After the relative failure of the follow-up singles " I'm Sorry I Made You Cry " ( which stalled at No. 36 ) and " Heartaches " ( failing to chart at all ), Francis met with Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield who sang a number of ballads they had written for her.

Greenfield urged Sedaka to sing a song they had written that morning with The Shepherd Sisters in mind.

Sedaka protested that Francis would be insulted, but Greenfield said that since she hated all the other songs they had performed, they had nothing to lose.

#" Breaking Up Is Hard to Do " ( Howard Greenfield, Neil Sedaka ) – 2: 30

* Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield

When Sedaka was 13, a neighbor heard him playing and introduced him to her 16-year-old son, Howard Greenfield, an aspiring poet and lyricist.

Sedaka and Greenfield wrote songs together throughout much of their young lives, with Sedaka going on to being a major teen pop star and the pair also writing hits for a litany of other artists as well as for Sedaka's own career.

Sedaka and Greenfield mutually agreed that their partnership reached an end with " Our Last Song Together ".

In terms of the title, however, Sedaka and Greenfield used the more traditional spelling of the word " Carol " without the " e "; King would respond with her own novelty song, " Oh!

When Sedaka was not recording his own songs, he and Howard Greenfield were writing for other performers, most notably in their earliest days Connie Francis.

She was introduced to Sedaka and Greenfield, who played every ballad they had written for her.

Sedaka suggested to Greenfield a song they had written that morning for a girl group.

Greenfield protested because the song had been promised to the girl group, but Sedaka insisted on playing " Stupid Cupid ".

Sedaka and Greenfield wrote many of Connie Francis ' hits, such as " Fallin '" and the " Theme from Where the Boys Are ", the film in which she starred.

Sedaka and Greenfield co-wrote " Love Will Keep Us Together ," a No. 1 hit for The Captain & Tennille and the biggest hit for the entire year of 1975.

" The Sedaka / Greenfield composition was originally recorded by Connie Francis and has gone on to become her signature song.

When Sedaka moved his family to the UK, British singer Tony Christie recorded and released the Sedaka / Greenfield composition "( Is This the Way to ) Amarillo?

" Right or Wrong ," co-written with original music partner Howard Greenfield, was done in traditional street-corner, layered doo-wop vocal harmonies with Sedaka overlaying his own voice to achieve the effect for which he was well known in his " early " heyday of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

#" Puppet Man " ( Howard Greenfield, Neil Sedaka ) – 3: 00

Kirshner achieved his first major success in the late 1950s and early 1960s as co-owner of the influential New York-based publishing company Aldon Music with partner Al Nevins, which had under contract at various times several of the most important songwriters of the so-called " Brill Building " school, including Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Phil Spector, Howard Greenfield, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Jack Keller.

New York was one of the epicentres of the Latin-jazz crossover, so it is not surprising that the other major pop style to show a strong influence from bossa nova was the so-called " Brill Building Sound ", exemplified by the work of the New York-based songwriter teams like Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield, Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich and especially Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Greenfield co-wrote four songs that reached # 1 on the US Billboard charts: " Breaking Up Is Hard to Do ", as recorded by Neil Sedaka ; " Everybody's Somebody's Fool " and " Breakin ' in a Brand New Broken Heart ", both as recorded by Connie Francis, and " Love Will Keep Us Together ", as recorded by The Captain & Tennille.

Sedaka also recorded in Spanish, German, Hebrew, and Japanese.

Sedaka also made an appearance in the 1968 movie Playgirl Killer, with a scene of him performing a song called " The Waterbug ".

Sedaka also released one final album of new material with RCA, consisting of a live concert he gave in Sydney, Australia.

Hearing Sedaka had a song published by the age of 13 gave Folds the goal of also getting a song published by his 13th birthday, despite the fact that Sedaka did not actually publish his first song until he was 16.

Sedaka also released the song in the U. S. in 1977 as the shortened " Amarillo ," but it was only a mid-chart entry, peaking just shy of the Top 40.

In early 2007, Sedaka signed his first recording contract in more than two decades with Razor and Tie Records, a small-but-growing, New York-based independent label with a talent roster that also includes Joan Baez, Vanessa Carlton, Foreigner, Joe Jackson, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

" Sedaka also toured The Philippines for his May 17, 2008, concert at the Araneta Coliseum.

*" Solitaire " ( Neil Sedaka song ) ( 1972 ), a song also covered by the Carpenters

She has also collaborated with Neil Diamond, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Masser, Peter Allen, Melissa Manchester, Sheena Easton, Bruce Roberts, Neil Sedaka, David Foster, Albert Hammond, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Michael McDonald, James Ingram, Donald Fagen, Steve Perry, Babyface, and Clint Eastwood ( for the film True Crime ).

Medress was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended Brooklyn's Abraham Lincoln High School, where in 1955 he joined a doo-wop group called the Linc-Tones, which also included Neil Sedaka.

It also became the home of Cliff Richard, Neil Sedaka ( whose three most successful U. S. mid-1970s albums were on Rocket ), Colin Blunstone, The Foster Brothers, The Hudson Brothers, Blue, Kiki Dee, Judie Tzuke, The Lambrettas, Junior Campbell, Brian & Brenda Russell ( who had an early, rare-to-find disco hit " Nobody Loves Me Like You Do "), and the Dutch band Solution.

On Sedaka's own website, there is a listing in his discography catalog for a 1958 release of Neil Sedaka and The Tokens as well as a second album, also during 1958, named, Neil Sedaka and The Tokens and Coins.

He also co-wrote numerous other top 10 hits for Neil Sedaka ( including " Oh!

Greenfield also collaborated with other Aldon songwriters, including Helen Miller, with whom he co-wrote " Foolish Little Girl " ( The Shirelles ' final Top Ten hit ), " It Hurts To Be in Love ", originally intended for Neil Sedaka but ultimately recorded by Gene Pitney, as well the theme for the TV series " Hazel ".

Sedaka and Greenfield also continued to work together as Sedaka's schedule allowed.

" Tears on My Pillow " has also been covered by Timi Yuro, Chuck Jackson, Bobby Vee, Lou Christie, Martha and the Vandellas, Bobby Vinton, Johnny Tillotson, Neil Sedaka, Reba McEntire, Jodeci, Lorrie Morgan, Derrick Morgan with Lyn Tait & The Jets, Neils Children, and The Fleetwoods.

Since 1975 he has also engineered and / or produced albums by Justin Hayward and John Lodge ( Blue Jays, 1975 ), Neil Sedaka ( Sedaka's Back, 1975 ), Sad Café ( Sad Cafe, 1980, Facades, 1979 ) and Agnetha Fältskog ( Eyes of a Woman, 1985 ).

This song was a rarity at the time as it was one of the few songs Sedaka wrote by himself, without a collaborator.

) In their first year there, Greenfield and Sedaka wrote material for Jimmy Clanton and Bobby Darin, and scored their first major pop hit single with Connie Francis ' " Stupid Cupid ", which hit # 14 on the US pop charts in September 1958.

Sedaka and Greenfield wrote two potential title songs for the film, but producer Joe Pasternak passed over the song Francis and the songwriting duo preferred in favor of a lush ' 50s style movie theme.