Neil Sedaka - Laughter in the Rain: Best of
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Neil SedakaEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1994-09-27
Music Label: Varese Fontana
Soundtracks:
- Laughter in the Rain
- Love Will Keep Us Together
- That's When the Music Takes Me
- The Immigrant
- The Hungry Years
- The Queen of 1964
- Rock & Roll Wedding Day
- Bad Blood
- Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
- #1 With a Heartache
- Lonely Night (Angel Face)
- Standing on the Inside
- Love in the Shadows
- The Other Side of Me
- Steppin' Out
- You Gotta Make Your Own Sunshine
- Little Brother
- Solitaire
- Should've Never Let You Go
- Our Last Song Together
Free Music Notes for Laughter in the Rain: Best of
Free Music Review: The Best of Neil Sedaka's "Second Career"
Hit: 5 Stars
Neil Sedaka has been one of America's greatest composing forces in popular music for more than 40 years, beginning with the Connie Francis hits "Stupid Cupid" and "Where the Boys Are" and his own first singles "The Diary" and the silly novelty tune "I Go Ape." These late '50s hits would transform Sedaka from a Brill Building ghost writer to a bona fide teen pop sensation of his own, as he would score smash after smash until 1963, including "Next Door to an Angel," "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen," "You Mean Everything to Me," "Run, Samson, Run," "Stairway to Heaven" (long before Led Zeppelin would come up with an entirely different song of the same name), "Oh! Carol" (his ode to then-girlfriend Carole King), "Calendar Girl," and the #1 song from 1962 that would become his early-career hallmark, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do."
But The Beatles and the British Invasion spelled doom for Sedaka's bubble-gum pop, and the hits stopped coming. He continued to write hits occasionally for other performers, until a visit to England in the early '70s hooked him up with the guys that would become 10cc ("I'm Not in Love," "The Things We Do for Love") and an introduction to Elton John. Neil convinced Elton to sign him to his Rocket Records label and put together an album of his early-'70s Britain recordings along with some new songs he had recorded in America. Hence the album Sedaka's Back would be released in late 1974, and by early 1975, Sedaka would have his first #1 song--"Laughter in the Rain," the title cut of this album--in 13 years.
"Sedaka's Back" is indeed the focus album in this wonderful compilation album. Laughter in the Rain: The Best of Neil Sedaka, 1974-1980 picks up where his first career ended and gives us the hits he recorded during these years, songs he wrote and recorded that went on to be big hits for other artists, and other personal favorites of Sedaka's as well as highlights of his best compositions during these years. The title cut kicks off the album along with "The Immigrant" and "That's When the Music Takes Me," the other two Top 30 hits from "Sedaka's Back."
Also included are his biggest-selling American hit ever, the #1, certified-gold smash "Bad Blood," that features the unmistakable voice of Elton John on backing vocals, as well as his Top 10 slowed-down, ballad version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," both from the album The Hungry Years. Luckily, the title cut is also included here, and it's one of my all-time favorite Sedaka compositions. It was released as a single in 1976 by Wayne Newton, but it didn't become a major hit.
Always a successful composer for other artists, also included here are his versions of "Love Will Keep Us Together" and "Lonely Night (Angel Face)"--both hits for The Captain and Tennille (but, oddly, not another smash for them, "You Never Done It Like That")--and "Solitaire," a hit for The Carpenters.
2006 UPDATE: The Way / Solitaire (single, Clay Aiken)...Speaking of "Solitaire," Neil has found newfound success long after the hits in this compilation ended--via "American Idol," amazingly enough, when during its second season, one of the show's theme nights featured Sedaka's music with Neil as the guest judge (this format has since been discontinued). Among the highlights of the evening were his praise of Kimberley Locke's singing as "ear-licious" (and it is, as her recent smash single "Eighth World Wonder" has proven), but it was Clay Aiken's rendition of "Solitaire" that literally moved Sedaka to tears, with Sedaka telling Aiken on-camera that he would be proud to produce an album for him. Aiken told host Ryan Seacrest and the guest artist that "Solitaire" had been one of his mother's favorite songs, and she begged him to perform that song for her on the Sedaka theme night.
Well, Aiken and Sedaka have been doubly rewarded, as Clay decided to record "Solitaire" (and release it as an off-CD single), and it promptly shot to #1 on the Billboard singles sales charts and was certified gold. Several weeks after the single hit #1, Sedaka was welcomed back to "AI" to share the good news with Seacrest, the studio audience, and the double-digit millions tuning in. Sedaka has been seen in the "American Idol" on-camera studio audience on occasion since, too, and it only goes to prove that even though Neil Sedaka is now in his 60s (67 as of the date of this review update), his music still has relevance for the very young, record-buying public in the 21st century. We now return you to our regularly-scheduled CD review...
Other later recordings included here are his Top 20 dance hit "Love in the Shadows"; another Top 40 collaboration with Elton John, the funky "Steppin' Out"; the countrified "Number One With a Heartache"; the bouncy, organ-flavored "(You Gotta) Make Your Own Sunshine"; several recordings that were not released in the U.S. that are paeans to his early days in rock 'n' roll; and finally from 1980, what would become his last Top 20 hit on the Billboard pop singles chart, "Should've Never Let You Go," a beautiful ballad duet with his very talented daughter Dara, who is now a professional singer. Curiously absent from the titles in this collection, though, is "Amarillo," which was a mid-chart hit for Sedaka in 1977. REVIEWER'S NOTE 15 AUGUST 2006: Please see my review of Neil Sedaka's CD Steppin' Out for 2005-06 news about the song "Amarillo," now available on that CD.
"Laughter in the Rain" has 20 great cuts from six of Sedaka's most productive years, and it's great to hear these recordings in full CD stereo, not from the scratchy 45s that were played on AM radio when these hits were first released.
A year after this CD was released, Sedaka released Tuneweaver, an interesting compilation of note-by-note re-recordings of his '60s hits; new interpretations of some of the '70s hits included here in "Laughter in the Rain," including an R&B-flavored duet version of that title (again, with daughter Dara), as well as the slowed-down, ballad version of "Love Will Keep Us Together" (probably trying to repeat the success of his "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" reworking); and some of his new compositions.
But for those who are purists at heart and long to hear "Laughter in the Rain," "Bad Blood," "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Love in the Shadows," and "Should've Never Let You Go" from the man who ruled the pop charts in the mid- and late-'70s, this is the definitive collection. My high-school years come alive when I hear these songs. Maybe they will for you too. Enjoy!
Rating: ***** (out of 5) Update of original review 21 Aug 01 / 24 Jan 08 --BOB BOURBEAU
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