Neil Sedaka

There''s an unexpectedly fascinating pair of shows on BBC Radio 2 right now (Part 2 is still available on the iPlayer) combining a new interview with career retrospective on him. He''s 70 and still writing and performing. There is an incredible breadth to his career which I had no idea about though I remember him from the 1970s- connections to Elton John (who resuscitated his career), Carole King, John Lennon, etc. \ \ I had heard a while ago he finally came out of the closet but he made no mention of it. Is he out or not? He seemed to make some allusions to it in the selection of the songs chosen for the program.\ \ What do we think of Neil?

Bad! Blood!
• He outflames Steven Cojocaru.

• And yet, he''s been married to the same woman for many years - they''re still married - and have kids:\ \ [quote] He has been married to his wife, Leba (Strassberg), since 1962. They have two children: a daughter, Dara, a recording artist and vocalist for television and radio commercials (who sang the female part on the Sedaka duet "Should''ve Never Let You Go"), and a son, Marc, a screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles with his wife Samantha and three children.\ \ Just goes to show you - Prada purses may fall from his mouth, but he can still procreate and be faithful to a woman....

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Sedaka

  Dame Elton John

• he came out? when? where?

• He has a stage show Laughter In The Rain, currently touring in the UK.

• [quote]Just goes to show you - Prada purses may fall from his mouth, but he can still procreate and be faithful to a woman....\ \ BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! He is infamous for chasing after twinks and younger guys. He''s been sued at least once for sexual harassment and Sean Stewart said he was in drug rehab with him and Neil made a pass at him.

• Neil loves the ladies, and we love him back!\ \ Hooray for heterosexuality.

  Fiona Fangurl

• Neil pursued Connie Francis in the late 1950''s. He was one of the few boys Connie''s dad approved of.

• Connie Francis'' father hated Bobby Darin (who was the love of her life) and approved of Neil Sedaka?\ \ Bad call, Dad.

  Mia

• I guess Papa Francis knew Neil was no threat to his daughter''s virginity...

• A huge basket of cookies dangles forever under his nose.

• I love lots of Sedaka''s music, I dislike closeted bisexual types. Somewhere on YouTube is his appearance on Mike Huckabee''s Fox show, complete with songs for tykes and an homage to his own young children (and grandchildren.) THAT was creepy.\ \ Out of the closet Neil at link.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=sP6ERhVVQRw&playnext_from=TL&videos=uYho4w_1kTs

• I''m a gay man...but I could care less if Neil is or isn''t. His voice and songs was what I listened to when I was in my teens. His music brings back many fond memories of my coming of age in the 60''s and 70''s. "Laughter In The Rain" was one of my favorites and what I consider my "Coming out of the closet song" because that was playing on the radio of my brand new 1969 Boss 302 Mustang when I gave this hot friend of mine a blow job in the back seat. Ahhhh...very fond memories 40 years later!

• I always thought I had to hide my love for Neil away, so shameful would it be to acknowledge. He wrote some of my favorite Captain & Tennille songs, which were childhood favorites - and like with all childhood favorites, I cannot be objective. When I hear Lonely Night (Angel Face) particularly, I''m seven years old again, sitting in the back seat of our two-tone station wagon, grooving to the 8-track. Solitaire by The Carpenters is another I love.

  Anonymous

• R12 you''re a gay man and don''t know that Neil Sedaka is gay? \ \ [quote]I dislike closeted bisexual types.\ \ No bi, the man is a flaming queen. Probably hasn''t fucked his wife since he got her pregnant with their last kid almost 50 years ago. He''s had to settle several sexual harassment suits.

• Did "Grace of My Heart" go into this?

  Cal Gal

• When was he sued for sexual harrassment?

• Neil Sedaka made some fine music. He basically invented the concept of "earn candy" in light pop music. \ \ But, he is as gay as paint, as Jackie O once described Truman Capote to an ''innocent'' Joan Kennedy. Gay as paint, I tell you.

• ^\ \ LOL\ \ Or ear candy, rather. I swear to God my new keyboard is killing me. I just cannot use it. \ \ Sorry for the typo.

  R17

• Cher did a heartfelt version of his "The Hungry Years" on her t.v. show and I wish she''d recorded it. Great song with a sentiment never expressed in a pop song to my knowledge. Totally fit her!

  Barkley

• "I need names, sweetie, NAMES! ..Neil Sedaka.."

  Barkley

• Rod Stewart''s son claimed some "old dude" hit on him in rehab and said it was Sedaka. He said it on Howard Stern, who quickly censored the name, but someone on hold heard him say Sedaka.

• R12, "Laughter in the Rain" came out in ''75. So you gave your first blow job in a brand-new 1969 Mustang. \ \ Wouldn''t it be a six-year-old Mustang when you christened it it with your first blow job?

• Has many young partners, just broke up with one and wrote a boring CD about it. "Yawn" \ My friend hangs with them. He takes them to mortons stake house. Boring old fart! dumb as a post and a mean tipper, as Im told.

• dissertation defended and passed (with minor revisions). Thank you to all my supporters and up your ass to all the naysayers and just generally negative people whose first and default setting is to belittle and discourage others from finishing something they themselves would never have the courage to begin. \ \ PhD in hand next month. JEALOUS BITCHES

  MissHelenBedd

• dissertation defended and passed (with minor revisions). Thank you to all my supporters and up your ass to all the naysayers and just generally negative people whose first and default setting is to belittle and discourage others from finishing something they themselves would never have the courage to begin. \ \ PhD in hand next month. JEALOUS BITCHES

  MissHelenBedd

• "He''s been sued at least once for sexual harassment and Sean Stewart said he was in drug rehab with him and Neil made a pass at him."%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ %0D\ He was sued for sexual harrassment? Details, please.%0D

• I also used to wait on him and his twinks du jour back in the 90s. Sometimes his wife would be with them. Weird, but it apparently works for them.

• [quote]He was sued for sexual harrassment? Details, please.\ \ Once in the 80''s and the second time in the early 90''s I think. Sean Stewart told the story about Neil making a pass at him on Howard Stern but the show edited his name out of the West Coast feed of the show. They were both at the same rehab facility.

• I partied with a gay radio programmer many years ago who knew Neil. From what I heard, he''s probably bisexual. Love in the Shadows, y''all.\ \ I think what bothers me is Neil''s suckup last year on Mike Huckabee''s Fox show. It was all about his being a family man and ''daddy'' to a newborn and plugging his CD of children''s songs. Icky.

• During Sedaka''s comeback in the mid-seventies, he bragged that he and his wife did a nude photo feature for Viva Magazine, which was a rival publication to Playgirl published by Penthouse. "I''m an exhibitionist!" he declared in one interview, saying that every month there''d be a stack of Viva magazines in his apartment''s trash dumpsters, as all his neighbors waited for the "the" issue to be published. I''m quite certain that the magazine never did run those photos...and I can''t blame them considering Neil was fairly portly at the time.

• R13 I swear, I could have written that post myself. What are you doing later?

• r24 & r25: That''s all very nice for you, Miss Helen...\ \ ...if not a little uncouth to be bragging about your achievements. Let me guess: You''ll be insisting everyone in your life call you Dr. Bedd from now on.

  Tarquin

• I went in Jumpin'' Jack''s in Cherry Grove on Fire Island last summer and Neil Sedaka did an impromtu set after the regular guy in the piano lounge (and this was for about 8 people). Very cool but really, enough said.

• Honey badger dont give a shit bout Neil Sadaka. Misshelenbedd is now a PhD!

• Neil wasn''t gay, he just sounded like Karen Carpenter.

• Funny you say that, R35. When Sedaka did the remake of "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" in the seventies, many people -- including some radio djs -- said that the first time they heard that version they thought it was Anne Murray!

• His songwriting partner, Howard Greenfield, was gay and died from AIDS

• Singing a duet with a twink -

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shyr2TeoPDM&feature=related

• One of my favorites songs by Neil:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT1TLxfv4co&feature=fvwrel

• Sedaka was not in same rehab as shaun stewart it was actually robbin williams who stried to tuch him up.

• Read a story about his lover who is a drug addict A Hispanic guy who steals money from him. He was telling everyone down at the abbey, he stole 8 thousand from Neil''s also things in his LA apartment Neils sleeping pills. He also told people at the abbey that if Neil brakes up or does not pay him or treat him. He is going to take his pics he has on his phone to a trash magazine, apparently Neil sleeping naked in bed It sayed??. ehhhwwwww yuck!\ so watch this space, it might get ugly.

• Oh man, who doesn''t have a Hispanic drug addict boyfriend. That doesn''t make him gay.

• Sedaka''s 70 now, and in the immortal words of Ed Koch and Liz Smith, he''s "too old" to have sex. In other words, he''s not gay or straight, he''s neuter.

• Forgot to ask r41, What does this mean: "He also told people at the abbey that if Neil BRAKES up" ?

  R42

• He was having dinner with friends at the old Marco''s in the Pines. My mother was visiting and she was thrilled to meet him. He could not have been nicer. Gay as a goose and very, very sweet.

• I used to work at coffee bean in LA, the Kosher Coffee company. He does tend to drink coffee with a lot of younger twink types. Could be his band members or young songwriters. Good luck to him because I would have took any of them home.

• Not, sick rumor from fake blogger.

  http%3A//neilsedakagay.moonfruit.com/

• Neil Sedaka did fine work for Connie Francis and he also did very fine work on his own. I respect those two things about him even though I would like to see Connie Francis at least by a nominee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (before she dies) way more so than Neil Sedaka. How anyone way back in his early days did not notice that he was just so very gay is beyond me. I have seen clips of things he did back in the days of black and white t.v. and he even pinged like the dickens then. He and his wife must have an understanding of some sort. I can't imagine why he has bothered staying married all these years since he is just so gay and all.

• If you're as old as I am you will have fond memories of watching Neil singing Calendar Girl, Oh, Carol! and the original version of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do live on American Bandstand. Both songs had wonderfully sunny and joyous orchestrations. It felt good to be a bobby soxer!

  Former Bobby Soxer

• Neil is not gay, here is him being hijacked by TMZ december 2012 guess what? far from the flaming gay's streaming out with have drunking martinis it was just plan old Neil and his Wife. Get over it just because he has high voice does not mean he is gay. Growing up with 8 woman with no men in his house who do you expect him to copy?. not gay see link

  http%3A//www.neilsedakagay.moonfruit.com

• I heard him the other day doing an interview with Nancy Sinatra on the Siriusly Sinatra channel and said to myself, "I know that woman's voice ... who is that?"

• R41 - me no comprehendo whatever the *fuck* that post is in...

• Sedaka is baaaaaaack!

  Toni%20Tennille%20and%20her%20Ann%20Romano%20haircut

• He's not gay, he's Jewish.

• Money, money will keep us together . . .

  Twink%2C%20singing%20in%20naked%20Neil%27s%20ear

• Just got his Razor & Tie "The Definitive Collection" today from Amazon. I remember doing the mashed potato to "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" - haven't heard "Bad Blood" w. Elton in years. It doesn't include "Lonely Night (Angel Face)" however. But does have the excellent "Hungry Years."

• R50 is a delusional flyover frau you thinks Neil is the epitome of hetty manhood. Sister guess again....he's Queen Fruitloop! He might have a wife but she's a beard for all his homosex hijinks. I mean Sedaka makes Paul Lynde look straight that's how gay he is!

• R56: Don't spin too furiously dancing to your new CD. You might splash your flocked wallpaper with gin gimlet, tear your caftan or, worse, break a hip.

• Lena Zavaroni, of all people, did a stunning rendition of Sedaka's "Going Nowhere." You can see it on YouTube; she was a young woman at the time, dying of anorexia. She sang that song like it was the story of her life, and it probably was.

• It's elevator music right?