Everyone knows his “Oh! Carol”. He dreamed of millions since he was a child. Not everyone knows that he has Polish roots

Neil Sedaka was born on March 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Mordechaj, was a taxi driver who came to the United States with his parents in 1910. The mother, Eleanor, was Jewish. Neil grew up in a house where, in addition to his parents and grandparents, his five aunts also lived.

From classical music to rock’n’roll and “Oh! Carol”. Neil Sedaka has had many cult hits

He began to be interested in music when he was four. When he was 8 years old, he started practicing the piano five hours a day. To pay for lessons and the purchase of the instrument, his mother worked in a store. Eleanor wanted her son to become a famous pianist, but Neil, to her despair, discovered pop and rock’n’roll music and directed his professional interests and dreams in this direction. It wasn’t until he received a hefty five-figure check for his 1961 hit “Calendar Girl” that his mother changed her mind.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Sedaka topped the charts not only in the United States. That’s when “Oh! Carol”, “One Way Ticket” and “Calendar Girl” were created, which were big hits in Italy and Japan. Sedaka also recorded and created for other artists. However, the appearance of the Beatles shattered dreams of success for several years. Sedaka focused on what he started with, which was classical music, although he still tried to break through the Beatles wall. In 1966 he was almost included in the International Music Competition. Piotr Czajkowski as a representative of the USA. Ultimately, he did not fly to Moscow when the Soviets discovered that he was playing rock’n’roll, a genre banned in the USSR.

Sedaka had a difficult childhood. “There were eleven of us, we lived in two rooms”

He returned to the top only in the 1970s. In 1973, Sedaka met Elton John, who offered him a contract with his label. Although the cooperation did not last long, John successfully restored the musician’s somewhat forgotten career. When another label offered a higher contract, Sedaka accepted, although years later he honestly admitted that it could have been a mistake. – Money has always been important to me – he admitted in an interview. – I came from a poor family, there were eleven of us, we lived in a two-room apartment in Brooklyn. I dreamed of big houses, cars, jets and a yacht, he added. The dream of success came true, as Sedaka sold a total of over 40 million records.

Despite the ups and downs in a career spanning almost 70 years, his wife, Leba Sedaka, is still by his side. They married in 1962 and had two children. And although there was no shortage of opportunities for this in the musician’s career, he was always faithful to his beloved wife.