Update: Neil Sedaka Has Died At Age 86. Read Our Full Obituary Here
Neil Sedaka was taken to a Los Angeles hospital by ambulance Friday morning.
Family sources told TMZ that the legendary singer-songwriter was not feeling well at home and was transported to a local hospital around 8 a.m. PT.
The L.A. County West Hollywood Sheriff’s station confirmed to TMZ that deputies assisted the fire department on a medical request call and that paramedics took Sedaka to the hospital. He is 86 years old.
No details about the nature of the medical emergency have been released. Family sources say he is recovering.
Sedaka has no documented illness or hospitalization in recent months, leaving fans questioning what has happened to the elder star.
How Old Is Neil Sedaka?
He was born March 13, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York, as the son of a taxi driver. He is 86 years old. His mother took a part-time job to pay for a secondhand upright piano after his second-grade teacher sent a note home saying he had musical aptitude.
By age nine he had auditioned successfully for a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music’s Preparatory Division. He was nine years old.
At Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn he formed a doo-wop group with classmates that would later be renamed the Tokens. He left the group in 1957 to go solo, but the Tokens went on to record one of the most recognizable songs in American pop history, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” without him in 1961.
Sedaka did not need them.
Sedaka Wrote The Songs That Defined A Generation
In 1958 he signed a publishing deal with Don Kirshner and Al Nevins at Aldon Music alongside his songwriting partner Howard Greenfield, who he had met as a neighbor in Brighton Beach.
The two became one of the original architects of the Brill Building sound, the New York pop songwriting machine that also produced Carole King, Neil Diamond, and Paul Simon.
The hits came fast. “Oh! Carol” in 1959. “Calendar Girl” in 1960. “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” in 1961. “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” in 1962. Between 1959 and 1963, Sedaka and Greenfield sold 40 million records.
Connie Francis recorded his “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are.” Captain and Tennille took his “Love Will Keep Us Together” to number one in 1975, the same year it won the Grammy for Record of the Year.
Elvis Presley recorded “Solitaire.” Frank Sinatra recorded “The Hungry Years.” Tom Jones recorded “Puppet Man.”
Then the Beatles arrived in America in 1964 and changed everything. Sedaka, like most American male solo artists of his era, lost his commercial footing almost overnight.
Neil Sedaka’s Comeback: Nobody Expected It
Sedaka spent the late 1960s writing for other artists and building a following in the United Kingdom, where he released a string of critically praised albums.
Those albums caught the attention of Elton John, then at the peak of his own success. John signed Sedaka to his Rocket Records label and re-introduced him to American audiences.
The two albums Sedaka recorded for Rocket, Sedaka’s Back in 1974 and The Hungry Years in 1975, became global hits.
Two songs he co-wrote with new lyricist Phil Cody, “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood,” both reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
He had done something almost no one in pop music manages — a full commercial comeback more than a decade after his first run ended.
He had been nominated for five Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He had a street named after him in Brooklyn.
He had written or co-written more than 500 songs.
Sedaka Still Working At 86
Just days before Friday’s hospitalization, Sedaka posted a video to his Instagram page promoting Steppin’ Out, an album marking the 50-year anniversary of its original release, newly available on streaming platforms beginning April 10.
The caption read:
“Good times, good music, and good friends — that’s always been my philosophy.”
He has been married to Leba Strassberg since 1962. They have two children, daughter Dara, a vocalist who recorded a duet with her father, and son Marc, a screenwriter.
He has a grandson, Michael, and twin granddaughters, Charlotte and Amanda. Sedaka and his grandson drew attention last year for posting TikTok duet performances together and appeared on Good Day New York, where Sedaka praised the teenager’s knowledge of his catalog.
The cause of Friday’s medical emergency has not been disclosed. His family says he is recovering.
