Neil Sedaka dies at 86 - wrote three No. 1 hits, 30 chart entries

Neil Sedaka, the songwriter and performer whose bright melodies helped define early pop and who wrote hits for generations of artists, has died at 86, his family said Friday. "Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka," the family said in a statement carried across news outlets. "A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed."

At the time of the announcement, no cause or place of death had been disclosed. NBC News reported that his cause of death was not clear, and the BBC said the family did not disclose where he died. Early reports described the notice as breaking news and said additional details were not immediately available.

Sedaka rose to fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s with a string of pop hits that married a boyish soprano to jaunty piano and hook-driven songwriting. His signature record, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," reached No. 1 in 1962, and other early hits included "Calendar Girl," "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" and "Oh! Carol," the latter written about his high school sweetheart Carole King, ABC News and AP reported. AP and ABC7 noted he was a key member of the Brill Building songwriting scene and teamed with lyricist and boyhood neighbor Howard Greenfield on many of those songs.

After a mid-1960s decline in his solo profile amid the British Invasion, Sedaka sustained a prolific career writing for other artists. The Captain & Tennille's 1975 cover of "Love Will Keep Us Together" went to No. 1; ABC News described that rendition as having "earned Sedaka and co-writer Howard Greenfield a Grammy for record of the year." Sedaka mounted a commercial comeback in the 1970s with his own hits such as "Laughter in the Rain" and "Bad Blood," and a slowed-down 1975 re-recording of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" returned him to the Top 10 and, ABC reported, earned a Grammy nomination. NBC noted that the mid-1970s re-recording was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1977 Grammys but lost to "I Write the Songs," performed by Barry Manilow.

Billboard tallies, cited by NBC News, put Sedaka's commercial reach in stark numbers: three No. 1 hits, nine Top 10 hits and 30 songs on the Billboard singles chart. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983 and received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, ABC reported.

Sedaka's biography reflected a classic American story of immigrant roots and neighborhood music. He was born and raised in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach, and NBC noted his father was the son of Turkish Jewish immigrants while his mother was of Polish-Russian Jewish descent. The BBC reported that he studied at the Julliard School and was an early founder of the doo-wop group The Tokens; the BBC also recounted that, as a teenager, he and a neighbor wrote "Stupid Cupid," recorded by Connie Francis in 1958.

Across a six-decade career Sedaka also collaborated with or wrote for artists including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and Elton John. Reflecting on his craft in past interviews, he told Billboard in 2010 that "I always make a conscious effort to write different styles and moods," and, in a 2012 interview quoted by the BBC, he said, "It's wonderful for the soul to be able to play classical music" while noting he had "no regrets" about choosing to perform his own songs.

Sedaka's death removes a familiar voice from American popular music and spotlights the recurring tension between family privacy and public interest when prominent figures die. No further details about his passing were available Friday. News organizations said they would update coverage as additional information becomes public.