Song of the Day 6/6: Neil Sedaka, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”

I’m not convinced it’s permanent, but the Trump-Musk breakup looks real – it’s apparently costing both of them money, and I can’t imagine they’d take kayfabe that far. I can imagine it getting uglier, though, given Trump’s uncharacteristic restraint so far and Musk’s invocation of the Epstein Files.

Everyone knows breaking up is hard to do, which might be why Neil Sedaka has been able to ride the No. 1 hit song he wrote about it in 1962 for the rest of his ongoing career (he has an album set for release next week). The song reached Billboard’s top 10 four times, twice by Sedaka in two different arrangements.

It went to No. 1 on its first go-round, with backing vocals by the Cookies, who aren’t there to lip-sync in this video. A cover by the Partridge Family in the same doo-wop style made No. 28 in 1972.

The song got a second life when balladeer Lenny Welch asked Sedaka, a prolific songwriter, if he had anything that suited his style. Sedaka didn’t, but he realized that “Breaking Up” had the makings of a good torch song. He slowed it down, added a short new introduction and gave Welch a No. 34 hit in 1970. Sedaka reached No. 8 when he released it himself in the same style in 1975. Welch, who had a long career on the doo-wop circuit, died last month at age 86.