| Neil Sedaka For over four decades, Sedaka's timeless standards have helped change the face of popular music. With countless hit singles, and platinum and gold records, he is recognized as one of rock and pop music's legendary pioneers, and remains as vital a force today as he was when he first achieved his string of hits back in the late 1950's. But Neil's meteoric rise to success began even before that. He formed a doo-wop group in high school, the Tokens, and they recorded two singles that became regional hits. Greater success was soon to follow, when after having been introduced to a young neighbor, Howard Greenfield, by Greenfield's mother, they began a successful songwriting partnership.In the four years between 1959 and 1963, the songwriting team sold over twenty-five million records and their collaboration was to last for thirty years, one of the longest partnerships in music history. As the prolific and versatile author of more than 1,000 songs, the accolades showered on Neil Sedaka have been numerous. Among the honors he has received, Sedaka has been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, has had a street named after him in his hometown of Brooklyn, and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Sedaka was honored in 1998 as one of a select group of personalities to be enshrined at the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in Las Vegas. He has received numerous awards from BMI, an organization that monitors the music industry, for having written some of the most played songs on radio or television. Recently, his song "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" was listed by BMI as one of the fifty most performed songs of the 20th century. Yet these serve as perfunctory recognition to a body of work that continues to grow and never ceases to entertain. With a career spanning six decades, a rare feat in the entertainment world, Sedaka never ceases to amaze.
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