Aiken's Solitaire Success Put Sedaka Hit on Charts For 6th Consecutive Decade

Another positive mention about Solitaire, which Clay released as a single last year. It has since sold nearly 500,000 copies and topped the Billboard charts for weeks, and astounding feat for a CD single. Neil Sedeka was a co-writer for the song. A similar article last month in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette also mentioned Clay.

Still a hit maker
Neil Sedaka continues to write new music after 53 years in the biz
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

With almost 50 years of hits to his credit, Neil Sedaka isn't ready to live off the past. In fact, he'll be playing more new music than usual this weekend, as he's back in Honolulu for two solo concerts at the Hawaii Theatre.

Sedaka sounded very much like the singer-songwriter who was a consistent hit maker in the late '50s to early '60s. Sedaka made his hit debut as a recording artist in 1958 with "The Diary," followed with a string of bigger pop hits that included "Oh! Carol," "Stairway to Heaven," "Calendar Girl," "Little Devil," and "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen" before hitting the top of the charts with "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" in '62.

Jump forward a decade to the mid-'70s and Sedaka was back on the charts, and he's never left since then. Sedaka celebrated a career milestone last March when Clay Aiken charted with "Solitaire." Aiken's success put a Sedaka composition on the Billboard charts for the sixth consecutive decade.