Neil Sedaka

A hitmaker as both a singer and a songwriter, Neil Sedaka enjoyed a string of Top 10 hits as a vocalist in the early 1960s, including "Calendar Girl" and "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" while penning memorable songs for the likes of Connie Francis, Bobby Darin and many others. But with the arrival of The Beatles and other rock acts, Sedaka's boyish voice and wistful paeans to teen love were considered passé in the mid-1960s, though he continued to generate hits for others, including The Monkees and Frankie Valli. He rebounded in the early 1970s with more mature material like "Laughter in the Rain" and "Bad Blood" while simultaneously scoring hits with covers like "Love Will Keep Us Together" by the Captain & Tennille, among many others. Sedaka's career as a pop artist ran its course again in the early 1980s, though his vast catalog continued to provide gold for newer artists, including Clay Aiken. His collection of hit songs, spread across the latter half of the 20th century, made Neil Sedaka one of its most accomplished singing and composing talents.