Neil Sedaka Earns Cheers at SPAC
by Don A. Metivier, The Post-Star, August 6, 1977
Singer-composer Neil Sedaka demonstrated why he is now popular with a second generation of fans with a 90-minute concert Wednesday evening at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Hundreds of other performers have burst forth on the American music scene since Sedaka and a friend penned “Stupid Cupid” for singer Connie Francis in 1959.
Most of them are gone and forgotten, one or two record hits to their credit, but Sedaka, after taking off for several years just to live with his family in Upstate New York and write music, is back a bigger star than before.
A crowd of 6,857 jammed the amphitheatre and overflowed onto the lawns of the Center, and their continued applause caused Sedaka to comment. “I’m a hit tonight.” Indeed he was.
His show is carefully staged to demonstrate the two parts of his career.
Sedaka came on stage alone, sat at the piano, and sang a dozen of his early songs, including “Stupid Cupid,” “Where the Boys Are,” and one of his early hits that is back on the charts today, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”
He told of how he and his collaborator of 20 years, Howard Greenfield, decided to break up their relationship and wrote a final song, “This Will Be Our Last Song Together.” The next day they were talking about it, and in two hours wrote “Love Will Keep Us Together, ” which was a major hit for the Captain and Tennille, keeping their songwriting team very much alive.
At this point the entire structure of the concert changed.
Sedaka was joined on stage by three young musicians and two backup girl singers. He moved his easy style from the 1950’s into the 1970’s and sang another hour of his newer songs, “Lonely Nights,” and *I Hear Laughter in the Rain.”
He did a medley of some older songs, and, after he sang his classic “Solitaire,” stood in a spotlight in the middle of the big Saratoga stage and soaked up the applause.
Someone called out. “We love you,” he answered, “l love you too, but if you really love me, I have a new album out; it’s available.” As the audience laughed, he commented, “At least I’m honest.”
His new album is “The Song,” and it could be his first Gold Record album in a long and successful career.
The entire concert was well orchestrated, fast-paced, and in total good taste. Sedaka should serve as a model for some of the touring music groups who take an hour of the audience’s time to set up their amplifiers, then tune guitars for most of the program, giving obscene comments between over-amplified songs.
Sedaka was packing them in long before most of those groups were formed, and he will be selling tickets long after they are gone.
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