Neil Sedaka: "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"

July 30, 1962 (2 weeks)

The last time he came up in this space, I knocked Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" for its naff lyrics. Being that this was the task of childhood friend Howard Greenfield, this isn't directly the singer/composer's fault but it was his name and picture on the sleeve of the 45 so the buck stopped with him. Much to Greenfield's credit, he got better as a wordsmith — even though there's a good chance he and Sedaka weren't even aware of it at the time.

Rather amazingly, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" is one of two CHUM chart toppers from 1962 to manage to make it back to number one on Canada's RPM Top 40 over a decade later. (RPM would take over from CHUM midway through 1964 which will be dealt with when we get there) But while the other one will be blogged about just the once - because it was a straight up reissue, rather than a re-recording; again, I'll discuss it further when it comes up - what might well be Neil Sedaka's signature hit will be the subject of two separate entries, one on the original here and another on his "cover" from 1976. For, apart from the lyrics being the same, the two have very little else in common; listeners who have only been half paying attention — of which I may or may not be one, I'd rather not say — would likely assume that they are two entirely different songs that happen to have the same title. (As if to address this, the '76 version begins with a brief sample of the original)

Revamping old songs is nothing new. Louis Armstrong was constantly doing updated recordings of his work, even some from his groudbreaking Hot Fives and Sevens sessions. His maudlin rendition of "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me" from the orchestra and strings adorned I've Got the World on a String was followed a couple years later by a happy-go-lucky take for his team up with composer Duke Ellington on the astonishing The Great Summit. Others in jazz were similarly interested in multiple tries at with the same songs including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk. In pop and rock the practice is less common but not unheard of. The Beach Boys turned the goofy novelty of "Help Me Ronda" into a bona fide smash "Help Me Rhonda". The stadium rock plea of Eric Clapton's "Layla" later became more mature and reflective on the guitarist's MTV Unplugged show.

Sedaka's two versions of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" are not unlike "Layla" (and, therefore, the reverse of "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me"). On this first attempt, it's as if crafting the most addictive pop sound was the priority with little consideration for Greenfield's lyrics. And, honestly, if you're clever enough to conjure up a doo-wop arrangement like this, why would you have concern for anything else? Sedaka has admitted that he and Greenfield couldn't come up with lyrics to fit so they settled on a bit of scat-filled fun. Even where there are proper words, the 'come-a, come-a down, dooby doo down down' line still hogged the spotlight. And why not? As Tom Breihan notes, "he sounds like he already knows that this pathetic plea is going to work because he sold it with all the verve it needed". The '75 version might beg to differ but that's an argument for another time.

Sedaka's voice is so unabashedly bright and cheerful that, once again, you might not notice that deep down this is a sad song. Plus, he was still just twenty-three years old and perhaps not yet worn down by decades of love gone pear-shaped to be appropriately depressive or cynical. (That said, my early twenties was when I was at my peak of relationship pessimism so who the hell knows?) But in catering towards what was still a young and naive audience, a big bright pop hit was all that was needed. He just wasn't to know that there would be much more below the surface.

Score: 8