The Definitive Collection

Released in 2007, The Definitive Collection is a 22-track Neil Sedaka career retrospective spanning roughly five decades of his work as a singer, pianist, and songwriter. It opens with the bright, youthful pop that made Sedaka a major early-1960s hitmaker—“Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” “Oh! Carol,” “Calendar Girl,” “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen,” and “Next Door to an Angel”—showcasing his polished melodies, buoyant piano-led arrangements, and collaborations with lyricist Howard Greenfield. The compilation runs 74 minutes and frames these familiar singles as the foundation of a wider artistic overview.

Rather than stopping at the teen-pop period, the collection follows Sedaka into his more mature 1970s writing and performing career. It includes “Laughter in the Rain,” “The Immigrant,” “Solitaire” in a live rendition, “Bad Blood,” and “The Hungry Years,” alongside songs he wrote that became hits for other artists, including “Love Will Keep Us Together.” The final stretch adds less-common material: a slower reworking of “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” previously unavailable demos of “Where the Boys Are” and “It Hurts to Be in Love,” plus “What a Surprise” and “Junkie for Your Love,” then appearing on CD for the first time. As a result, it works both as an accessible introduction to Sedaka’s best-known songs and as a more rounded document of his evolution from Brill Building-era pop craftsman to adult-pop songwriter.