SPAC cheers Sedaka’s ‘golden oldies’
by Lois Uttley, The Knickerbocker News, August 4, 1977
Remember “Stupid Cupid,” “Calendar Girl” and “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen?” Neil Sedaka does—he wrote them—and he’s not shy about taking audiences on a stroll down his musical memory lane.
There was one “golden oldie” after another Wednesday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) as a large and enthusiastic crowd cheered and clapped along to the songs that first made Sedaka famous back in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Charming his audience with a rambling, autobiographical interview with himself (“Tell me, Neil…”), Sedaka traced his musical career from his early ambitions to be a concert pianist through his first song at age 13, his initial songwriting successes, his singing comeback in the 1970s and his new album, “A Song.”
Though recent Sedaka songwriting smashes such as “Love Will Keep Us Together” and “Laughter in the Rain” seemed to have the greatest overall appeal for the Saratoga audience Wednesday, his early hits won consistent “oohs” and “aahs” of recognition from everyone beyond the teenage crowd.
Temporarily eschewing the massive “backup band” sound surrounding most soloists on the pop entertainment circuit, Sedaka spent the first portion of the concert alone in the center of the stage with only his piano.
Joined by two guitarists, a drummer and two female vocalists for the second half of the program, Sedaka turned on his showmanship and belted out some of the best examples of the 1970s “Sedaka sound”—such songs as “Amarillo, from his new album.
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