Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: What was the first band Neil Sedaka was in?
After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School, Sedaka and some of his classmates formed a band called the Linc-Tones. The band had minor regional hits with songs like "While I Dream", "I Love My Baby", "Come Back, Joe", and "Don't Go", before Sedaka launched his solo career and left the group in 1957. The Linc-Tones, later renamed the Tokens after Sedaka's departure, would go on to have four top-40 hits of their own without Sedaka. Sedaka's first three solo singles, "Laura Lee", "Ring-a-Rockin'", and "Oh, Delilah!" failed to become hits (although "Ring-a-Rockin'" earned him the first of many appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand), but they demonstrated his ability to perform as a solo singer, so RCA Victor signed him to a recording contract.
On April 7, 2006, Sedaka was appearing at the Royal Albert Hall and filming for the above-referenced CD/DVD package, when he was interrupted mid-concert by a gentleman who walked onstage from the wings. The planned scenario was that Sedaka was to begin performing "Amarillo", and after one verse, the audience was to be surprised by the appearance of Christie for an eventual duet. But at the interruption, a seemingly annoyed Sedaka asked, "What is this?" The interloper was a representative from Guinness Records, and he was there to present Sedaka with an award from Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums for composing "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo?", the most successful UK single of the 21st century (up to that date, of course).[29][30] After the presentation, Sedaka proceeded into "Amarillo," Christie entered onstage to an eruption of cheers from the audience, and after the successful duet performance, the two men walked offstage together, triumphantly arm in arm, as the first half of Sedaka's concert came to a close.
Neil Sedaka: 14 Knockouts is a West German-produced compilation album containing the works of American pop star Neil Sedaka. It was released in 1977 on the RCA International label.
Sedaka recorded one more album with the band members.
Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits is a solo album by Neil Sedaka released in 1961 immediately after the cover versions of earlier hits in "Circulate".
Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits is a 1963 compilation album of twelve of the most popular hits of Neil Sedaka's tenure with RCA Victor.
The album was re-released in 1975 and again in 1992.
Neil Sedaka's Greatest Hits is a compilation album containing the works of the American pop singer Neil Sedaka. It was originally released in the UK and throughout Western Europe in 1980 on the RCA International label. It was issued again on CD ten years later in 1990. The album contains songs that Neil Sedaka recorded while with RCA Records from 1959 to 1963.
Neil Sedaka: All Time Greatest Hits, Volume 2 is a compilation album containing the works of American pop singer Neil Sedaka. The songs featured are some of Sedaka's lesser-known songs from his days with RCA Victor from 1958–1966, songs that were not included on the 1988 album "Neil Sedaka: All Time Greatest Hits". The album was released in 1991 by RCA Records.
Sedaka was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Mac Sedaka, was a taxi driver and a Sephardi Jew of Turkish origin.[1][2] Neil's mother, Eleanor (née Appel), was an Ashkenazi Jew of Polish/Russian origin. Neil's grandparents came to the United States from Istanbul, then known as Constantinople, in 1910.[3] He grew up in Brighton Beach, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.[4] Sedaka is a cousin of the late singer Eydie Gormé.
My Yiddishe Momme: Neil Sedaka at Chequers is a 1966 Australian compilation album containing the works of American pop singer Neil Sedaka. Eight of the songs on this album had been previously released earlier in Sedaka's career, but it included four new recordings produced in RCA's Australian studios in Sydney, Australia, following a concert Sedaka had given at Sydney's famous Chequers nightclub. It was released on RCA's Australian label.
In 2010, Wounded Bird Records reissued the tracks from "The Many Sides Of Neil Sedaka" in combination with the songs from the 1961 album "Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil And His Other Hits".
Sedaka opted to record at Strawberry after meeting Gouldman in New York and discovering his association with Stewart, Godley and Creme. The trio had recorded the single "Umbopo", which Sedaka liked, under the band name of Doctor Father.
Neil Sedaka: Italiano is a 1964 compilation album containing twelve of Neil Sedaka's Italian-language recordings. It was released in Italy by RCA Victor's Italiana studios. Of the twelve songs on the album, six were recorded by Sedaka in English. A seventh song on the album, "A 16 Anni Tu Vuoi Amare", is an Italian-language version of Andrea Carroll's 1963 hit, "It Hurts To Be Sixteen".
His work with the four British musicians proved to be a pivotal influence on their collective decision to forge a career as a band. Gouldman recalled: "It was Neil Sedaka's success that did it, I think. We'd just been accepting any job we were offered and were getting really frustrated. We knew that we were worth more than that, but it needed something to prod us into facing that. We were a bit choked to think that we'd done the whole of Neil's first album with him just for flat session fees when we could have been recording our own material."
Neil Sedaka In The Studio, 1958-1962, alternatively titled Neil Sedaka: The RCA Sessions, 1958-1962, is a 2013 album containing 70 minutes' worth of outtakes from Neil Sedaka's recording sessions during the early years of his career with RCA Victor Records. It was released in Europe on the Astro Records label.
Stairway to Heaven: The Best of Neil Sedaka is a 2004 compilation CD album containing the works of American pop star Neil Sedaka. The songs on this album come from the period of 1959-1964, when Sedaka was affiliated with RCA Victor records. This CD was issued by BMG Special Markets.
The Many Sides Of Neil Sedaka is a 1978 compilation album released by RCA Victor Records containing the works of pop singer Neil Sedaka. The album contains some of Sedaka's lesser-known works in the period from 1958-1965, although three of the songs on the album were charting hits at the time of their original release.
"Stairway to Heaven" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It was released as a 45 rpm single and appeared on Sedaka's 1960 album "Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits".
Rock with Neil Sedaka or just Neil Sedaka is the first major solo album of Neil Sedaka released in 1959 after two 1958 albums under the titles "Neil Sedaka and The Tokens" and "Neil Sedaka and The Tokens and Coins". The album was released by RCA Victor and was produced by Al Nevins.
The album contains 12 songs, all of them co-written by Sedaka and his friend Howard Greenfield. Two of the songs became successful singles for Sedaka from the album, namely "The Diary", his debut single that was a hit, reaching No. 14 on the US Billboard charts, and "I Go Ape", a single that was relatively successful in the United States reaching No. 42, but did far better in the UK Singles Chart, making it up to No. 9 and his debut single in the United Kingdom.
Neil Sedaka: Italiano Volume 2 is a 1965 compilation containing a second set of Italian-language recordings by the American pop star Neil Sedaka. It was released on RCA Victor's Italiana label in Italy.
"Oh! Carol" is an international hit written by Neil Sedaka in 1958. The song was co-written with Howard Greenfield. The song reached #9 in the American charts in 1959. It also earned Sedaka his first #1 ranking when it went to #1 on the Italian charts for four weeks in January 1960. After release of single, it was included in the album "Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil and His Other Hits". The song is noted for Sedaka's spoken recitation of the verse, the second time around.
Brighton Beach Memories — Neil Sedaka Sings Yiddish is a 2003 album by Neil Sedaka for Sameach Music. Sedaka went on to perform the songs with the Klezmatics as a benefit for the Jewish Theater of New York in 2004.
Sedaka and Greenfield also wrote some of Jimmy Clanton's hits, such as "Another Sleepless Night," "What Am I Gonna Do?" and "All the Words in the World." Sedaka himself recorded each of these three songs: "Another Sleepless Night" appears on his Rock With Sedaka debut album; "What Am I Gonna Do?" was the B-side of "Going Home to Mary Lou" and appeared on his 1961 album Neil Sedaka Sings "Little Devil" and His Other Hits; and "All the Words in the World" was recorded but was kept in the RCA Victor vaults until 1977, at the height of Sedaka's return to popularity, when it was released on the album Neil Sedaka: The '50s and '60s.
In early 2011, Sedaka recorded two duets ("Brighton" and "The Immigrant") with singer Jim Van Slyke for Van Slyke's Neil Sedaka tribute album, The Sedaka Sessions. LML Records released this album in August 2011.[34]
While Francis was writing in her diary, Sedaka asked her if he could read what she had written. As mentioned earlier, Francis said no. This inspired Sedaka to write "The Diary", his own first hit single. 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. This hit the Top 5 on the Billboard pop singles chart and Francis had several No. 1 singles. "Where the Boys Are" eventually became her signature song.