"Breaking Up Is Hard to Do ""Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"" is a song recorded by Neil Sedaka, and co-written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. Sedaka recorded this song twice, in 1962 and 1975, in two significantly different arrangements, and it is considered to be his signature song. Another song by the same name had previously been recorded by Jivin' Gene [Bourgeois] and The Jokers, in 1959. Described by AllMusic as ""two minutes and sixteen seconds of pure pop magic,"" ""Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"" hit number one on the ""Billboard"" Hot 100 on August 11, 1962 and"
"(No. 27, 1960); ""Calendar Girl"" (No. 4, 1961; also reached No. 1 on the Japanese and Canadian pop charts); ""Little Devil"" (No. 11, 1961); ""Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen"" (No. 6, 1961); his signature song, ""Breaking Up Is Hard To Do"" (No. 1, two weeks: August 11 and 18, 1962); and ""Next Door to an Angel"" (No. 5, 1962). Singles not making the Top 30 during this period included ""Sweet Little You"" (No. 59, 1961) and ""King of Clowns"" (No. 45, 1962). RCA Victor issued four LPs of his works in the United States and Great Britain during this period, and"
"he came ringing my doorbell. I was playing Chopin, and he said, My mother heard you play and thought we could write a song together""."" – Neil Sedaka, in Goldmine magazine, recalling this event. Howard Greenfield Howard Greenfield (March 15, 1936 – March 4, 1986) was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including one with Neil Sedaka from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, and a near-simultaneous (and equally successful) songwriting partnership with Jack Keller throughout most of"
"(McColl and Keir, 1958); ""The Crooked Cross"" (McColl and Seeger, 1960); ""Strontium 90"" (Dallas, 1959); ""Hey, Little Man"" (Dallas, 1959); ""Doomsday Blues"" (Dallas, 1958); ""The Ballad of the Five Fingers"" (McColl, 1959); ""There are Better Things to Do"" (Seeger, 1958); ""The H-Bomb's Thunder"" (Brunner, 1958); ""Song of Hiroshima"" (Kinoshita); ""Hoist the Window"" (trad. arr. Hasted, 1952); ""That Bomb Has Got to Go"" (McColl and Seeeger, 1959); ""The Dove"" (trad. arr. Rosselson); and ""The Family of Man"" (Dallas, 1957). A new arrangement of H-bomb's Thunder was issued on a CD, Songs To Change The World (Peaksoft PEA012) in 2011. Ewan MacColl's"
"Kenny O'Dell Kenny O'Dell (born Kenneth Guy Gist Jr.; June 21, 1944 – March 27, 2018) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Early in his career, he worked with guitarist Duane Eddy, and his own band, Guys and Dolls. He is best known for writing the country hit ""Behind Closed Doors"", which Charlie Rich recorded, and ""Mama He's Crazy"" for The Judds. ""Behind Closed Doors"" won a Grammy Award in 1973 for Best Country & Western Recording. O'Dell also wrote pop and soft rock songs, including ""Next Plane to London"", which was a Top 20 hit in 1967"
"Bob Hilliard Bob Hilliard (born Hilliard Goldsmith; January 28, 1918 – February 1, 1971) was an American lyricist. He wrote the words for the songs: ""Alice in Wonderland"", ""In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning"", ""Any Day Now"", ""Dear Hearts and Gentle People"", ""Our Day Will Come"", ""My Little Corner of the World"", ""Tower of Strength"" and ""Seven Little Girls (Sitting in the Back Seat)"". After finishing high school, Hilliard began working as a lyricist in Tin Pan Alley. At the age of 28 he had his first success with ""The Coffee Song"". During his Broadway years, Hilliard wrote"
"children. In 1961, she met Don Kirshner of Aldon Music, and restarted work as a songwriter in the Brill Building, working mainly on pop songs for a teenage audience. Around the same time, she also managed a doo-wop group, The Quotations, and won them a recording contract with Verve Records. At Aldon Music, she collaborated with Howard Greenfield - who was over ten years her junior - and they co-wrote a number of chart hits, including ""Foolish Little Girl"" by The Shirelles and ""Charms"" by Bobby Vee, both in 1963. The pair wrote ""It Hurts To Be In Love"" and"
"Helen Miller (songwriter) Helen Miller (30 June 1925 – 2 February 2006) was an American songwriter. She collaborated with several lyricists, notably Howard Greenfield in the early 1960s, and with him wrote several pop hits, including ""Foolish Little Girl"" by The Shirelles, and ""It Hurts To Be In Love"" by Gene Pitney. She started as a songwriter in New York City in the late 1940s, working in particular with lyricist and poet Fay Manus. She had some success at that time, but following her marriage to Irving Miller she left the music business for several years and brought up three"
"original final chorus."" ""New Faces of 1952"" was revived in 1982. He wrote the lyrics to Harold Arlen’s music for Pearl Bailey’s show-stopping number ""Indoor Girl"" in ""House of Flowers"". In 1956 he contributed the song “The Washingtons are Doing OK” for Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1956. He also wrote a production number for the Carol Channing company of ""Sugar Babies. Michael Brown wrote the book, lyrics, and music for the nineteen-day run of ""Different Times,"" and directed the production. The story followed multiple generations of one family, and was presented at the ANTA Theater, opening on 1 May"
"successful scores for both ""Angel in the Wings"" (1947) and ""Hazel Flagg"" (1953). He also worked as lyricist of the film score for ""Alice in Wonderland"" (1951). This included providing the words to the theme song ""I'm Late"" and the unused Cheshire Cat song ""I'm Odd."" The 1954 comedy film ""Living It Up"" included his songs ""Money Burns a Hole in My Pocket"" and ""That's What I Like."" Hilliard had later success as co-composer of the 1960s classic ""Our Day Will Come."" The song was a No. 1 hit on the US ""Billboard"" Hot 100 chart in 1963 for Ruby"
"2015 at age 94. Winfield Scott (songwriter) Winfield Scott (November 27, 1920 – October 26, 2015) (also known as Robie Kirk) was an American songwriter, who wrote or co-wrote the hit songs ""Tweedle Dee"" for LaVern Baker and ""Return to Sender"" for Elvis Presley. ""Return to Sender"", written for the Presley film ""Girls! Girls! Girls!"", was a U.K. No.1 single and peaked at No.2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Scott was a longtime collaborator of Otis Blackwell and together they were hired to write a song for the Elvis Presley film ""Roustabout"". While the film was released in 1964,"
"and wrote the lyrics for Carole King's 1959 single ""Oh Neil"", an answer song to her friend Neil Sedaka's ""Oh! Carol"". Goffin added the words to the tune written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who both worked under Don Kirshner at the Aldon music publishing company in Manhattan; the single's B-side, ""A Very Special Boy"", was a Goffin-King composition. Although the record was not a hit, the couple both secured contracts to write songs professionally at Aldon. Goffin at first worked with other writers including Barry Mann and Jack Keller, but he and Carole King soon established themselves as a"
"hits for Connie Francis in 1960, ""Everybody's Somebody's Fool"" and ""My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own"", as well as the follow-up ""Breakin' In A Brand New Broken Heart"". Keller and Greenfield also co-wrote Jimmy Clanton's 1962 top ten hit ""Venus in Blue Jeans""; and ""Your Used to Be"", a chart hit for Brenda Lee. At the same time, Keller wrote successfully with lyricist Gerry Goffin, including Bobby Vee's #2 hit ""Run to Him"" as well as several hits for the Everly Brothers, and co-wrote with Hank Hunter, including the McGuire Sisters' hit ""Just For Old Time's Sake"". When"
"Alan O'Day Alan Earle O'Day (October 3, 1940 – May 17, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for writing and singing ""Undercover Angel,"" a million-selling Gold-certified American #1 hit in 1977. He also wrote songs for several other notable performers, such as 1974's Helen Reddy #1 hit ""Angie Baby"" and the Righteous Brothers' #3 Gold hit ""Rock and Roll Heaven"". In the 1980s he moved from pop music to television, co-writing over 100 songs for the Saturday morning ""Muppet Babies"" series, and in the 1990s he wrote and performed music on the National Geographic series ""Really Wild Animals"". O'Day"
"recordings. He had Top 20 popular music hits with Constellation with the songs ""Just Be True"" (1964) and ""Nothing Can Stop Me"" (1965), both songs written by Curtis Mayfield and produced by Carl Davis. Other successes included ""What Now"", ""Rainbow"", ""I Fooled You This Time"", ""Think Nothing About It""', ""A Man's Temptation"", ""To Be a Lover"", ""Rainbow '65"" (recorded live at Chicago's Regal Theater), ""Bless Our Love"", and ""You Can't Hurt Me No More."" Chandler also had success with his cover version of James Brown's ""There Was A Time"" and ""You Threw A Lucky Punch"", which was released as an"
"Winfield Scott (songwriter) Winfield Scott (November 27, 1920 – October 26, 2015) (also known as Robie Kirk) was an American songwriter, who wrote or co-wrote the hit songs ""Tweedle Dee"" for LaVern Baker and ""Return to Sender"" for Elvis Presley. ""Return to Sender"", written for the Presley film ""Girls! Girls! Girls!"", was a U.K. No.1 single and peaked at No.2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Scott was a longtime collaborator of Otis Blackwell and together they were hired to write a song for the Elvis Presley film ""Roustabout"". While the film was released in 1964, the song ""I'm a"
"Flames released a version of the song as a single in 1960. Tony Scotti recorded the song in 1969. The single peaked at #117 on Billboard's ""Bubbling Under"" chart. Devil or Angel ""Devil or Angel"" is a song written by Blanche Carter and originally recorded by the Clovers in 1955. It was re-recorded by John Bailey after he left the Clovers and formed another Clovers group for Lana Records in 1965. The song was recorded by Bobby Vee, with veteran session drummer Earl Palmer among the studio musicians, and reached number 6 in the US charts in 1960. It was"
"done. The Imperials' version didn't chart, so Sedaka took it and decided that he should record the song himself. ""The Diary"" was issued on Sedaka's 1959 first solo album ""Rock with Sedaka"" on RCA. It was reissued on his 1961 record ""Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits"", and again in 1963 on the album ""Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits"". Sedaka's version became his very first hit. The single reached No. 14 on the US ""Billboard"" chart. The Diary (song) ""The Diary"" is a song by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It was released in 1958 as"
"Letter"", ""Jane"", ""You Opened My Eyes"", ""I'd Rather Be Me"", ""Cutest Kid in Town"", ""Tom Thumb and Tiny Teens"", ""What Am I Goin' to Do for Lovin'?"", ""Painter In The Sky"", ""Twenty One Dollars a Day Once a Month"", and ""The Whistlin' Cowboy"". Felix Bernard Felix William Bernard (April 28, 1897 – October 20, 1944) was an American conductor, pianist and a composer of popular music. His writing credits include the popular songs ""Winter Wonderland"" (with lyricist Richard B. Smith) and ""Dardanella"". Felix Bernard was born to a Jewish family in New York City on April 28, 1897, and died"
"such songs as ""Address Unknown,"" a 1939 hit for The Ink Spots, also worked with Gene Autry. His other writing successes included ""Dixie Cannonball"" and ""Muleskinner's Blues."" The third credited songwriter was Milt Gabler (1911–2001), then the vice-president of Decca Records and Louis Jordan's record producer. A few years later, still at Decca, Gabler was also responsible for producing Bill Haley's epoch-defining ""Rock Around The Clock"" (and Haley, in turn, recorded a version of ""Choo Choo Ch'Boogie"" for his album, ""Rock 'n' Roll Stage Show""). The song summed up the feelings of excitement followed by disillusionment felt by many who"
"Money Honey"", and ""I Don't Know Why"". He also produced and arranged the Angels' ""'Til"" and ""Cry Baby Cry"" and James Ray's ""If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody"" on Caprice Records, a subsidiary of Canadian-American. As a songwriter, record producer and director of A&R, he also worked with such artistes as Shirley Ellis, Patty Duke, Lesley Gore, Ellie Greenwich, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. He was the arranger on the Bob Crewe Generation’s song ""Music to Watch Girls By"" in 1967, for which he was nominated for a Grammy. He also worked with Oliver on the"
"a daughter Laurie Fondiler/Leven. His first wife was Vera and second wife' mother of Bill and Laurie was, Jeanie Francis. Mel Leven Melville A. Leven (1914–2007), known professionally as Mel Leven, was an American composer and lyricist who had a long association with the Walt Disney Company, although he also wrote songs for Peggy Lee (""Every Time""), The Andrews Sisters (""Commoners Boogy""), Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and Les Brown, among others. Mel Leven was born in Chicago. His most famous song is arguably ""Cruella de Vil"" from the 1961 Disney animated feature ""One Hundred and One Dalmatians"", which is"
"2017. The couple had three children. O'Dell died of natural causes on March 27, 2018 in Cool Springs, Tennessee. He was 73. 1973—Grammy\Best Country Song\""Behind Closed Doors"" 1973—CMA\Song of the Year\""Behind Closed Doors"" 1973—CMA\Single of the Year\""Behind Closed Doors"" 1973—ACM\Song of the Year\""Behind Closed Doors"" 1973—ACM\Single of the Year\""Behind Closed Doors"" 1984—Nashville Songwriters Association International\Songwriter of the Year 1984—NSAI\Song of the Year\""Mama He's Crazy"" 1985—BMI\Country Song of the Year\""Mama He's Crazy"" Kenny O'Dell Kenny O'Dell (born Kenneth Guy Gist Jr.; June 21, 1944 – March 27, 2018) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Early in his career, he"
"""The Flying Nun"" and ""Hazel"". In 2005, ""Is This The Way To Amarillo"", a song Greenfield had written with Sedaka in the early 1970s, reached #1 on the UK charts in the original 1971 version by Tony Christie. The video featured an all-star celebrity line-up lip-synching the track, and the proceeds went to charity. The record stayed at #1 for 7 weeks, and became the UK's best-selling record of the millennium to that time. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, by his late teens Greenfield formed a songwriting partnership with Neil Sedaka, a friend whom he had first met as"
"Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English musician and composer. His work blends progressive rock with world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new-age music. His biggest commercial success is the 1973 album ""Tubular Bells""which launched Virgin Records and became a hit in America after its opening was used as the theme for the film ""The Exorcist"". He recorded the 1983 hit single ""Moonlight Shadow"" and a rendition of the Christmas piece ""In Dulci Jubilo"". Oldfield has released more than 20 albums with the most recent being a sequel to his 1975 album ""Ommadawn"" titled ""Return"
"U.S. Top Ten and number one on the U.K. charts. After leaving the Kalins, in 1958, he wrote ""Ev'ry Hour, Ev'ry Day of My Life,"" a hit for Malcolm Vaughan, and Frankie Avalon's Top-Ten hit ""Gingerbread."" Ballard's own recording career was less successful. In addition to recording several singles under his own name without much success, in 1960 he adopted the alias Buddy Clinton to cut a two-sided single featuring the songs ""Take Me to Your Ladder (I'll See Your Leader Later)"" and ""Joanie's Forever,"" both co-written by then-unknown composer Burt Bacharach with his writing-partner Bob Hilliard. Ballard wrote one"
"and arrangements were available to radio stations via electrical transcriptions. His work was syndicated by Capitol Transcriptions, for which he also was musical director. De Vol wrote the scores for many Hollywood movies, receiving Academy Award nominations for four of them: ""Pillow Talk"" (1959), ""Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte"" (1964), ""Cat Ballou"" (1965) and ""Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"" (1967). De Vol's numerous scores included ""Kiss Me Deadly"" (1955), ""What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"" (1962), ""McLintock!"" (1963), ""The Flight of the Phoenix"" (1965), ""The Glass Bottom Boat"" (1966), ""The Dirty Dozen"" (1967), ""Hustle"" (1975), ""Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo"" (1977)"
"considering them a one-hit act. On Greenberg's new label, Scepter Records, they rereleased ""Dedicated to the One I Love"" as a single, which peaked at #89; Wayne Wadhams, David Nathan, and Susan Lindsay in ""Inside the Hits"" attribute the low rating to poor distribution. In order to better promote the group, Greenberg asked songwriter Luther Dixon, who had previously worked with Perry Como, Nat King Cole, and Pat Boone and co-written the 1959 hit ""16 Candles"", to write for and produce songs for them. Dixon accepted. Their first single produced with Dixon, ""Tonight's the Night"", was released in 1960 and"
"Duke Ellington, Leo Robin, and Cab Calloway. Because he was very knowledgeable about the music business and copyright laws, Gaskill was able to use that to his advantage. He claimed composer credit on Christmas songs and nursery rhymes like, ""Jingle Bells"", ""Adeste Fideles"", ""The Farmer in the Dell"", and ""Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"". Clarence Gaskill Clarence Gaskill (February 2, 1892 – April 29, 1948) was an American composer and lyricist active during the 1920s to early 1930s. His most well-known songs include, ""Doo-Wacka-Doo"" (1921). ""I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me"" (1927), and ""Prisoner of Love"" (1932). His"
"Dick Sanford, Milton DeLugg, Philip Springer, Lee Pockriss and Sammy Fain. Hilliard died of a heart attack at his Hollywood home on February 1, 1971, at the age of 53. He was survived by his wife, Jacqueline Dalya. Hilliard was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983. Between the mid-1940s and the early 1960s, Hilliard co-wrote such hits as: Bob Hilliard Bob Hilliard (born Hilliard Goldsmith; January 28, 1918 – February 1, 1971) was an American lyricist. He wrote the words for the songs: ""Alice in Wonderland"", ""In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning"", ""Any Day"
"a Cookie.) In 1961, a new version of the Cookies emerged in New York, with Dorothy Jones joining newcomers Earl-Jean McCrea (Darlene's younger sister) and another of Dorothy's cousins, Margaret Ross. Jones also recorded one solo recording for Columbia in 1961. This trio had the greatest success as the Cookies: under their own name; as backing vocals for other artists, including Neil Sedaka's hit songs ""Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"", ""The Dreamer"" and ""Bad Girl""; and recording demos for Aldon Music, under the direction of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. They provided the backup vocals for the Little Eva"
"in his ""Music and the Higher Life"". Hark! The Herald Angels Sing ""Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"" is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection ""Hymns and Sacred Poems"". Its lyrics had been written by Charles Wesley. Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the joyful tune expected today. Moreover, Wesley's original opening couplet is ""Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings"". The popular version is the result of alterations by various hands, notably by Wesley's co-worker George Whitefield who changed the opening couplet"
"as ""Hey, Let's Twist!"", ""The Girl Can't Help It,"" ""Rock, Rock, Rock"" and ""Mister Rock and Roll"" in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Randazzo wrote a string of major hits for other artists with composing partner, Bobby Weinstein, including ""Pretty Blue Eyes"", a top ten hit for Steve Lawrence in the US and Craig Douglas in the UK in 1959. He wrote many songs for Little Anthony and the Imperials, producing and arranging several albums for the group in the mid-60s. The hit songs included ""Goin' Out of My Head"" (1964, #6 Pop, #22 R&B), which was subsequently recorded"