Breaking Up

Breaking up is hard to do.

A true statement for most when heightened emotional connection changes. If you remember this was the 1962 Neil Sedaka hit, his first number one and he just then 23. This article is a partial glimpse into the Neil Sedaka life and musical career and example of a life impacting other lives with creation, collaboration, and heart felt unity. 

Born in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn in March, 1939 to Cab driver Mac Sedaka and Eleanor Appel, Neil showed musical abilities in the second grade and was encouraged by his teacher to develop those talents. Mother Eleanor took on a second job to buy a used piano for the 6 year old. The joy he found in music especially playing the piano and with lots of practice, was rewarded with a scholarship to the Juilliard school of performing arts for children. After graduating from Abraham Lincoln high school in 1956, he started a band with a few of his classmates. He then embarked on a solo singing career in 1957. As a 13 year old, he was introduced to a 16 year old neighbor, Howard Greenfield who was a developing lyricist and song writer. They would Team for over 30 years writing hit songs in the Rock and Roll era and permanently imprinting their contributions which many grew up listening to. Sedaka’s career and popularity was on a steep rise until a British boy band called the Beatles invaded the music scene in the mid sixties., Still remaining active in both performing and writing songs, especially for other performers, he was nearly dropped by his first label, RCA records for poor record sales. It wasn’t until 1975 that he recorded his second number one hit, Laughter In The Rain. In that same 1975, his most prolific and successful, writing the song of the year, Love Will keep Us Together, rocketed the husband and wife band, Captain and Tennille to International fame. Strangely more popular in Europe, Japan, and Australia, Sedaka hit another low when he was not re-signed by the RCA label. While performing in Europe in the early seventies, he met Elton John and signed with his label. Elton John’s plan was to get him popular in the United States again. 

Sedaka married Leba Strassberg in 1962 and they had two children, Dara who would become an accomplished singer and Mark who would become a song writer. Dara performed with her Dad in 1980 and remarkably only three Father Daughter singing duos have done so along with Frank and Nancy Sinatra and Nat King Cole and Natalie. Leba was Neil’s manager, strength and guidance for the next fifty years. 

Versatility and love of performing and sharing his talents allowed Sedaka to write and perform his songs in Yiddish, Spanish, and Italian. Now 81, he has cared for his voice and sounds much like he did 60 years ago. Notables like Elton John, Billy Joel, and the late Whitney Houston, committed to the strenuous rigors of performing and rehearsals, not taking the extra care of the health of their voices and in their later careers didn’t sound as they did during their shining star celebrity rise. In this story of six decades of creation and performing art, the Neil Sedaka life is one of individual uniqueness, interest and talent in music developed and shared, and influencing generations with his one of a kind voice and spiritual being. 

Like Michael Phelps’s single Mother who drove her young Dyslexic son to early morning swim practice, Eleanor Appel Sedaka took on extra work to buy her son a used upright. Combining interest, development of that interest, and family nurturing, young Neil received a scholarship from the hallowed performing halls of Juilliard. In 1975, my Junior year in high school, a private all boys school in Honolulu, I can still remember listening to an upbeat and joyous, making you automatically sing along song, Love Will Keep Us Together. Aired on TV were clips of a dark sunglass, sailor cap wearing, expressionless pianist who didn’t speak or sing, Daryl Dragon, and his booming voiced wife, Toni Tennille belting out, I will, I will, I will, be there forever, Love will keep us together. Now, the next step is for me to get a girlfriend which is quite difficult at a private all boys college prep high school. I did enjoy singing the song and seeing my male classmates cringe at my off key rendition and also their loneliness for female companionship reflected in their head down stooped shouldered shallow breathing pose. Many artists using the Sedaka songs including those on American Idol, engrained his offerings in generational enjoyment and continuance. Both the Sedaka and Phelps Mother’s sacrificed time and money for their sons to do what they did best, allowing them to express at their highest, and thusly connecting the rest of us to them and showing what is possible. 

Did you know that this story of triumph, happiness, overcoming adversity, and persistence, directly relates to this COVID fake, an overrated microbe, falsified information on safety, and the corrupt and sinister enslavement Empire behind it all? In the singing and song business, Labels are strict on ownership of a performer’s songs, what is released and when, and in command of their careers. The trade off is that the performer gets name recognition, strong marketing which benefits the Label, earning sizable income, but forfeiting the rights to their own songs. Though Neil Sedaka enjoyed many years of success, popularity of his music wasn’t always appreciated with high sales and therefore sending him into the despotic bag of fan anonymity. The economic and career downside is that an entertainer without high sales of their wares, is of no use to the Labels promoting them. A small and loose analogy is you, the locked down, mask wearing, 6 foot distanced, broke slave, intentionally putting yourself at the scraped knees mercy of the criminal Cabal Masters. 

How to refuse to be a slave? As Neil Sedaka did, create your own Label and control your own destiny. The President and International bankers, Military, Medical, Telecom, Social Media, Agri and food supply, and now Biotech giants, dictate your economic life and compliance or slavery to whatever they want for you. Do you want to be a slave or do you know that you are already a peaceful slave? Disagree or strongly disagree and you find that your hypocritical rebuke mirrors your locked down, mask wearing, social distancing, do this, don’t doo that, imprisonment prisoner self. I tell you of singer/song writer, producer/director, Neil Sedaka, coming from a Jewish family, and developing his interest to living his best life at his highest expression. Are you living your greatest life and highest expression? Why aren’t you? Is it because the President and government, Governors and Mayors, WHO, FDA, CDC, NIH, EPA, USDA, FCC, FTC, Anthony Fauci, and Bully Bill Gates and his criminal gang telling you or rather ordering you to remain the spineless, cowardly, afraid slave that you believe yourself to be? What is it? The better question is, what are you going to do about it? You are running out of money or already broke, wearing a mask that doesn’t work and actually causing disease, and conditioned to estimate a 6 foot distance between the fewer people outside. Are you one of the increasing numbers wearing a mask alone in your car or in your house and ordering your wife and kids to doing the same? When you look in the mirror, what do you see? I can tell you that it is not a free person but a foolish, cowardly, misinformed, lied to, scared sheep awaiting slaughter. Humans were put on Earth to learn and grow, to share and connect with others, to imagine and create, and to make this world better. Neil Sedaka did this and in the process, improved the lives of others by sharing his best self. Are you sharing your best self and do you want your kids to grow up just like you? Isn’t it time to dust off your hidden and safely stored away courage and fortitude to live the life that you would most love to live? This means getting outside right now, throwing away those ridiculous masks, getting sunshine on your skin or even feeling the rain, taking many deep breaths, starting your business again or creating a new one, eating only Organic pesticide and herbicide free foods, and giving a hearty Birdie salute to anyone who is enslaving you or holding you back from living your best and greatest life. When we do this together, a new and prosperous normal is created. Let’s do it now!