Laughter In The Rain: The Best Of Neil Sedaka 1974-1980 CD

Laughter In The Rain

Compilation producer: Cary E. Mansfield.
Includes liner notes by Neil Sedaka and Fred Bronson.
Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot.
Personnel: Neil Sedaka (vocals, piano).
Laughter in the Rain: The Best of Neil Sedaka, 1974-1980 supersedes the out-of-print 1977 LP compilation Neil Sedaka's Greatest Hits, including all 12 of its tracks and adding another eight, among them two (the U.K. Top 40 hit "The Queen of 1964" and "Rock and Roll Wedding Day") not previously released in the U.S. Nine of Sedaka's ten Billboard Hot 100 hits of the period are included (as with Neil Sedaka's Greatest Hits, the missing title is "Amarillo," which reached number 44), along with his versions of songs he wrote that were hits for others: "Love Will Keep Us Together," "Lonely Night (Angel Face)," and "Solitaire." After disappearing from the charts in the mid-'60s, Sedaka forged a comeback in the wake of fellow Brill Building writer Carole King's early-'70s breakthrough. Always a faithful student of the hit parade, Sedaka realized that, like King, he could modify his initial teen pop sound into a modicum of the currently popular singer/songwriter style, even to the point of re-tooling his old hit "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" into a melancholy ballad that hit all over again. He also became the willing protégé of his primary disciple, Elton John, whose style is a clear influence and who even steps in to provide prominent background vocals on "Bad Blood" and "Steppin' Out." But beyond his adaptive abilities, Sedaka, working alternately with his old lyric collaborator, Howard Greenfield, and a new one, Phil Cody, and even writing a few lyrics himself, demonstrated growth as a songwriter capable of appealing to the mature concerns of the audience who had listened to him in their innocent teens and were now facing middle age with a combination of sober experience and guarded hope. ~ William Ruhlmann