Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka (born March 13, 1939) is an American pop singer, pianist, composer and record producer. Since his music career began in 1957 as a short-lived founding member of the Tokens, he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and others, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody. His first cousin was singer Eydie Gormé.\n', '

Sedaka was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Mac Sedaka, was a taxi driver and a Sephardi Jew of Turkish origin. Neil\'s mother, Eleanor (née Appel), was an Ashkenazi Jew of Polish/Russian origin. Neil\'s grandparents came to the United States from Istanbul, then known as Constantinople, in 1910. He grew up in Brighton Beach, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Sedaka is a cousin of the late singer Eydie Gormé.\n', '

He demonstrated musical aptitude in his second-grade cho…