Neil Sedaka Quotes
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'Love Will Keep Us Together' was a combination of three different singing styles - Al Green, the Beach Boys, and Diana Ross. I loved all these people, and I put their singing styles together and wrote that tune.
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I was one of the first American rock n' rollers in the '50s to go to many foreign countries. It's a wonderful thing to go out and spread joy and love rather than hate.
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I worked at Mar-a-Lago for Trump, for some parties, and he seemed nice enough - but I don't think he's presidential. I think he's incompetent; I disagree with his policies, and I'm nervous as an American.
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I love America, and parts of New Jersey remind me of Newfoundland - rolling hills and gardens - it's great! I guess that's why they call it the Garden State.
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I didn't want to be a rock and roller. I wanted to be a Bobby Darin because he was the epitome of the performer, the sophisticated.
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Tra-la-las and doo-be-do's became a Neil Sedaka trademark. I was the king of the tra-la-las and doo-be-do's in the '50s and '60s. But then when I re-recorded 'Breaking Up,' I started with a verse instead of the doo-be-do's!
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I have written for, very fortunately, some great singers from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley.
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Howie Greenfield and I started writing music when I was 13 and he was 16. We lived in the same building.
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I started out just as Elvis was going into the army, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 14-year-old cousin, and Little Richard became a priest.
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I have a Baldwin in my L.A. apartment, a Steinway in my New York apartment, and a Kawai plexiglass grand piano in storage for shows. I still play for two or three hours every day.
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I tend to be on the quiet side. I think I would have been bigger if I had a big mouth.
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I love kids. I think I'm a child at heart.
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I still play my old vinyl LPs - I like the scratches - and I miss browsing in record shops, because they held great nostalgia for me.
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I was from very poor people: 11 of us in a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. I wanted the large houses, the cars, jets, and yacht.
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I used to think the whole world was Jewish.
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The hymn 'Amazing Grace' is so inspirational - I wish I'd written it.
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If you have a passion for something, never be discouraged by anyone.
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I take care of my voice. I don't go to loud discos where I have to shout; I don't have iced drinks.
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As far as I'm concerned, all politicians are fake people.
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I knew I had a remarkable voice, but I was embarrassed because it was so high. But when I sang at my bar mitzvah, the rabbi was in tears. He said to my parents, 'He must become a cantor in the synagogue,' but my mother said, 'No, he's going to be a concert pianist.'
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The spiritual writing of the song is where you're chosen as a vehicle, and it comes from something up above. You don't move; it writes itself. It's very spooky, but that's happened to me just a few times.
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Between 1958 and 1963, I sold about 40 million records - to the shock of my mother and father because I was always playing Beethoven. But I bought my mother a mink stole. She was very happy, and she said, 'I think this is better than Beethoven.'
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When the Beatles came to America and took me off the map, I thought I would return the favor, and I moved the family to England!
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I think I was put on earth to sing and play music.