Singer/songerwriter Neil Sedaka, 86, died on Feb. 27. The balladeer wrote (and usually performed) such hits as "Oh! Carol,” "Calendar Girl,” "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” "Laughter in the Rain,” "Stupid Cupid,” and "Love Will Keep Us Together,” among many others. Sedaka was classically trained, but by the late 1950s had discovered pop music: “It’s hard to deny the influence Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven and Prokofiev have had on my writing,” he said. “But also, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern.” He was still a teenager when composing at the famed Brill Building, and somehow managed to survive the British Invasion—he was still writing and performing up till the time of his death, though he had become a nostalgia act by then. Sedaka recently said, “The advice I give to all aspiring songwriters and performers is “Don’t repeat yourself. Develop and grow. Raise the bar. And reinvent your creativity.”
