(February 28, 2026) – There are many great things that could be said about Neil Sedaka’s extraordinary music career — a largely two-act affair that can be neatly divided into pre- and post-Beatles eras.
Pre-Beatles, Sedaka scored more than a dozen top 40 hits, including the No. 1 “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” in 1962, plus hits he composed for others like Connie Francis as a product of his classically trained status and Brill Building songwriter credentials.
But like many American artists from the early rock-and-roll days of the 1950s and early ’60s, Sedaka’s career took a hit with the Beatles ushering in a new British wave of music that forever changed the pop landscape, leaving Sedaka and many of his American contemporaries without a Top 40 hit from 1964 through the remainder of the decade.
The thing I’ll cherish most is that “post-Beatles” part — the miraculous comeback Sedaka staged in 1975 (five years after the Fab Four’s breakup) that returned him to the top 40 for the first time in 12 years, rivaling and often overshadowed by later famous comebacks by the likes of Tina Turner and Cher in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Rocket Records and the Miracle of Sedaka’s Back
It was in 1975 that I first heard Sedaka via a single my mother had purchased on the distinctive blue-green Rocket Records Company label with a funny little train on the logo: “Laughter in the Rain.” As an eight-year-old, I heard it played incessantly in our living room and eventually came to love it. Little did I know it represented the rejuvenation of a career that had essentially begun and ended before I was born. Or that Rocket Records was headed by Elton John, whose support helped introduce Sedaka to a new generation of listeners.
“Laughter in the Rain” was one of the tunes that appeared on Sedaka’s appropriately titled album, Sedaka’s Back, a 1974 pronouncement of a return that manifested the following year in what would be the most successful of the singer/composer’s storied career.
Sedaka’s Back was comprised mostly of songs the legend had recorded in England during some very lean years in the early ‘70s. A compilation of sorts, the album’s tracks were in part played on and co-produced by the four original members of the fledgling group 10cc, which itself would later find American success with the eerie classic “I’m Not In Love” in the summer of ‘75.
Six Chart Hits from One Comeback Album
Remarkably, Sedaka’s Back yielded six songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975 — three by Sedaka himself and three cover hits by other artists, underscoring not only his resurgence as a performer, but his enduring brilliance as a songwriter. The three by Sedaka were “Laughter in the Rain,” “That’s When the Music Takes Me,” and “The Immigrant,” the latter a tribute to John Lennon — ironically the same man whose group had effectively spelled the end of Sedaka’s earlier heyday and one whom Elton John had helped return to the top of the charts just months before he’d done the same for Sedaka. “The Immigrant’s” refrain — “There was a time when strangers were welcome here” — poignantly reflected Lennon’s immigration struggles in 1974 but resonates just as strongly today.
The three Sedaka’s Back tunes that were chart hits for other artists were the career-launching No. 1 cover of “Love Will Keep Us Together” by The Captain and Tennille, “Solitaire” as covered by the Carpenters (No. 17 Hot 100 peak), and the clairvoyant “Our Last Song Together” by Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods (No. 95).
And while that latter tune was indeed Donaldson & the Heywood’s last chart song together and the one that appropriately closed Sedaka’s Back — one in which he famously declared the “tra-la days (of the 1950s and 60s) are over” — it was hardly over for Sedaka in ‘75. He would quickly follow the success of Sedaka’s Back with the album Overnight Success (U.K) /The Hungry Years (U.S.) later that summer.
Bad Blood and the Peak of His Second Act
The Hungry Years further consummated his alliance with Elton John, who would work the same magic with Sedaka on the LP’s lead single “Bad Blood” as he had with Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” a year earlier. Upon its release, “Bad Blood” sped to No. 1, where it remained for three weeks, becoming the biggest hit of Sedaka’s career. In a fitting twist, Elton John’s own “Island Girl” replaced it atop the chart in November 1975 — a symbolic passing of the baton between mentor and protégé.
In a nod to his pre-Beatles era rock-and-roll past, Sedaka would follow “Bad Blood” with the re-recording of his first No. 1 single, “Breaking Up Is Hard To” — replacing the original uptempo rock-and-roll arrangement with a breezy ballad format that returned the tune to No. 8 in early ‘76, making Sedaka the first solo artist to record two completely different studio versions of the same song and take both into the Top 10.
Longevity Across Four Decades
There are other memorable moments of Sedaka’s career that I thoroughly enjoyed, like when I discovered this performance of his 1960 classic “Calendar Girl,” where he revealed some surprisingly nimble dance moves:
or this 1975 performance of his “Bad Blood” on The Midnight Special where, then in his mid-30s, he again displayed some swag with hip-swaying, neck-swerving showmanship.
There was also the awkward but sweet duet between father and daughter (Dara) on 1980’s “Should’ve Never Let You Go,” the ballad that not only marked another chart comeback for Sedaka but was part of my rediscovery of the weekly countdown show American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, which I had lost two years earlier due to family moves and radio format changes. The song made Sedaka the first American artist to chart Top 40 hits in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s — a testament to his remarkable longevity.
A Personal Goodbye
Though losing Neil Sedaka — even at age 86 — was a rock-and-roll inevitability, it still feels like the closing of a remarkably resilient chapter in American pop history. Few artists have fallen so far out of favor — and returned so triumphantly.
I’m grateful that I experienced his comeback in real time, even as a child who didn’t yet understand its significance. His music bridged generations, survived industry changes, and ultimately proved that talent — and melody — never go out of style.
Feel free to leave your memories of this music icon in the “Your Thoughts” section below.
R.I.P. Mr. Sedaka (March 13, 1939, – February 27, 2026).
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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