Neil Sedaka at Ocean County Library, Toms River

Neil Sedaka at Ocean County Library, on The Jersey Shore

Neil Sedaka, the iconic pop singer, pianist, and songwriter will be at the Ocean County Library, Toms River Branch on November 7, at 3:00.  His career has spanned over 50 years, during which time he has written many songs for himself and others.

Between 1960 and 1962, Sedaka had eight Top 40 hits, The British Invasion of 1964 eroded Sedaka's career, and from then until 1966, only three of his singles made it into the Top 100. Although Sedaka's stature as a recording artist was at a low ebb in the late 1960s, he was able to maintain his career through songwriting. He had hit songs recorded by The Monkees, The 5th Dimension and Frankie Valli.

In the 1970's, Sedaka wrote songs for and/or recorded with such icons as Elton John, Elvis Presley and wrote a huge hit for The Captain and Tennille.  In 1975, Sedaka recorded a new version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". The 1962 original #1 hit was an upbeat pop song, while the remake was a ballad and it hit #8 on the Hot 100 in early 1976, making him the first artist--and after nearly 35 years, he remains the only one--to hit the U.S. Top 10 twice with entirely different versions and arrangements of the same song. Sedaka's second version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in 1976.

Sedaka is also composer of "Is This the Way to Amarillo" written when he moved his family to the UK in the early 1970s. It reached only #18 on the UK charts in 1971, but then hit #1 for seven consecutive weeks on the UK singles charts when reissued in 2005, thanks to a music video starring comedian Peter Kay. It was Britain's most popular single for the year.

Sedaka continues to tour and write music to this day.  He will be at the Ocean County, Toms River Branch to perform his latest album, "Waking Up is Hard to Do" which is a collection of classic Neil Sedaka hits that have been reinvented as Children's songs. 

Karl Hess, Your Agent on The Jersey Shore   Search for Houses in Ocean County