mother – Eleanor – she was a Jew with Polish-Russian roots.
Currently an estate Neil Sedaka after almost 70 years of career, it is estimated at almost $100 million. However, as the musician himself admitted, his childhood was marked by poverty.
“Money has always been very important to me. I came from a poor family. There were 11 of us living in a small two-room apartment in Brooklyn,” he recalled. It is no wonder that Sedaka, when he started his career, dreamed of great wealth. “I was extravagant. I wanted big cars, jets, a yacht,” he told the Daily Mail.
Despite many problems (at some point, Sedaka completely lost popularity, and he offered to help him regain his former glory EltonJohn), his wife is at the musician’s side Leba.
The couple got married in 1962 and have two children – daughter Dara and son Marc. Dara Sedaka she followed in her father’s footsteps and also started recording music. She also sang a duet with her famous father.
The Daily Mail asked the musician what is the secret of his long-term happy marriage. “The person you love must also be liked and respected. We have experienced various ups and downs, we fought with each other, we laughed, we cried together. It’s partnership and friendship,” he said.
Sedaka himself admitted that there were plenty of opportunities for betrayal in his life, but he remained faithful to his wife. In his songs, he even touched on the topic of seduction by young men. He sang about it, among others. in the song “Super Hottie”. “It’s definitely sexual in nature. I was exposed to a lot of different things, a lot of different cultures and different people,” he explained.
In 1965, Sedaka was the hero of a game show “I’ve Got a Secret”, during which people in the studio had to guess the star’s secret, which he revealed only to the host. The musician revealed in the program that he was invited to Moscow to participate in International Music Competition Piotr Tchaikovsky.
The Soviets invited the American to the competition, not knowing, however, that the musician in the United States is known primarily for playing rock’n’roll. As he himself admitted on television, the Soviet Union invited him as a classical music pianist, and he performed a piece for the audience Fryderyk Chopin “Fantasia-Impromptu”.
One of the men guessing the secret warned the musician that the Soviets banned rock music in their country as one of the elements that degenerated the local youth. Although Sedaka argued that nothing like that would definitely happen, the Soviet Union ultimately banned the star from appearing in their country.
In 1958, Sedaka recorded one of his biggest hits – the song “Oh! Carol”. Although the song did not reach the top of the Billboard charts, it became an international classic, which – as it turned out after many years – also became an inseparable element of many Polish family events, including weddings.
“One of the band’s greatest successes. The album sold over a million copies. All songs from this album were considered hits and set a new trend in this music industry, later repeated by other performers. The band performed the song ‘Oh Daniel’ at a benefit of a famous Polish actor, Daniel Olbrychski“- we read on the Boys website.
The music in the composition was only slightly changed, but adapted to Polish conditions Krzysztof Wawrzkiewicz.