Jewish musical legend Neil Sedaka died over the weekend at age 86.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka. A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed,\u201d his family shared on social media.<\/p>\n
Sedaka, whose father was the son of Sephardi immigrants from Turkey and whose mother had Jewish Polish-Russian roots<\/a>, made an indelible mark on the music world during his 70-year career. As a heartthrob in his teens and early 20s, he gave us hits like\u00a0 \u201cCalendar Girl,\u201d \u201cHappy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen,\u201d \u201cBreaking Up Is Hard to Do,\u201d and \u201cOh! Carol,\u201d inspired by his high school girlfriend, one Carol Klein, who later changed her name to Carole King \u2014 and even recorded the winningly funny \u201cOh! Neil\u201d as a response.<\/a><\/p>\n On social media, King shared audio of the two of them singing \u201cWe Belong Together,\u201d which they had recorded in the Kleins\u2019 Brooklyn living room.<\/p>\n The British Invasion, marked by the rise of British pop acts such as the Beatles, hit Sedaka\u2019s career hard in the 60s. But in the 70s, with some help from the legendary Elton John, Sedaka made his return to the music scene and wrote some of his greatest hits, like \u201cLaughter in the Rain.\u201d He also wrote one of his most successful songs of all time: Captain & Tennille\u2019s \u201cLove Will Keep Us Together.\u201d<\/p>\n Sedaka was raised in a tight-knit Jewish home in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. \u201cWe were 11 people in a two-bedroom apartment: my grandparents, five aunts, my parents, my sister, and I sharing one bathroom. But I was very spoiled by all these ladies. It was a wonderful, wonderful childhood,\u201d he recalled in Grand Magazine. He was just eight when he fell in love with the piano, and his mother took a job at a department store to help afford a piano, while his father, a cab driver, worked hard to send his son to Juilliard\u2019s prep school. Sedaka would later take his dad with him whenever he toured the world.<\/p>\n His paternal grandmother would take him to her Sephardi synagogue, and he had his bar mitzvah at Temple Beth El in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn.<\/a><\/p>\n It was his Jewish identity, in a way, that led him to meet his bashert. While things didn\u2019t work out with Carole King, they really did with Leba Strassberg, whom he met in the Borscht Belt, that famous resort area where New York Jews loved to vacation. Leba\u2019s parents owned Esther Manor, and in the late 50s, Neil worked there as a pianist. Leba was just 16 when he met her (and he was just 19), but he told his trumpet player, \u201cYou see that girl? I have a strange feeling I\u2019m going to marry her,\u201d saying that he was a Pisces and therefore a little bit psychic.<\/p>\n He told Leba, perhaps as a pickup, that he had just written the Connie Francis<\/a> hit \u201cStupid Cupid,\u201d and she at first didn\u2019t believe him.<\/p>\n Cupid was anything but stupid with this Jewish duo \u2014 the two married in 1962, when Leba was 20, and he was 23, and remained together until Sedaka\u2019s death. They had two children, Marc and Dara.<\/p>\n Sedaka\u2019s Judaism wasn\u2019t just a huge part of who he was \u2014 it played a big part in his music. On the Ed Sullivan Show, he sang a version of \u201cYiddishe Mama\u201d that still tugs at the heartstrings. He later recorded it for his 2003 album \u201cBrighton Beach Memories,\u201d<\/a> and he has performed with Yiddish music stars like the Klezmatics and Zalmen Mlotek.<\/p>\n In the 60s, he toured Israel and in 1966, he recorded several songs in Hebrew, including a medley of Hebrew classics and a version of his hit song \u201cYou Mean Everything to Me.\u201d<\/p>\n