First off, I never met Neil Sedaka. But I once saw him put on a very good show at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. I can’t tell you exactly how long ago this was but they tore down the Sands in 1996 so it was probably before then.
I had a friend who was in another show at another hotel and she had the night off. She also had free tickets to see Mr. Sedaka — some sort ot reciprocal agreement — and wasn’t going to use them. I don’t think she really knew who he was but I persuaded her to go and about three songs into the show, she whispered to me, “He’s really good.” And Sedaka hadn’t even gotten around to his big hits yet.
The show was just him and a piano, singing songs, telling stories about his career and chatting with the folks in the front row. It felt more like an evening in his living room but he was in good voice and very charming, and he played a wider range of styles than I expected. And when he played one of his biggest hits, “Bad Blood,” he somehow managed to simultaneously sing the lead vocals and the backup singing that was done on the original release by Elton John.
That’s about all I have to say about him. He was real good that night at the Sands. We had a great time and he seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. Oh — and I later learned that he was right. Breaking up is very hard to do.
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