Saturday Music Post - Breaking up Is Hard to Do

First released in 1962, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" became Neil Sedaka's signature song. Co-written with Howard Greenfield, his frequent composing partner, the original had a teenage pop tempo, introduced by nonsense lyrics and backed by The Cookies. Lenny Welch released it as a torch balled in 1970, also arranged by Sedaka and Greenfield, with a very different intro. Sedaka himself released the slow tempo version in 1975. It was only the second time an artist had two Billboard top-ten hits -- number 1 for the original and number 8 for the second release -- with two different renditions of the same song.

Born in Brooklyn to a Sephardic family -- his last name is a slight transliteration of tzedaka, which means charity in Hebrew -- Sedaka was classically trained at the Julliard prep division, but he gave it up, breaking his mother's heart, to pitch songs at the Brill Building. He was the original lead singer of The Tokens, but he quit before they recorded The Lion Sleeps Tonight. His first solo hit was "Oh Carol," named after Carol King, whom he had dated in high school. King released a less successful answer song, "Oh Neil," written with her then-husband Gerry Goffin, who was in on the joke.

There are two surprises and a question at the bottom of today's post on The Faculty Lounge.