Song of the Day 3/2: Neil Sedaka, “Bad Blood”

Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka, who died last week at age 86, had two separate eras of chart-topping success in his nearly seven-decade career. Yet his name is probably unfamiliar to anyone born after, say, 1980, because all his hits came earlier.

Sedaka almost became a concert pianist. He won a scholarship to Julliard’s youth program when he was just 8 years old, but by his early teens he was writing popular songs with his Brighton Beach neighbor, Howard Greenfield, eventually working for Don Kirshner out of the Brill Building. Sedaka also formed a doo-wop group with classmates from Brooklyn’s Abraham Lincoln High. The Linc-Tones eventually became the Tokens, but Sedaka left to perform solo in 1958, before their hits.

It was the post-Elvis era of teen idols. Sedaka was no pretty boy, but his mellow tenor and teen-oriented songs frequently charted from the late ’50s through the early ’60s. “Calendar Girl,” a No. 4 hit in 1961, was a good example. It’s also the song that got his mother to accept his change of career direction, after she saw the five-figure royalty check he earned from it.

He finally hit No. 1 in 1962 with “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” but the arrival of the Beatles and the subsequent British Invasion put a swift end to his time in performing spotlight. He kept busy as a songwriter, but his own records were flops in the U.S.

He was still popular in England, though, and he moved there in 1971, leading to his big comeback in the ’70s. He hooked up with a group of studio musicians – Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme and Eric Stewart – who backed him on two albums before dubbing themselves 10cc.

He also got a big boost from his admirer Elton John, who signed him to his Rocket Records label. Sedaka rewarded him with two No. 1 hits, “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood.” Elton sang backup on the the latter, which spent three weeks atop the charts, making it Sedaka’s most successful single.

His transition to MOR crooner was typified by his remake of “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”

You might notice that he’s pretty good on the piano in that performance. He showed off his classical chops in a 1965 appearance on the TV show “I’ve Got a Secret.” His secret – that he would perform in a piano competition in Moscow – never came about. When the Soviets realized he was also a pop singer, they rescinded his invitation.