Neil Sedaka, 'Breaking Up Is Hard to Do' Singer, Dead at 86

Victoria Edel, Sarah MichaudFri, February 27, 2026 at 9:57 PM UTC

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Neil Sedaka in December 1982.Credit: Kevin Solness/Fairfax Media via Getty

Neil Sedaka has died at the age of 86. Sedaka first enjoyed success in the 1950s and 1960s with hits like "Oh! Carol,” "Calendar Girl” and "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen.” He had a career revival in the 1970s, and was also a prolific songwriter, composing hits for other performers, like “Stupid Cupid” and “Love Will Keep Us Together.”

"Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka," the Sedaka family said in a statement to PEOPLE. "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."

Sedaka was taken to the hospital Friday morning and died later in the day. TMZ was first to report the news.

Sedaka was in Brooklyn in 1939. Growing up in Brighton Beach, he learned to play piano after a music teacher noticed his talent and wrote a note to his parents urging them to buy a piano. He was part of Juilliard's children’s prep program.

“[I was] not accepted socially in Brooklyn,” he told PEOPLE in 1975. “I was very little, wore braces and glasses and did not play baseball. I thought that the way to get invited to parties would be to write and sing pop music.”

Neil Sedaka in 1955.Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty

At 13, he met lyricist Howard Greenfield, who was three years his senior, and they teamed up to write songs together. After graduating from high school, Sedaka formed a band called The Linc-Tones that had some success, but he ultimately left the group.

He and Greenfield kept writing songs at the legendary Brill Building, while Sedaka also pursued a solo career. Singer Connie Francis released their song “Stupid Cupid” in 1958, and it became one of her first hits. Sedaka also released his first solo single, "The Diary,” inspired by Francis, that year.

Neil Sedaka in 1968.Credit: GAB Archive/Redferns

A bigger hit was his 1959 song "Oh! Carol" — the title was a reference to songwriter Carole King, whom he’d dated in high school. He continued to enjoy chart success in the early 1960s with songs like "Stairway to Heaven,” “Calendar Girl,” "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” and “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," which hit No. 1 and became his signature song.

Sedaka and Greenfield wrote more songs for Francis, including "Fallin'" and “Where the Boys Are.” They also wrote hits for Jimmy Clanton, including "Another Sleepless Night" and "What Am I Gonna Do?”

Neil Sedaka in 1973.Credit: David Redfern/Redferns

“I have a theory that there are three kinds of songwriting,” Sedaka told Billboard in 2010. “The emotional is when you go through some trauma and get it out on the page. The intellectual writing is when you have a tune in your head spinning around for many years and you almost rewrite it. And the last is spiritual writing, which is something that comes from a higher power that kind of writes itself and you’re channeling.”

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However, in the mid 1960s, The Beatles brought the British Invasion to the U.S. and pushed the music of Sedaka and his contemporaries off the charts. But even though he had less success as a singer during the back half of the decade, he kept writing songs for others, including The Monkees and The 5th Dimension.

Neil Sedaka in London in 1976.Credit: David Redfern/Redferns/Getty

Of his career low, he told CBS in 2012, "The creative mind is still working, and it's a drive. You have to prove yourself each time. You have to raise the level of Neil Sedaka. You have to top yourself."

After the failure of his 1971 album Emergence, Sedaka moved to the UK. His 1973 album The Tra-La Days Are Over contained “Love Will Keep Us Together,” which would become a No. 1 hit for Captain & Tennille two years later. Sedaka also cowrote the song "Ring Ring" for ABBA, and it became the band's first global hit and the title song of their 1973 debut album.

Neil Sedaka in London in April 1992.Credit: Ian Dickson/Redferns

Sedaka also connected with Elton John, who was a major fan. He signed Sedaka to his label Rocket Record Company, Limited and they plotted a U.S. comeback. “He absolutely re-invented my career,” Sedaka told Forward in 2012.

They released Sedaka's Back in 1974, composed of songs from his albums that had been released only in the U.K. He hit No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 again with "Laughter in the Rain" in 1974. His song “Bad Blood” also hit No. 1 the next year, and he brought a slowed-down remake of his earlier hit "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" into the Top 10.

Neil Sedaka in New York City in October 2005.Credit: Evan Agostini/Getty

Overall, Sedaka released more than 25 studio albums. He was a five-time Grammy nominee, and in 1983 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978, and a street in Brighton Beach was renamed “Neil Sedaka Way” in his honor. The singer-songwriter continued to perform into his later years, often posting videos on his Instagram.

Of his long-lasting career, he told Syracuse.com in 2011, “I work very hard for it. It’s more than luck. I think it’s really trying to fit into the culture of the time. You try to be as contemporary as you can. I can’t change the voice.”

He married Leba Strassberg in 1962. They shared two children, Dara and Marc. Dara, also a musician, appeared on a few of her father’s recordings in the 1980s, and together they sang the hit duet “Should've Never Let You Go."

Sedaka is survived by his wife and children.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”