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Showers sweet 16's Birthdays Outdoor Parties 1-01311411741201111:Thilij 11 MILE ROAD BETWEEN LAHSER & TELEGRAPH FAX: 354-0647 354-3700 classic italian simplicity 30715 West 10 Mile • Farmington Hills Enjoy Our Beautiful European Garden Room. For Intimate, Elegant Weddings, Pre-Nuptial Dinners, Showers, Business Meetings, With Adjoining Courtyard For Appetizers & Cocktails. Romantic Fireside Dining 84 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1991 For Reservations: 474 - 3033 Music Pioneer Stays On Track RITA CHARLESTON Special to The Jewish News I n a career that spans more than three decades, singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka has gone from fame to obscurity, then back to fame again. A teen-age idol of the 1950s and early '60s, Mr. Sedaka was engulfed by the wave of British rock groups that inun- dated the pop music charts in the mid-1960s. But his con- tinued success as a song- writer paved the way for his comeback as a performer in Great Britain in 1970. Today the career of this legendary music pioneer is busier than ever. His latest album containing all original compositions is currently in release in Europe. He is also negotiating to star in a one- man Broadway show, similar to his record-breaking perfor- mance at the Palladium in England. In addition, a two- hour television special based on his life is set to appear on one of the major networks next season. Born in 1939 in Brooklyn, one of two children of Mac Sedaka, a taxi driver, and Eleanor (Appel) Sedaka, Sephardic Jews who emigrated from Istanbul, Turkey, Mr. Sedaka followed in the footsteps of his grand- mother, a concert pianist. He showed such musical promise that at age 9 he was accepted as a scholarship student in the preparatory division of the Julliard School of Music, which he attended for the next eight years while conti- nuing his education in the local public schools. But even while studying to be a classical pianist, Mr. Sedaka was still a teen-ager at heart, moved by the sounds of modern-day music and especially by the newest music of all: rock 'n roll. "By the age of 13, I discovered that I had the gift of songwriting," says Mr. Sedaka. "My earliest inspira- tions came from listening to a very legendary program in New York called 'The Make Believe Ballroom.' I heard the songs of Patti Page and John- nie Ray, Rosemary Clooney, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Kay Star." But when rock 'n roll came on the scene, Mr. Sedaka was enthralled. "That was a new kind of music," he explains. "As a teen-ager going through it, Neil Sedaka discovering it for the first time, we all began living and breathing it. So I actually grew up on the streets of New York singing doo-wop music. I even had a group called 'The Tokens,' which was a suc- cessful New York City doo- wop group." Mr. Sedaka's songwriting career began at age 13 with a 16-year-old neighbor, Howard Greenfield. The pair became so prolific that, by Mr. Sedaka's own reckoning, he and his young partner wrote "a song a day for three years." Mr. Sedaka eventually became a full-fledged song- writer with his first major hit when Connie Francis record- ed "Stupid Cupid" in 1958. "From then on, I chose to perform and sing my own When rock 'n roll came on the scene, Mr. Sedaka was enthralled. songs," he recalls. He obvious- ly made the right decision because from 1958 to 1962, Mr. Sedaka sold 20 million records as a solo recording artist/writer. During his first years of singing stardom, he rode the height of popularity with such hits as "Calendar Girl," "Oh! Carol," "Stairway to Heaven" and "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do." His favorite? "Laughter in the Rain," he answers without hesitation. "Actually, I'm very proud in general. I've reached the number one spot on the charts six or seven times, so really, all those songs have become very special to me." For a while, however, Mr.