ZUM TOD DES US-AMERIKANISCHEN SÄNGERS UND SONGWRITERS NEIL SEDAKA

Der am 13. März 1939 in New York City geborene Sänger, Pianist, Komponist und Songschreiber Neil Sedaka (Bild) ist am 27. Februar 2026 in Los Angeles gestorben. Vor allem in den späten 1950er- und frühen 1960er-Jahren hatte er zahlreiche Hits wie «Oh! Carol», «Calendar Girl», «Stupid Cupid», «Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen» und «Breaking Up Is Hard to Do». Mitte der 1970er-Jahre erlebte er ein Comeback mit den Nummer-eins-Hits «Laughter in the Rain» und «Bad Blood». Als Komponist verfasste Sedaka mehr als 1’000 Songs für zahlreiche andere Künstler (u. a. «Is This the Way to Amarillo?», «Love Will Keep Us Together»). Bekannte Musiker wie Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Connie Francis, ABBA, Carpenters oder Tom Jones arbeiteten mit Sedaka oder coverten seine Lieder wie z.B. Eruption («One Way Ticket»). (*)

Neil Sedaka, 2017 - Foto: Raph_PH, https://www.flickr.com/people/69880995@N04 - Lizenz: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en - Datei: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neil_Sedaka_-_Royal_Albert_Hall_-_Monday_18th_September_2017_SedakaRAH180917-13_(37190973850).jpg

Bild: Neil Sedaka, 2017 – Foto: Raph_PH, https://www.flickr.com/people/69880995@N04 – Lizenz: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en – Datei: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neil_Sedaka_-Royal_Albert_Hall-Monday_18th_September_2017_SedakaRAH180917-13(37190973850).jpg

Neil Sedaka, Singing Craftsman of Memorable Pop Songs, Dies at 86

He sang and co-wrote some of the definitive teenage anthems of the 1950s and early ’60s, including “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” and then reinvented his career in the ’70s.

Peter Applebome

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/arts/music/neil-sedaka-dead.html

Micky Dolenz Pays Tribute to Neil Sedaka: A Rare Songwriter ‘Who Could Do It All’

Dolenz, the last surviving member of the Monkees, honored Sedaka following news of his death, calling the artist “one of those rare songwriters who could do it all.” Dolenz credited his collaborations with the band, writing, “Monkees fans will know his work, too – he co-wrote ‘When Love Comes Knocking at Your Door’ with Carole Bayer Sager, along with a few other songs that found their way into our world,” adding, “He also wrote ‘Rainy Jane’ for [Davy Jones’] solo record.”

Charisma Madarang

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-sedaka-tributes-micky-dolenz-1235523246/

Neil Sedaka’s Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits: ‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do’ & Beyond

The legend achieved three Hot 100 No. 1s among nine top 10s as a recording artist, all of which he co-wrote.

“I have a theory that there are three kinds of songwriting,” Neil Sedaka posited to Billboard in 2010. “The emotional is when you go through some trauma and get it out on the page,” he mused. “The intellectual writing is when you have a tune in your head spinning around for many years and you almost rewrite it. And the last is spiritual writing, which is something that comes from a higher power that kind of writes itself and you’re channeling. It’s my theory, but I find that over the years, these are the three types of writing.”

Gary Trust

https://www.billboard.com/lists/neil-sedaka-biggest-hot-100-hits/the-diary/

Neil Sedaka, Legendary Singer-Songwriter Behind ‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,’ ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Love Will Keep Us Together,’ Dies at 86

Over the course of his six-decade-plus career, Sedaka was nominated for five Grammy awards (including one at the second-ever edition of the show in 1959). In 1983, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 1978 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“This is a gift I was born with,” Sedaka wrote on his website. “My main objective is to always top the last collection, raise the bar and reinvent Neil Sedaka.”

Jem Aswad, Payton Turkeltaub

https://variety.com/2026/music/news/neil-sedaka-dead-singer-songwriter-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-1236675098

Neil Sedaka, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do singer and pop song hitmaker, dies aged 86

Sedaka became a teen idol in the pre-rock’n’roll era of assembly-line pop songwriting, producing hits like 1959’s Oh! Carol, Calendar Girl and Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen: “When we ran out of lyrics we’d use a doo-bee-doo,” he once joked of this time. He was one of many musicians to go through the Brill Building, the Manhattan songwriting hub that also nurtured the early careers of Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach and Carole King – who Sedaka dated in high school.

Between 1959 and 1963, Sedaka sold more than 25m records, and was nominated for his first Grammy in 1962. But the arrival of the Beatles-led British invasion almost ended his career. “Between 1963 and 1975, I worked very little. The Beatles had come to New York and changed music – all the solo singers were out of work,” he once said.

Sedaka was a major influence on Elton John, to whose Rocket label he briefly signed in the 1970s. Aside from his own hits, Sedaka wrote many for other artists, including Connie Francis’s 1958 hit Stupid Cupid, and Captain and Tennille’s Love Will Keep Us Together. In 1973 he collaborated with Abba to write the English lyrics for their hit Ring Ring, and wrote songs for Rosemary Clooney, Patsy Cline, Engelbert Humperdinck, the Carpenters and Cher.

Sian Cain

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/feb/28/neil-sedaka-dies-aged-71-cause-of-death-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-singer

Fallece Neil Sedaka, compositor y cantante de ‘Oh! Carol’

El compositor y cantante neoyorquino Neil Sedaka, autor de exitosos temas en la década de los cincuenta y sesenta como Oh! Carol o Breaking Up is Hard to Do, falleció el viernes en Los Ángeles a los 86 años. “Estamos devastados por la pérdida”, anunciaron sus familiares en un comunicado, sin especificar las causas de su muerte. “Fue una auténtica leyenda”.

https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-02-28/fallece-neil-sedaka-compositor-y-cantante-de-oh-carol.html

Morto Neil Sedaka, re del pop americano: aveva 86 anni

Il cantautore, pianista e compositore statunitense Neil Sedaka, tra i protagonisti assoluti del pop internazionale tra gli anni Cinquanta e Settanta, autore di intramontabili successi come «Breaking Up Is Hard to Do» e «Laughter in the Rain», è morto a Los Angeles all’età di 86 anni. L’annuncio è stato dato dalla famiglia con un comunicato in cui lo si ricorda come «una vera leggenda del rock and roll, un’ispirazione per milioni di persone e, soprattutto, un marito, padre e nonno straordinario“.

https://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/2026/02/28/news/morto_neil_sedaka_re_del_pop_americano_aveva_86_anni-425190357

Le chanteur-compositeur rock Neil Sedaka s’éteint à 86 ans

Neil Sedaka, le populaire chanteur-compositeur à la voix de soprano qui est devenu une figure incontournable des débuts du rock and roll et qui lui a donné un second souffle dans les années 1970, est décédé.

Membre clé de la fabrique à chansons Brill Building, Sedaka s’est associé au parolier Howard Greenfield pour écrire des chansons qui reflétaient l’innocence adolescente de l’ère post-Elvis / pré-Beatles de la fin des années 1950 et du début des années 1960, notamment Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Calendar Girl et Oh! Carol, une complainte dédiée à son amour de jeunesse, Carole King.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2233056/neil-sedaka-mort-deces-rock-n-roll

«Oh! Carol»-Sänger Neil Sedaka gestorben

Hits wie «Oh! Carol», «Calendar Girl», «Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen» oder «Breaking Up Is Hard to Do» machten ihn in den 1960er-Jahren zum Star: Nun trauert die Musikwelt um den US-Sänger und Songwriter Neil Sedaka. In einer Mitteilung gab seine Familie den «plötzlichen Tod» des Künstlers bekannt. «Eine wahre Rock’n’Roll-Legende, eine Inspiration für Millionen, aber am wichtigsten, zumindest für diejenigen, die das Glück hatten, ihn zu kennen, ein unglaublicher Mensch, der schmerzlich vermisst werden wird», hiess es in Sedakas sozialen Medien.

dpa / chk

https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/oh-carol-saenger-neil-sedaka-gestorben-802198481932

Audios / Videos:

Diverses

https://www.youtube.com/@neilsedakamusic

Neil Sedaka life story, 2012