Just yesterday, I posted "Volume 1" of the songwriter series for Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. Here's "Volume 2" already.
Sedaka and Greenfield wrote a steady stream of hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, both for Sedaka's very successful music career and for other musical acts. Sometimes they wrote together, and sometimes they wrote with others. But in the late 1960s, the hits were few and far between. Musical styles had changed, but their songwriting style didn't follow those changes. Sedaka later referred to this time as his "hungry years," though he did have some success in Australia.
As I mentioned in my write-up for Volume 1, by 1970, it seemed the hits for Sedaka and Greenfield were behind them. A couple of times in the early 1980s, Sedaka couldn't even find a record company willing to sign him. But he began slowly working his way back to fame. In 1972 and 1973, he recorded two studio albums that were produced and largely performed by the four people who made up the band 10cc, right before they got famous with that band. Those didn't have any hits for Sedaka. But one song, "Solitaire," was a big hit for Andy Williams. And another, "Love Will Keep Us Together," would be a Number One hit for Captain and Tennille a couple of years later, in 1975.
Sedaka's big break came in 1973, when he happened to run into Elton John at a party. John had always been a big Sedaka fan, and when he found out Sedaka didn't currently have a record contract, he signed him up to his own label. The next album, "Sedaka's Back," took the best songs from the three albums Sedaka had released in the early 1970s, included the two produced by the members of 10cc. It took a while, since Sedaka's name was perceived as very uncool at the time, but eventually one song from that album, "Laughter in the Rain," went all the way to Number One in the U.S.! Then, in 1975, the song "Bad Blood" also went to Number One in the U.S. It had uncredited backing vocals by Elton John. A totally revamped version of his earlier hit "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" hit the Top Ten as well. Sedaka had a few more hits through 1980.
Unfortunately, Greenfield missed most of Sedaka's comeback. Greenfield did co-write some songs presented here, like "Puppet Man," "Love Will Keep Us Together," "You Never Done It like That," "The Hungry Years," and "Solitaire." They had another huge hit with "(Is This the Way To) Amarillo." In 1971, Tony Christie had a big hit with it in some countries (mostly in mainland Europe, but only a minor hit with it in other countries. Sedaka himself had a hit with it in 1977. But in 2005, the Christie version was rereleased with a funny video of comedian Peter Kay miming the words. This time, it not only reached Number One in Britain, but it was the best selling song of the year there.
But Greenfield and Sedaka increasingly argued with each other. They agreed to end their songwriting partnership in 1973, after writing one last song, fittingly titled "Our Last Song Together." However, they did reunite to write a few more songs in the late 1970s, and wrote one more hit together, "Should've Never Let You Go," which reached the Top Twenty for Sedaka in the U.S. in 1980. Instead, Sedaka co-wrote most of his 1970s comeback hits with another professional songwriter, Phil Cody.
One oddity you may notice here is an ABBA song, "Ring Ring." ABBA is known for writing all their own songs. They did write that one, but with the lyrics in Swedish. This was in 1973, near the start of their career, when apparently their English was a bit rough. So they contacted Sedaka and his songwriter partner at the time, Phil Cody, and had them come up with English lyrics.
Another song worth mentioning is "Crying in the Rain." This was actually cowritten by Greenfield and Carole King back in 1961. At the time, both King and Greenfield were doing their writing in the famous Brill Building in New York City, with many other professional songwriters. For a lark, they agreed to work with different songwriters for a single day, and that was the song they came up with. It was a big hit for the Everly Brothers at the time. But I put that on my Covered series for King and her usual songwriting partner Gerry Goffin. So for this album I chose a 1981 country hit version by Tammy Wynette.
Greenfield was openly gay (unusually for the time), and had the same
domestic partner from the mid-1960s until his death. Both he and his
partner died of complications from AIDS in 1986, shortly before
Greenfield's 50th birthday. Sedaka has had better luck with his health
and is still alive at the age of 86 as I write this in April 2025.
This album is 45 minutes long.
01 Puppet Man (5th Dimension)
02 [Is This the Way To] Amarillo (Tony Christie)
03 Ring Ring (ABBA)
04 Laughter in the Rain (Lea Roberts)
05 Bad Blood (Neil Sedaka)
06 Love Will Keep Us Together (Captain & Tennille)
07 Solitaire (Carpenters)
08 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do [1975 Version] (Neil Sedaka)
09 Lonely Night [Angel Face] (Captain & Tennille)
10 The Hungry Years (Rita Coolidge)
11 You Never Done It like That (Captain & Tennille)
12 Crying in the Rain (Tammy Wynette)
13 The Immigrant (Jim Van Slyke)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/ve9kWZbX
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/Pjs4B7554RjPEpA/file
As with "Volume 1," the cover photo consists of two photos that I put together. I don't know the years the photos were taken, but they look older than they do in the Volume 1 photos. Both of the originals were in color this time. I used the Krea AI program to improve the detail. Greenfield is the one with the moustache.
