Musician died after being taken to hospital in Los Angeles, with his family remembering him as a ‘true rock and roll legend’ and ‘inspiration to millions’
Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwriter behind Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Oh! Carol, Calendar Girl and Bad Blood as well as many hits performed by other artists including Stupid Cupid and Love Will Keep Us Together, has died aged 86.
A representative confirmed his death to Variety on Friday, hours after he was reportedly taken to hospital in Los Angeles. No cause of death was given.
“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” a statement from Sedaka’s family reads. “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.”
Born in 1939, Sedaka was a child prodigy at the piano: he was nine when he got a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York. “Music is so much a part of me: my parents told me that when I was an infant, I wouldn’t eat unless the radio was playing music,” he told the Guardian in 2012.
