5-Minute Time Out: Neil Sedaka
With a new kids album, the '60s crooner has a song for every generation.
by Jeanne Sager
May 13, 2009
His were the songs our parents let us listen to when we were kids because they were sweet and clean and nothing like "that infernal rap." Fifty years after our parents were dancing at the sock hop to Neil Sedaka, the singer/songwriter is back — again — with
Waking Up is Hard to Do. In a tribute to his grandkids (including the six-year-old granddaughters
who sing back-up on the album), Sedaka has re-tooled his own songs into an album of kid-friendly doo-wop hits: "Love Will Keep Us Together" has become "Lunch Will Keep Us Together,""Calendar Girl" turned into "Dinosaur Pet," and so forth. He talked with Babble
about performing with kids and for kids, and proved he's one of those old-time performers you wouldn't mind adopting as a surrogate grandpa. — Jeanne Sager
So, your first Billboard hit was in 1958. Fifty years later you're doing kids' music.
I have three delicious grandchildren. The twin girls will be six, and the boy is three. And they inspired me to do a children's album. I always played my big hits on their piano. I came up with the idea of changing the lyrics to suit children. I don't know if you have a copy yet?
I do, and I listened to it with my three-year-old, and she loves it. She's been running around singing "Dinosaur Pet."
How wonderful! Did she listen to "Happy Birthday Number Three"?
She did, and she doesn't remember that she's three — she keeps telling me that she's two-and-a-half even though she's three-and-a-half. So she said, "We can play this on my birthday."
Neil Sedaka and his granddaughters sing "Waking Up is Hard to Do"
Neil Sedaka sings with his daughter, 1980
That makes me feel good. I get that reaction from everyone who has children. So maybe I've hit on something. The melodies, of course, are known by the parents and grandparents. The little ones will probably think these are the original lyrics to the original
tunes. It was a labor of love, and also my six-year-old granddaughters did the background vocals.
This wasn't your first time working with kids. You worked with your daughter when she was still a kid, didn't you?
Thank you for remembering. Dara was sixteen. And it was one of the few father-and-daughter hits. It was called "Should Have Never Let You Go." (See video at right.) We did all the television shows that year. The Johnny Carson, the Mike Douglas, the Merv Griffin. We did so many concerts in that year, but she decided that
show business was not for her.
How did Dad feel about that?
Whatever makes her happy. I was a little disappointed, because she could have been a major star. She had a marvelous voice, and David Foster did an album for her. It was a surprise, but you know, not everybody is cut out for show business. It takes a certain
personality.
Now your granddaughters are your son's kids?
Yes, my son has the two girls and the boy.
About the Author
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Jeanne Sager is a freelance writer and photographer living in upstate New York with her husband and daughter, Jillian. She maintains a blog of her award-winning columns at jeannesager.blogspot.com. |
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