“Breaking Up is Hard to Do” (Neil Sedaka)

Today’s classic song of the day was a hit for Neil Sedaka in two different versions in two different decades. The song is “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” and it was written by Mr. Sedaka and his songwriting partner Howard Greenfield.

Neil Sedaka released the first version of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” in June of 1962. It featured Sedaka’s signature multi-tracked scat vocals—”come-a come-a down, dooby doo down down.” Sedaka said they went that direction because he and Howie couldn’t come up with a real lyric for that section of the song. The Cookies provided the other background vocals on the recording; the ubiquitous NYC session man Gary Chester played drums.

This first version of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” was a monster hit. It was #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100, and also topped the charts in Canada and New Zealand. (It peaked at #7 in the UK.) It’s the version music lovers of a certain age remember.

Mr. Sedaka’s had a good run in the early ’60s but his fortunes waned as musical tastes changed in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Sedaka experienced a bit of a comeback in the mid-70s, however, after the Captain and Tennille had a #1 hit with his “Love Will Keep Us Together” in 1973 and he himself had a #1 hit with 1974’s “Laughter in the Rain.” That spurred Sedaka to record a new version of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” this time as a ballad. The new recording began with a few bars from his original 1962 version, then slowed things down for a more adult rendition with some more sophisticated chords. It really jazzed up what was a standard doo-wopish I – vi – IV – V progression. (As much as I like the original, I like this revamp a lot.)

Neil Sedaka’s second version of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” released in December of 1975, was also a huge hit. This one peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #7 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. That kind of double hit doesn’t happen too often, and speaks well of the quality of the song—and the singer.

In between Sedaka’s two versions, three other artists also had hits with “Breaking Up is Hard to Do.” The Happenings had minor success with the song in 1968, reaching #67 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lenny Welch did the ballad thing before Mr. Sedaka thought of it, scoring a #34 hit with a slowed down version of the song in 1969 in the style of his 1965 hit, “Since I Fell for You.” And the Partridge Family (or the studio musicians recording as such) did a cover in 1972 that hit #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 but went all the way to #3 in both the UK and Australia.

Not every artist essentially gets two different careers, but Neil Sedaka is no ordinary artist. His first career, in the late ’50s/early ’60s, resulted in such hits as “Oh! Carol,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Calendar Girl,” “Little Devil,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” and “Next Door to an Angel. ” His second career, in the ’70s, included hits like “Laughter in the Rain,” “The Immigrant,” and “Bad Blood.” Mr. Sedaka has continued performing over the years and currently does a monthly program for SiriusXM satellite radio, titled In the Key of Neil. He’s 86 years old now and still going strong.

So here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, a young Neil Sedaka lip synching “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” on Saturday Hop, a local teen music show in Miami, Florida, sometime in 1962. There’s even a very short interview with legendary Miami DJ Rick Shaw at the end!