Popular Singers Named Neil

With a career that stretches over 55 years and having sold millions of records, Neil Sedaka is a popular American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. Upon graduating high school Neil Sedaka and some of his classmates created a band The Tokens. They were popular regionally and had some hits. 

Finally, in 1957 Sedaka set out on his own. His first hit to get on the charts was in 1958 “The Diary”. This was followed by “I Go Ape” and “Crying My Heart Out for You” however they failed to make an impact. Finally the following year Sedaka scored big with his song “Oh! Carol”.

Neil Sedaka’s popularity grew as did his hits and he kept them on coming in the 1960s. He had the following hits from 1960 to 1962 “Stairway to Heaven”, “You Mean Everything to Me”, “Run, Samson Run”, “Calendar Girl”, “Little Devil”, “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen”, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”, and “Next Door to an Angel”. 

He regularly appeared on TV programs such as Shindig! and American Bandstand. He also became very popular overseas and made foreign language recordings in Italian, Spanish, German, Hebrew, and Japanese. 

His career started slipping once The Beatles had made their appearance and song styles started changing. The songs he came out with from 1964 to 1965 no longer created such a great stir. Among the songs were “Sunny”, “The World Through a Tear”, and “The Answer to My Prayer”. These songs just about made it on the charts but the next ones all were failures. 

He continued to perform and record and in 1971 Neil Sedaka came out with the album Emergence. This included the songs “Silent Movies”, “Superbird”, and “Rosemary Blue”. This was followed by another album the following year Solitaire. In 1972 he had a successful tour to England. 

He found new success in the U.S. releasing the album Sedaka’s Back which included the singles “Solitaire”, “The Tra-La Days Are Over”, and “Laughter in the Rain” which reached number one on the charts. Sedaka was back and popular again. In 1983 he was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 2005 he was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. He continues to record and keep up a rigorous concert schedule to the delight of his many fans. 

Neil Diamond

One of my all-time favorite singers Neil Diamond is an American singer-songwriter whose career spans back to the 1960s. He was born in my hometown in Brooklyn, New York on January 24, 1941. His songs are terrific and a great deal of them inspire me when it comes to writing poetry. Altogether he has sold more than 125 million records all around the globe and is one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. 

Neil Diamond’s very first hit was “Solitary Man”. This was followed by “Cherry, Cherry”, “Kentucky Woman”, “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” and “Do It”. His popularity was on the rise. Two of his greatest hits in 1969 were “Sweet Caroline” and “Holly Holy”.

He has had many spectacular hits that have become number one singles. Among them are “Cracklin’ Rosie”, “Song Sung Blue”, “Longfellow’s Serenade”, “I’ve Been This Way Before”, “Desiree”, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, “America”, “Yesterday’s Songs”, “Heartlight”, and “I’m a Believer”. 

In 1972 after playing ten sold-out concerts at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California he came out with one of his greatest albums. The double album titled Hot August Night has become a classic. One of his best-known original songs is “Red, Red Wine”. In 1979 he came out with another hit “Forever in Blue Jeans”. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.