YMMV / Neil Sedaka

• Covered Up:
  • "The Diary" was written for and recorded first by Little Anthony and the Imperials. However, their version was not released until after Sedaka's own version was, and the latter ended up being the hit.
  • He was the first to record "It Hurts To Be In Love" but his label (RCA Victor) rejected it because it wasn't recorded at their studios as stipulated in his contract; an attempt at re-recording it at their studios proved unsatisfactory. Gene Pitney took the backing track and recorded his own vocal, and wound up having a hit.
  • Sedaka co-wrote and recorded "Rainy Jane" in 1969 but it sank without a trace. Two years later Davy Jones covered it and had his biggest solo hit.
  • He co-wrote and recorded "Love Will Keep Us Together" first, then Mac & Katie Kissoon did the first Cover Version (which was a hit on the Dutch charts), before Captain & Tennille turned it into their Signature Song. But the Shout-Out that Toni Tennille gave during the Fade Out ("Sedaka's back!") reminded listeners where the song came from.
  • "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" zig-zags it a little. Tony Christie's version was a European hit in 1971, but Sedaka didn't record it until 1977 (under the truncated title "Amarillo"), and Sedaka's version was more successful in America (#4 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, #44 on the Hot 100; Christie's had only limped to #121). But then the Peter Kay-led revival of Christie's version in 2005 surpassed its original 1971 performance in the UK (#18) and became a #1 hit there.
• Glurge: "Next Door to an Angel" is a particularly chilling example, in which Sedaka delights in describing his young neighbour's physical development ("She used to be such a skinny little girl/But all of a sudden, she's out of this world!") and plans to "make that angel mine"; while the girl next door is explicitly identified as 16, the narrator is suspiciously not. And yet, it's all cheerfully sung to the most cheesy, goofy rhythm imaginable. It was probably intended to be from the viewpoint of one teen singing about another a la Paul Anka's "Puppy Love", but "Right Next Door" was released when Sedaka was 23, so in real life a 23-year-old singing those lyrics about his 16-year-old neighbor is still pretty creepy. The same viewpoint and depiction also applies to "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen", which was released in 1961, one year prior to "Right Next Door".
• Narm Charm: He sings the Hebrew versions of his songs "Oh! Carol!" and "You Mean Everything to Me" with a really thick American accent, but thanks to a very eloquent translation (albeit using some flowery language) it comes off at least as somewhat endearing.
• Signature Song: "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" and "Oh! Carol".

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