Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Seats podcast.
Speaker 1: My guest today is the one and only nil Sid Doctor.
Speaker 2: Hi, how are you? Thanks for having me?
Speaker 1: In February of sixty five, I saw you with the
Speaker 1: Concord Hotel.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, gracious.
Speaker 1: I would not expect you to remember that specific show,
Speaker 1: but can you tell me about you and your relationship
Speaker 1: with the catskills in the Worshpell.
Speaker 2: My wife's mother had a hotel a Kachlaine in the
Speaker 2: Monticello area. It was called esther Manor, and the big
Speaker 2: place to play was the Concord Hotel. And the audience
Speaker 2: was the worst, the worst audience. Who could imagine. They
Speaker 2: were sitting on their hands, and they wanted to know
Speaker 2: when the next meal was being served, and they used
Speaker 2: to applaud by doing this. They were too tired to
Speaker 2: clap their hands from the food.
Speaker 1: I remember at the Concord they used to give you
Speaker 1: these little bangers, like you know, chopsticks with a ball
Speaker 1: at the end to hit on the table to clap.
Speaker 2: That is right. They were too tired from all the
Speaker 2: meals that were served, so they tapped the table with
Speaker 2: this little wooden thing.
Speaker 1: So you were a New Yorker. You grew up as
Speaker 1: a Jewish New Yorker. Did you spend time in the
Speaker 1: Catskills growing up?
Speaker 2: I had a band at nineteen. We were called the
Speaker 2: Norton Ells. We were three pieces. I played the piano,
Speaker 2: Norman played the trube, and David played the bass. And
Speaker 2: we played for the Chatshaw Lessons, the Mumbo Lessons. We
Speaker 2: played for the show. If Heinsheins and Dead would come in,
Speaker 2: they would put a manuscript in front of me and
Speaker 2: I would have to do their show by reading right
Speaker 2: off the manuscript.
Speaker 1: You know these challenging times. Have you experienced any anti
Speaker 1: Semitism in your career.
Speaker 2: In the musical field? Never?
Speaker 1: Never, Well, how about the non musical field?
Speaker 2: Uh hahuh. Well they thought perhaps I was Italian or
Speaker 2: Polish or Turkish. I am Turkish now, but I never
Speaker 2: really got a face to face with it.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're eighty five years old, to what the gue?
Speaker 1: Are you still active today?
Speaker 2: I play the piano. I'm on serious radio with the
Speaker 2: program I played by Classical. I started as a concert
Speaker 2: pianist at the Juilliard and I love to play Chopin
Speaker 2: and Beethoven and I watched old movies on TCM, of course,
Speaker 2: and then I will go to lunch and dinner every day,
Speaker 2: out lunch and dinner out every day, and I will
Speaker 2: I will write some songs. I've written two songs after
Speaker 2: five years of not writing, and they're pretty good.
Speaker 1: Okay, what was the process? Five years go by? Will
Speaker 1: you just inspired? How do you do it?
Speaker 2: I sat at the piano with a melody first, and
Speaker 2: then my help, Kyle Sitter, had never written a song before,
Speaker 2: and he's young, so I wanted some young words and
Speaker 2: some young phrases, and he was an excellent lyricist. So
Speaker 2: I am going to put it on social media and say, hello, folks,
Speaker 2: I haven't written in five years, and I hope you
Speaker 2: like it. And I like it.
Speaker 1: Okay, the melody? Do you play the piano every day?
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 1: And you just mess around? Or you play classical stuff?
Speaker 1: What do you do?
Speaker 2: I play classical stuff mainly.
Speaker 1: And you say you had a melody. Where did the
Speaker 1: melody come from?
Speaker 2: The melody comes from my head and from my fingers,
Speaker 2: and oh I also do the Alexa. I ask Alexa
Speaker 2: to give me some old Nil Sadaka records, and I'm
Speaker 2: shocked I said, who the hell wrote that? It was me?
Speaker 2: I it's almost like another person. It's weird.
Speaker 1: So where do you live now?
Speaker 2: I live in Los Angeles here and West Hollywood.
Speaker 1: And where do you go to luncheon? Who do you
Speaker 1: in dinner? And who do you go to lunch and
Speaker 1: dinner with?
Speaker 2: With friends? With Barry Manilow in Pump Springs and uh,
Speaker 2: I go to Craigs, and I go to Jane Tannah's
Speaker 2: and I go to Mels for lunch for my poached
Speaker 2: eggs in avocado, and I keep pretty busy.
Speaker 1: And do people recognize you?
Speaker 2: Yes? They do. I had the other day in Mells
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of English people on a tour of
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, and the tour guide said, would you like
Speaker 2: to meet Neil Sadaka? And said, oh, yes, we'd look
Speaker 2: to And there lined up about twenty of them and
Speaker 2: I took a picture with them. It was it was
Speaker 2: very exciting for me and for them. Wow. I played
Speaker 2: all over the world, so I am known in every
Speaker 2: practically every country in the world.
Speaker 1: Just to be clear, you originally in New york Er.
Speaker 1: How long have you lived in.
Speaker 2: LA I at both places? I still do. I have
Speaker 2: in New York Manhattan and here. So I was going
Speaker 2: back and forth.
Speaker 1: And is that based on the weather or anything specific?
Speaker 2: I was getting older, Yes, the weather, and yes I
Speaker 2: have friends here, not in show business, but they're very
Speaker 2: good friends.
Speaker 1: I mean, you obviously are one hundred percent. You know,
Speaker 1: some people are at eighty five or dead. Some people
Speaker 1: are losing their marbles. You a bat one hundred on
Speaker 1: both of those. You're still kicking to have early marbles.
Speaker 1: But what's it like when some of your friends start to.
Speaker 2: Pass I have great memories of them. I think of
Speaker 2: the wonderful times we spent together, and I hope that
Speaker 2: they're at a good place and out of their action paions.
Speaker 1: But how do you cope emotionally with their passing?
Speaker 2: Well, I it's inevitable. Everybody passes one day, so you
Speaker 2: come to terms with it.
Speaker 1: Any advice for those of us who are experiencing that
Speaker 1: for the first time.
Speaker 2: I think you have to go back. There are two deals,
Speaker 2: the young Neil and the old Neal, and you have
Speaker 2: to accept the old deal and embrace the old Neal.
Speaker 2: For I'm very thankful I can walk, I can talk legibly,
Speaker 2: and I can keep active.
Speaker 1: Okay, So since you're bicoastal. What's the difference between LA
Speaker 1: and New York for you?
Speaker 2: The weather, the pace is much slower and calmer in Lah.
Speaker 2: The people are cooler, more relaxed. In New York. It's
Speaker 2: a crazy scene, never sleeps. I didn't write that, okay.
Speaker 1: So you talked earlier about writing a new song, your
Speaker 1: helper helping you with the lyrics. So all these years
Speaker 1: you've never wrote any lyrics.
Speaker 2: I wrote hundreds of songs by myself, and I felt
Speaker 2: that as good as how a Greenfields was Marvelist, as
Speaker 2: good as Still Cody was, there is something when you
Speaker 2: write the music and words yourself, and you can it
Speaker 2: gets from your gajaum, from the stomach, and it comes
Speaker 2: up as a real Neil song from my experiences, from
Speaker 2: my travels, from my whatever.
Speaker 1: But most of your hits were co writes, right.
Speaker 2: The big hit were the album tracks, which I strived
Speaker 2: to make as good as the hits were put in albums.
Speaker 2: At that time, I was a singles artist, so there
Speaker 2: were some great songs that were buried in albums. I
Speaker 2: called them the forgotten children or the neglected children. I'm
Speaker 2: very proud of them.
Speaker 1: You know, some people just making their music. Other people
Speaker 1: are students of the game, the charts, the business. Where
Speaker 1: do you lie on that continuum.
Speaker 2: I look at publicity, I look at the charts, and
Speaker 2: many times I'm inspired by a voice on the radio
Speaker 2: love will keep Us Together. In fact, I was inspired
Speaker 2: by three people, Al Green, Diana Ross, and the Beach Boys.
Speaker 2: Let me explain. I felt that I could write a
Speaker 2: song for these people and tailor made for their voice.
Speaker 2: And I was able to take the voice of Diana
Speaker 2: Ross and make it my own and a song, and
Speaker 2: the Beach Boys beat and Al Green's augmented chors. I
Speaker 2: put them all together like a designer.
Speaker 1: Okay, but many people write music and they feel like
Speaker 1: they're channeling God. If you are writing with those influences,
Speaker 1: are they just embedded in you or are you literally
Speaker 1: sitting at the piano saying, mmm, I got this thought,
Speaker 1: I got this influence, I want this harmony. Like you know,
Speaker 1: the Beach Boys.
Speaker 2: How do you do it well? I've listened to all
Speaker 2: of them very intently, and yes, I have the experience
Speaker 2: of channeling as a antenna. For a couple of the
Speaker 2: songs I really felt came from something spiritual and passed
Speaker 2: through my figures and voice. But that doesn't have and
Speaker 2: very often you have to say, I'm chosen for this,
Speaker 2: and I have to sit very still, and it writes itself.
Speaker 2: As far as Diana ross Al Green the Beach Boys,
Speaker 2: I literally take the beat from the Beach Boys, one
Speaker 2: of their good records, and I take her voice and
Speaker 2: make it into a new song for her. She's a
Speaker 2: big star. She sold a lot, so I want to
Speaker 2: see what made her tick.
Speaker 1: Okay, today you are on serious radio, but are you
Speaker 1: listening to new music?
Speaker 2: I listen to rap. I listen to mostly classical. I
Speaker 2: started as a concert pianist at the juliad So, but
Speaker 2: I listened to Elia Fitzgerald the greatest. I listened to
Speaker 2: Frank Sinatra, and I certainly listened to Frank Sinatra singing
Speaker 2: my song the Hungry Years. Well, I got a shout out.
Speaker 2: And it's a thrill to get a Sinatra record. It's
Speaker 2: a great thrill. Elvis record Solitaire, it's a great thrill.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back to the beginning. So you grew
Speaker 1: up exactly.
Speaker 2: Where Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Now it's the little Odessa by
Speaker 2: the sea. Now it's the old Russian people from Odessa.
Speaker 1: Okay, could you feel that was that palpable growing up there?
Speaker 2: It was a totally Jewish neighborhood. I thought the whole
Speaker 2: world was Jewish. And it was very very friendly. You
Speaker 2: never locked your doors. There was no terrorists, there was
Speaker 2: no burglaries. People would come in for coffee and take
Speaker 2: oh I'm dropping in, oh place it down. It was
Speaker 2: completely different, very very naive and Caffrey.
Speaker 1: What did your parents do for work?
Speaker 2: My father was a taxi driver, Maxi the taxi. My
Speaker 2: mother was a housewife.
Speaker 1: Your father drove a taxi usually that's very long hours.
Speaker 2: No, he worked for a company, so it was regular hours.
Speaker 1: And there was enough money to pay the bills.
Speaker 2: Yes, we had an apartment for two bedroom apartment for
Speaker 2: two hundred dollars a month, and we were eight people
Speaker 2: in the apartments. My grandmother, my grandfather from Turkey, my
Speaker 2: three aunts, my sister, my mother, and father. One by one,
Speaker 2: my aunts got married and they left me, my sister,
Speaker 2: my mother, and father, and my grandparents passed.
Speaker 1: Where did everybody sleep.
Speaker 2: We had beds in the living room, one bathroom, mind you,
Speaker 2: and we were happy. It was a very happy household.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the other people in the neighborhood. Were their
Speaker 1: circumstances the.
Speaker 2: Same, Yes, they were. And every Jewish family had to
Speaker 2: have a piano or a violin. And the Jewish people
Speaker 2: liked the culture to raise their children with some culture.
Speaker 2: So I had to learn a piano. No, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you exactly. I had a neighbor in the building that
Speaker 2: had an upright piano. I was eight years old, and
Speaker 2: I walked in and I was completely drawn to the
Speaker 2: smell of the ivory keys on her piano. And I
Speaker 2: noticed with one finger that I could pick out a
Speaker 2: tune that I had heard on the radio. And my
Speaker 2: mother went to get a job. We had no piano,
Speaker 2: and she got a job but a and S department store
Speaker 2: as a saleslady, and she worked for six months and
Speaker 2: got five hundred dollars and bought me an upright piano
Speaker 2: because in the second grade a te shir missus Evelyn Glance,
Speaker 2: saw me reacting to music when she conducted the choir,
Speaker 2: and she said, Neil, get up and conduct, and I
Speaker 2: got up, and she sent me home with a note,
Speaker 2: you must get a piano for Neil.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's separate some of the issues your parents born
Speaker 1: in the Old Country New York City. Okay, So your
Speaker 1: grandparents are from the.
Speaker 2: Old country Istebul's Turkey.
Speaker 1: Okay, and to what degree was the Turkish culture part
Speaker 1: of your life growing up?
Speaker 2: They spoke Ladino Spanish, not the eshkna. So I learned
Speaker 2: your putt la blabras en Espanol, story boy, contento, the chaos,
Speaker 2: and I was able to remember muchs palabis many words today.
Speaker 1: Okay, you did some work in Yiddish? Did they speak
Speaker 1: Yiddish growing up?
Speaker 2: My mother's side did the ants and knuckles? On the
Speaker 2: Ashkenazi side spoke it. So I sang yiddishamama and bels
Speaker 2: my state of labels, and then on the Turkish side,
Speaker 2: I say ishadada.
Speaker 1: Okay. So you're growing up on Brighton Beach, densely populated.
Speaker 1: What kind of kid are you? You kind of kid
Speaker 1: who's got a million friends or you bookish at home,
Speaker 1: sports guy or not?
Speaker 2: What do you like? I was not a sports guy.
Speaker 2: I played Patsi with the girls and I couldn't ruin
Speaker 2: my hands. My mother kept saying, this is what you shows.
Speaker 2: You cannot ruin your hands and go out and play.
Speaker 2: But I was good at Chinese baseball, Chinese king ball.
Speaker 2: You know you hit the crack of the wall and
Speaker 2: the floor. Wait wait wait, not everybody knows. Bring it
Speaker 2: back to life.
Speaker 1: Tell us the rules.
Speaker 2: Well, Chinese handball, you had a nice soft ball against
Speaker 2: a wall and you had to play against one person
Speaker 2: and if you got the bottom where the sidewalk met
Speaker 2: the wall, that was a special special bonus.
Speaker 1: Okay, your sister older younger.
Speaker 2: Eighteen months older, my hero, you're here because she was
Speaker 2: very smart academically. She was the prettiest in school. And
Speaker 2: when I followed her, they used to say, are you
Speaker 2: Ronnie Sadaka's brother? Oh boy, you have to really fill
Speaker 2: her shoes. And then later on they used to say,
Speaker 2: are you Neil Sadaka's sister, the singer?
Speaker 1: So what how did her life play out? What did
Speaker 1: that look like?
Speaker 2: She was just full of life. I lost her at
Speaker 2: fifty seven years old. Wow, pancreas. And she was my hero.
Speaker 2: She used to fight my battles in school. They would
Speaker 2: call me various names because I would be asked to
Speaker 2: play the piano when the an auditorium. When the film broke,
Speaker 2: O'Neil will now play some chopin? And I played and
Speaker 2: they giggled in the audience.
Speaker 1: Okay, when you were successful and you were making money,
Speaker 1: did you feel responsibility to take care of your family
Speaker 1: and relatives?
Speaker 2: I bought a home for my father and mother in
Speaker 2: Fort Laddale, my sister and a cousin.
Speaker 1: Okay, so before you don't start with a piano till
Speaker 1: second grade? Are you a good student or mediocre student?
Speaker 2: Seventy five eighty?
Speaker 1: Okay? So now your mother worked at Abraham and Strauss,
Speaker 1: she gets the piano. How do you learn how to play?
Speaker 2: I had a private teacher, Murray Newman, in Brighton Beach,
Speaker 2: and I studied for one year and then after a
Speaker 2: year he called my parents in and said, I can't
Speaker 2: teach him anymore. Let him try out for the Julia's School,
Speaker 2: the prep school, and I got a scholarship for the
Speaker 2: prep school at Julliard one hundred and twenty second Street
Speaker 2: and Clammont Avenue before it moved to Lincoln Center.
Speaker 1: Okay, but before you go to Juilliard grew up in
Speaker 1: a Jewish family like I do you? Did you know?
Speaker 1: You start taking piano lessons, but the big issue is practicing.
Speaker 1: So did you practice and did you play?
Speaker 2: I practiced five hours a day. I loved it. It
Speaker 2: may be special. I could then go into this classroom
Speaker 2: and play the songs of the day, the Douap songs,
Speaker 2: Earth Angel, all of those great songs, and I became popular.
Speaker 2: I also wrote a song called mister Moon when I
Speaker 2: was sixteen and played it the auditorium, and they all
Speaker 2: screamed and shouted. Oh, he's wonderful, he's marvel. And it
Speaker 2: may be important when you're important or important.
Speaker 1: Okay, how old were you when you went to the
Speaker 1: Juilliard School.
Speaker 2: I was from nine till seventeen. Then I went to
Speaker 2: the college level.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're talking about full includes all classes in addition
Speaker 1: to no.
Speaker 2: No, the prep school was only on saturdays, where I
Speaker 2: studied with great teachers. The college was a full curriculum.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's go back. You're born, when you grow up,
Speaker 1: World War two is happening. When you gain consciousness, it's
Speaker 1: just over. Could you feel that at all? Could you
Speaker 1: feel the war, the end of the war, etc. Or
Speaker 1: you were young kids living your life.
Speaker 2: I knew when Franklin J. Eleanor Roosevelt died, everyone in
Speaker 2: the streets were crying. I saw the news. The newsreels
Speaker 2: at the Oceania Theater in the Tuxedo Theater. I saw
Speaker 2: and was aware because two uncles of mine were in
Speaker 2: the service, so I felt it. Yes, I was afraid
Speaker 2: of Hitler. My sister said Hitler's waiting in the bathroom,
Speaker 2: and I was about six years old. I said what
Speaker 2: what what? And she scared the hell out of me.
Speaker 2: And miss Alita was a meetie and the Jacks and
Speaker 2: the Japs were sapped.
Speaker 1: And to what degree was their talk of the Holocaust?
Speaker 2: I wasn't aware of that at that age. It was
Speaker 2: much later that I was aware of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So this is pre transistor radio. So are you
Speaker 1: listening to the radio? Are you listening to the hits
Speaker 1: of the day?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yes, I am listening to your hit parade on
Speaker 2: the rail video. I am listening to Rosemary Clooney, Jeannie
Speaker 2: ray k, Star, elephus Gerald. Loved them, loved them.
Speaker 1: Okay. So if I talked to you when you were
Speaker 1: in high school and I say what was your dream?
Speaker 1: What would you have said then?
Speaker 2: When I was in high school, Yeah, what was my dream?
Speaker 2: To be a star? I wanted to be special. I
Speaker 2: wanted to get away from the young Nerdi Nil Sadaka.
Speaker 2: I wanted to create something that was important. I wanted
Speaker 2: to be Jesus Christ. There was a sign on the
Speaker 2: subway that said Jesus saves and I said, wouldn't that
Speaker 2: be marvelous to have people worship me? Is that crazy
Speaker 2: or what?
Speaker 1: Not at all? And I thank you for being honest.
Speaker 1: To be that successful, you have to feel that way. However,
Speaker 1: many people who achieved great success, which you did very
Speaker 1: soon they have that success and they think it will
Speaker 1: solve all their problems and then they find out it doesn't.
Speaker 1: A lot of those people can never write another hit song.
Speaker 1: So you wanted to be a star, you wanted to
Speaker 1: be famous, you wanted to be respected. That actually happened.
Speaker 1: Was that fulfilling?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? I used to take a forty five rpm scratch
Speaker 2: out the name of the artist, and with my pen
Speaker 2: I'd put Nil sajakat to see how it looked. It
Speaker 2: was very, very flattering and very wonderful.
Speaker 1: Okay, you go to one hundred and twenty second Street
Speaker 1: prior to going to Juilliard. To what degree did your
Speaker 1: family go into Manhattan?
Speaker 2: Oh? My father was very cheap, sweet guy. But I
Speaker 2: used to say, oh, Dad, could we go in to
Speaker 2: Manhattan to the Brass Rail restaurant that was the fancy
Speaker 2: one at the day, you remember, And he said, oh, no,
Speaker 2: lo tango, Neil, I don't I'm short with money. Nolo tango.
Speaker 2: And once in a while I convinced him when we
Speaker 2: went to the Brass Rail. It was a great treat
Speaker 2: to go to Manhattan. Oh, a radio City musical, the
Speaker 2: Christmas Show, the Roquettes. It was great.
Speaker 1: So you weren't going to the musicals or anything.
Speaker 2: Not that, not at my age at that time.
Speaker 1: Okay, so now you're a big guy in a small
Speaker 1: world and you go to Juilliard on the weekend. What's
Speaker 1: that like? And you see everybody else who's good?
Speaker 2: Uh? I was topped by medi great pianists. I studied
Speaker 2: with adel Marcus, Rosina, Levine, Edgar Robert's great people, and
Speaker 2: there were students that were better than me in classical. However,
Speaker 2: I had one upsmanshift. I could write songs that I
Speaker 2: could sing, and that set me apart. And they said
Speaker 2: to me, what is an Elvis Presley? I said, what
Speaker 2: we hear about Elvis Presley? These people did nothing but
Speaker 2: play Beethoven and Mozart. What is an Elvis Presley, I said,
Speaker 2: he says a rock and roll singer? What is rock
Speaker 2: and roll? They were completely sheltered.
Speaker 1: Okay, if you're born in nineteen thirty nine, The first
Speaker 1: rock and roll record is debated. Some people would say
Speaker 1: it's Rocket eighty eight by Eke Turner. Other people say
Speaker 1: Rock around the Clock. What was it like your experience
Speaker 1: when rock hit the radio?
Speaker 2: It was a two up song at Andreas Pieter Pauler
Speaker 2: on Brighton Beach Avenue and I went in with my
Speaker 2: girlfriend Carol Klein, who became Carol King, and we danced
Speaker 2: to Earth Angel by the Penguins. That was the first.
Speaker 1: Okay, well wait, let's go sideways for a second. How
Speaker 1: did you meet Carol kleinb.
Speaker 2: She was in a neighboring school and we hung out
Speaker 2: with musical people, musical teenagers, and she had a group
Speaker 2: called the Coast Signs. I had a du up group
Speaker 2: called the Tokens, who went on to do the line
Speaker 2: Sleeps to Night. I left as a soloist. But we
Speaker 2: would go to different places and we found a piano
Speaker 2: and we would singing together and she would show me
Speaker 2: her writing. I would show her my writing and she
Speaker 2: was a genius. She was an absolute genius.
Speaker 1: Now this was a romance or just friendship.
Speaker 2: A little bit of each, a little bit of both.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you hear earth Angel, tell me more about
Speaker 1: discovering rock and roll.
Speaker 2: And then I went to Howie Greenfield. At the time,
Speaker 2: we were writing in the style of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin,
Speaker 2: Cole Porter. And when I heard earth Angel, I said, Howie,
Speaker 2: I would like to write a rock and roll song.
Speaker 2: He said, oh that crap. Oh no, you got to
Speaker 2: be kidding. Neil and I convinced him to write rock
Speaker 2: and roll and our first song was called The Diary
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty seven fifty eight, and I walked into a
Speaker 2: publish Howie and I walked into a publishing firm at
Speaker 2: the Brill Building. As a matter of fact, we were
Speaker 2: the first team to go to the Brill Building. I
Speaker 2: then brought Carol King and Jerry Goffin and Barryman and
Speaker 2: Cynthia While great writers. And it was Al Evans and
Speaker 2: John Kershner who started Oldsen Music. And I met crossing
Speaker 2: the street my two friends from school, More Trumann, great
Speaker 2: writer and his co writer. I'll think of it, and
Speaker 2: they said there's a new publishing firm, Oldsen Music across
Speaker 2: the street who caters to young writers. And we went
Speaker 2: in and I played four or five new songs, including
Speaker 2: Stupid Cupid, and they said, where did you steal these songs? Said, no,
Speaker 2: we wrote these songs. And they said, oh, we know
Speaker 2: Connie Francis. We're just signed a contract. And I was
Speaker 2: nineteen under age and I had to bring my mother
Speaker 2: in to sign a publishing contract to sign for me.
Speaker 2: And they brought me to Connie Francis's home after I signed,
Speaker 2: and Connie Francis was the biggest singer in a female
Speaker 2: singer at the time. She's sang who Sorry now? And Uh,
Speaker 2: I played all of my songs. She said, no, I
Speaker 2: don't like it. I don't like it. And then I
Speaker 2: whispered to Howie, I'm going to play stupid Cupid. He said,
Speaker 2: you can't play that. You promised it to the Shepherd's sisters.
Speaker 2: He said, you're right, but I don't get a damn.
Speaker 2: I'm playing it for the top female vocals of the country.
Speaker 2: I'm going to do it. Stupid Cupid. You're a realing guy.
Speaker 2: I like to criop your wing, so you can't fly.
Speaker 2: She said, stop, that's my next record, and it was
Speaker 2: a hit.
Speaker 1: Okay, wait, wait, let's go back to few chapters. How
Speaker 1: did you meet Howie Greenfield?
Speaker 2: I was thirteen and he was sixteen. We lived in
Speaker 2: the same ability in Brighton Beach and his mother had
Speaker 2: heard me playing classical music and she suggested that he
Speaker 2: knocked at my door and asked me if I wanted
Speaker 2: to write songs. October the eleventh, nineteen fifty two, he
Speaker 2: came to my door and said, would you like to
Speaker 2: write songs? I said, I don't have the foggiest idea
Speaker 2: how to do that. I'm sorry, Howie, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to be a constant pianist. And he said, try it,
Speaker 2: try it. And he had a wire recorder before tape,
Speaker 2: and we wrote a terrible song called My Life's Devotion.
Speaker 2: It was like a ruptured rumba from an Exabia Cougot
Speaker 2: movie I had heard. And after we finish, we were
Speaker 2: obsessed with rhymes. My life is madness, it's sadness, it burns,
Speaker 2: but desire yearning's just burning. My soul is on fire.
Speaker 2: Terrible song and I recorded it after we finished on
Speaker 2: his wire and I listened to my voice. I said,
Speaker 2: holy shit, this is a good voice. I had never
Speaker 2: sung before, never before.
Speaker 1: Okay, did you just work with Howie or were you friends?
Speaker 2: We were very good friends, very good friends.
Speaker 1: Okay, we hear you know Elton John, He and Bernie
Speaker 1: write in two rooms. Bernie gives the lyric and then
Speaker 1: Elton does the music. How did you write with Howie?
Speaker 2: He was across the hall, same building. I would come
Speaker 2: with a tune to his apartment and with a title
Speaker 2: or an idea, and then he would help me with
Speaker 2: the lyrics, and finally I gave him the full treatment. Howie,
Speaker 2: you're such a great writer. You do the lyrics and
Speaker 2: there we are.
Speaker 1: Okay, if you met in fifty two, at what point
Speaker 1: did you make that deal with ault Don fifty.
Speaker 2: Six seven fifty eight?
Speaker 1: So what happened in that five seven year period?
Speaker 2: We were writing for Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler, armed Ertigan,
Speaker 2: I wrote for Laverne Baker, a lot of black artists,
Speaker 2: Clyde McPhatter, the Clovers, the Cardinals, and I wrote for
Speaker 2: Bobby Darren And it was just, you know, we pedal
Speaker 2: songs to Atlantic Records.
Speaker 1: Okay, so now you and how we are writing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: how long after you meet on October eleventh, do you say,
Speaker 1: let's go shop this.
Speaker 2: The first three songs were lousy. The fourth song got better,
Speaker 2: the fifth song got even better, and we went and shopped.
Speaker 2: We went to a very big publishing firm, I'll think
Speaker 2: of them, and they had the oldser writers, you know,
Speaker 2: the standard writers, and they passed on all of our songs.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, just wait wait wait. You're a little
Speaker 1: pischer and you write a song. You're thirteen years old?
Speaker 2: Hey, how do you find I was about fifteen then?
Speaker 1: Okay, still young, you're fifteen years old? How do you
Speaker 1: find the publisher? And you just go knock on the
Speaker 1: door and what happens.
Speaker 2: Howie was a gopher at a publishing firm, and he
Speaker 2: had an inside scoop on the other publishing firms. The
Speaker 2: young ones like olds and music, and so did bought Schumann,
Speaker 2: who I went to school with. He dhu of olds
Speaker 2: in music.
Speaker 1: Okay, you talk about all these people, you know, Goffin
Speaker 1: and King and whatever was it in the air and
Speaker 1: all of you were trying to do it or were
Speaker 1: you really the progenitor and you didn't know what you
Speaker 1: were doing, but you were leading.
Speaker 2: We were the first team, and once it got competitive,
Speaker 2: we would all try for the net Chiffon's record. Carol
Speaker 2: and Jerry wrote He's So Fine. No, they wrote One
Speaker 2: Fine Day, and I wrote with Howie it Hurts to
Speaker 2: be sixteen, and Barrion Cynthia wrote something else, the best
Speaker 2: song one out. We would then play it for Alan
Speaker 2: Dahn on a big red piano in their office, and
Speaker 2: the best song one out I lost to Carol King
Speaker 2: One Fine Day, but it Hurts to Be sixteen was
Speaker 2: recorded by Andrea Carroll and it was a hit. So
Speaker 2: I got a little rubbed there.
Speaker 1: Okay, that era is notorious for bad deals. You signed
Speaker 1: the deal with al Don for stupid Stupid. It said,
Speaker 1: what kind of deal is it?
Speaker 2: They got one hundred thousand dollars. I got zilch, zilch.
Speaker 2: I only got on fifty dollars a week as a
Speaker 2: staff writer, and royalties if the song was sold, the
Speaker 2: record was sold, I got every record that was sold,
Speaker 2: the writing royalty.
Speaker 1: Okay. Traditionally there's one hundred cents in the dollar in publishing.
Speaker 1: Fifty cents goes to the writer. The other fifty cents
Speaker 1: goes to the publisher. Once we hit the rock era,
Speaker 1: the acts became their own publisher but in the fifties
Speaker 1: the publishers tended to take all fifty percent in terms
Speaker 1: of royalties as the writers. Did you and how we
Speaker 1: get fifty percent?
Speaker 2: You know? I was not really up to the money.
Speaker 2: I was about the creative side. My mother took over
Speaker 2: the accounts, took over everything. And my mother had a lover.
Speaker 2: She had a lover for many years. She came to
Speaker 2: Ronnie and I and said, I have a lover. What
Speaker 2: do you think I will leave him if I don't
Speaker 2: have your blessing and Ronnie's blessing. I said, does Zad
Speaker 2: know and she said, yes, he's accepted it. But I
Speaker 2: want your acceptance. I said, Mom, if you're happy, great,
Speaker 2: If Dad accepts it, great, I want you to be happy. Mom.
Speaker 2: She took over the whole thing. She and the lover.
Speaker 2: They stole everything from me. She said, beautiful jewelry and rings,
Speaker 2: and it was my money that bought all of her
Speaker 2: jewelry with her lover. But I loved my mother. She
Speaker 2: was my Jewish mama.
Speaker 1: Okay, just did you like the lover?
Speaker 2: Hated him. After four years, career went down the drain.
Speaker 2: He was an air conditioning salesman. He knew nothing about
Speaker 2: the business. And I got rid of him and he said,
Speaker 2: I'm I called. I said, Ben, we had four years together.
Speaker 2: Let's call it a day. And he said, I'm coming
Speaker 2: to beat you up. He was one of these and
Speaker 2: I said, I'll lock the door. He said, I'll call
Speaker 2: the police, and after a while he simmered down and
Speaker 2: that was the end.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you sign a contract. You're working for fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a week. We hear these stories about there being
Speaker 1: multiple rooms, the teams were in there and they're banging
Speaker 1: out forty hours a week. Was that what it was like?
Speaker 2: Exactly? Exactly five days a week, nine to five. How
Speaker 2: he was there with me, and if we didn't get
Speaker 2: an idea that day, we got a piece of the song.
Speaker 2: We put it on for the next day and eventually
Speaker 2: it was And with success, you get more hits. If
Speaker 2: you're successful, you want to keep number one. So I
Speaker 2: had six top ten records from fifty eight to sixty
Speaker 2: three and number one with breaking Up is Hard to do.
Speaker 2: Happy birthday, Sweet sixteen, Little devil, Calendar girl. It was
Speaker 2: a nice run from fifty nine to sixty three.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, but before we get there, you make the deal.
Speaker 1: You sell the song to Connie Francis. Yes, how long
Speaker 1: are you writing songs with Howie before you say? Hey,
Speaker 1: I should be an artist.
Speaker 2: I had the feeling all the time that I should
Speaker 2: be an artist. I went to Atlantic and sold the songs,
Speaker 2: but they didn't want my voice. They said, it's true androgynous,
Speaker 2: it sounds like a girl, and we don't want to
Speaker 2: sign you. Then I got to Olden. They knew RCA
Speaker 2: Victor Records. The head of an R was Steve Scholes,
Speaker 2: and they set up an audition for me to sing
Speaker 2: as a singer songwriter to be signed to RCA. And
Speaker 2: at that time I played the diary and Steve Schuls
Speaker 2: said we'll take you, and they signed me to a
Speaker 2: recording contract.
Speaker 1: Singing, okay, let's go back. Years later, Don Kirshner worked
Speaker 1: with the Monkeys. People knew that of their inside, but
Speaker 1: by the time we hit the seventies, he's a well
Speaker 1: known factor. Don Kirshner in the day good guy, bad guy.
Speaker 2: Uh, I'll never forget this. He had a rock television
Speaker 2: show and I had the number one record in the
Speaker 2: country in seventy five. Laughter in the Rain with Elton's label.
Speaker 2: Elton signed me to a label, his label, Rocket Records,
Speaker 2: and I was at the Beverly Hills Hotel with Don Kershner.
Speaker 2: I said, Donnie, I'd love to be on your show.
Speaker 2: He said, well, if you bring Elson on, I'll put
Speaker 2: you on Son of a Bitch. I'm sorry, So you're naive,
Speaker 2: But then people become more sophisticated. What ended up happening
Speaker 2: with those songs which are legendary songs, in the ownership
Speaker 2: of those songs? Which songs are you referring.
Speaker 1: The early songs you wrote for Aldon?
Speaker 2: Well, they were perennials, they went on they have played today.
Speaker 1: No, no, no. What I'm trying to say is you signed
Speaker 1: a contract. You were not aware. But as time goes on,
Speaker 1: there's money and lack thereof.
Speaker 2: Oh. I had a I hive accountants and lawyers absolutely
Speaker 2: Freddie the lawyer, and the accountants, and they got right
Speaker 2: on top of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, and that's an early song. But did you get
Speaker 1: the songs back under rights of reversion?
Speaker 2: I re recorded Happy Birthday steet sixteen calendar Girl, Break
Speaker 2: it Up. It's hard to do almost exactly like the
Speaker 2: original master And I was able to sell those. I
Speaker 2: owned them, like Teyliswhip. I owned these. I was able
Speaker 2: to sell it for commercials on television because these were mine.
Speaker 1: Now those are the recordings, though, but that's a different
Speaker 1: right than the song.
Speaker 2: I got the publishing rights finally, how it ran out?
Speaker 2: The contract ran out with Alan down, and I stupidly
Speaker 2: I got the kind I got the publishing, and I
Speaker 2: stupidly sold the publishing a year later for half a minute,
Speaker 2: five and a half million dollars. Oh, I was so happy.
Speaker 2: Little did I know that it would be millions in
Speaker 2: the future. Schmuck that I am.
Speaker 1: Just so No, was that it? Or did you ever
Speaker 1: get the songs back again?
Speaker 2: I never got the songs back again.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you make a deal with RCA, you're farting around?
Speaker 1: How long until you have a hit?
Speaker 2: Was that? The first career of the second career?
Speaker 1: First career?
Speaker 2: The first record with RCA was a hit. The Diary
Speaker 2: sold six hundred thousand records, went to number twenty two
Speaker 2: in Billboard. That was the first one. Oh, but I
Speaker 2: had two others, excuse me, I had. I befriended a
Speaker 2: comedian named Lenny Maxwell who heard me playing at the
Speaker 2: Lake Charlton Hotel in New Hampshire. I was with the
Speaker 2: band and I was seventeen and he heard me playing
Speaker 2: and he said, gee, with you have no record company, nothing,
Speaker 2: no publisher. I said no. He said, I know Phil Ramone,
Speaker 2: the great producer. Make a demo of your voice and piano.
Speaker 2: I will take it to Decca. Put a piano, put
Speaker 2: a bass, a guitar and a drum on it, and
Speaker 2: lo and behold. He handed me a finished Jecca record.
Speaker 2: Kneels to Jaka saying fly don't fly on me. A
Speaker 2: great flop, and then So Time, a great flop. Those
Speaker 2: two were flops before the Diary, before Rcier.
Speaker 1: So okay, she had this deal with Decca. Tell me
Speaker 1: about O Carol.
Speaker 2: They were dropping me. Rcier was dropping me because I
Speaker 2: had two flops in a row. After the Diary, I
Speaker 2: go eight, which they hated and nobody hated. And then
Speaker 2: they said we're giving you one more shot. I said, please,
Speaker 2: I won one more shot, and my mother was ironing,
Speaker 2: I'll never forget it. Nineteen fifty nine, super Zion, I
Speaker 2: was at the piano in desperation. I said, let me
Speaker 2: save my singing career with RCA. What can I write,
Speaker 2: and I bought the number one records in every country
Speaker 2: in the world. They had hits of the world in Billboard,
Speaker 2: and they.
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 2: I analyzed them. What's the drum beat in number one
Speaker 2: in Hungary, what's the guitar lick in Venezuela, what's the
Speaker 2: drum beat in caracas Uh? And I analyzed them and
Speaker 2: put together, piecemeal a new song, drum beat, the electric
Speaker 2: guitar riff, the drum fills, and I wrote, Oh Carol ps.
Speaker 2: I sold four million records with Oka, We're a.
Speaker 1: Little bit slower. You write the music, How does how
Speaker 1: we write the lyrics?
Speaker 2: He hated it. He hated it. I had to convince
Speaker 2: him to write the lyric, and he didn't like Carol King.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm not writing a song called Oh Carol.
Speaker 2: That was my suggestion, and I convinced him to write it.
Speaker 2: On the session, I had a recitation. In those days,
Speaker 2: the middle of the record was, Oh Carol, I am
Speaker 2: but a fool darning I love you, though you treat
Speaker 2: me cruel, and how he ran into the bathroom. Not
Speaker 2: only is my lyrics shit, but you had to recite
Speaker 2: my lyrics in the middle of the record. I said,
Speaker 2: how he trust me? And there it was.
Speaker 1: Okay, you wrote this song in the brill building at
Speaker 1: my home at home, that's my question, right, bit did
Speaker 1: you know it was going to be a hit when
Speaker 1: I heard the record back, I knew it.
Speaker 2: I knew it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you deliver it to RCA. What do they say?
Speaker 2: This is a smash. This is a smash and it
Speaker 2: was number one in almost all over over the world.
Speaker 1: Okay, So how did your life change? You have a
Speaker 1: number one record?
Speaker 2: Oh my godness, ah, I think, as I said, with
Speaker 2: success comes more success, and then I was able to
Speaker 2: do the other do up songs of the day, all
Speaker 2: of the early hits from nineteen fifty nine to sixty three.
Speaker 1: Okay, at what point did you leave your house have
Speaker 1: your own place to live.
Speaker 2: I stayed with my family until I was married, and
Speaker 2: I'm married sixty sixty three years to the same woman, Liba,
Speaker 2: and my mother, who is a very Jewish mother, said,
Speaker 2: I will get you an apartment, Neal. It's right across
Speaker 2: the street so I can visit you and the coming grandchildren. Yes,
Speaker 2: I was a mama's boy.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, Oh, Carrol's a number one hit. Are you
Speaker 1: performing live?
Speaker 2: I started to perform live. Yes, I did in Syracuse,
Speaker 2: the Rivers in in Syracuse, I did the in New Jersey,
Speaker 2: this smart spot like five six, seven hundred people. I
Speaker 2: didn't want to do rock and roll to his I
Speaker 2: want to be like Honey Francis. She did adult copa cavanas.
Speaker 2: Finally I went into the copa cavana in New York.
Speaker 1: To what degree did you go on the road or
Speaker 1: was it all pretty much in the New York area.
Speaker 2: I went on the road, but only the cabarets, only
Speaker 2: the adult cabarets with a big band, And I had
Speaker 2: an act at the time where I sang my funny
Speaker 2: Valentine and the standards of the day smile though your
Speaker 2: heart is breaking. With a big band. It flopped because
Speaker 2: I should have been doing my own songs. But I
Speaker 2: wanted to appeal to the adults because I knew that
Speaker 2: the range of my success would fall. Eavely Brothers had
Speaker 2: five years, Frat Salvenho had five years, Connie Francis had
Speaker 2: five years, and then Caput who was finished. So I
Speaker 2: wanted to appeal to the adults.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have this hit, to what degree do you
Speaker 1: feel pressure to follow it? Up and how do you
Speaker 1: come up with Calendar Girl?
Speaker 2: I was in Howie's apartment in Brooklyn, Brighton Beach and
Speaker 2: Uh we saw and TV guide an old movie called
Speaker 2: Calendar Girl. I said that would make a great title
Speaker 2: every month of the year, and I set it the
Speaker 2: piano boom. There was a tune called uh you Got personality?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I remember, and it was a shuffle beat
Speaker 2: on the on the drum, I love my love, I
Speaker 2: love the Calendar. I saw that the beat would accommodate
Speaker 2: my new tune, the beat of personality boom, and we
Speaker 2: finished it in two and a half hours each month
Speaker 2: to a different girl.
Speaker 1: Okay, a couple of things. You have the big hit
Speaker 1: with old Carol, to what degree do you feel pressure
Speaker 1: to have another hit? And to what degree you have
Speaker 1: confidence you can deliver or not deliver.
Speaker 2: I wanted it with a vengeance. I knew I didn't
Speaker 2: want to be a one shot wonder, and I sat
Speaker 2: down with the most the most self assuredness you can imagine.
Speaker 2: I wanted to stay there. I wanted to stay at
Speaker 2: number one. Unfortunately, they trickled to five and six, which
Speaker 2: is great a top ten record, but in sixty three
Speaker 2: the bottom fell.
Speaker 1: Out well before we get to sixty three. Okay, your right, calendar, girl.
Speaker 1: You know it's going to be a hit.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, that's a bigger hit than Oh Carol.
Speaker 1: What did it feel like.
Speaker 2: That I was on the right track, that I could
Speaker 2: match the culture of the day, I could blend in
Speaker 2: with what was happening. I could please people a certain way,
Speaker 2: the way they felt I was in tune with them.
Speaker 1: Okay, you were on the cusp of the switch from
Speaker 1: radio to TV. To what degree was that palpable in
Speaker 1: your life?
Speaker 2: In radio? They only heard Nil Sazaka's voice. When TV started.
Speaker 2: I was on the Carol Burnett Show, on the MURV Griffin,
Speaker 2: the Mike Douglas, the Osmans, and they saw a face
Speaker 2: with the voice. Hey, here's a nice face. We've heard
Speaker 2: his voice. He's like he looks like somebody I went
Speaker 2: to school with. Or uh, he looks like your favorite
Speaker 2: bank killer. Uh, he's the most unlikely looking rock and
Speaker 2: roll star. And they liked it. They felt I was approachable.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're living in Brighton Beach. At what point does
Speaker 1: your family get a television?
Speaker 2: I tried to convince Maxie the Taxi no Tango tang O'Neil. Finally,
Speaker 2: after a year of begging, we got a ten inch
Speaker 2: television with the antenna on the roof. Go up on
Speaker 2: the roof or the snow, the snow, move the move
Speaker 2: the antenna this way, that way, this way that and
Speaker 2: there I saw Melton Burrell and I saw your show
Speaker 2: of shows, said Caesar and imaging Coca, and it was
Speaker 2: it was. It was marvelous, marvelous. And before that, a
Speaker 2: friend of mine said, you see your radio, O'Neil, it's
Speaker 2: going to have a screen one day. You see the
Speaker 2: people talking. I said, you're full of it. How the heck,
Speaker 2: how can that be?
Speaker 1: Okay, you have a huge hit with Calendar Girl. Tell
Speaker 1: me about breaking Up is Hard to Do?
Speaker 2: Okay. I came up with the title. I thought it
Speaker 2: was very significant.
Speaker 1: How'd you come up with the title?
Speaker 2: I thought of it? I thought, I like the way
Speaker 2: it wrote rolled off my Okay.
Speaker 1: Bob Crue had a philosophy and he taught it to
Speaker 1: Desmond Child. Did you come up with the title first?
Speaker 1: Was that something that you embraced?
Speaker 2: Yes, I came up with breaking Up his Heart to
Speaker 2: Do and the tune and how we liked it, and
Speaker 2: we sat with it for a week. We dropped it.
Speaker 2: The next week we picked up a few more bars
Speaker 2: and I said, it's great on the piano, but it's
Speaker 2: not a hit until you get into the studio, until
Speaker 2: the musicians lock in with the feel. So I wrote
Speaker 2: out the chors scheme, the bass part, I wrote out
Speaker 2: the drum licks, and they read it off my sheets,
Speaker 2: and little by little they got into the groove of
Speaker 2: my song. And then when it was finished, Bob I said,
Speaker 2: this is a fucking number one. There's no doubts. Multiple
Speaker 2: three meals, two on the top and one of the bottom,
Speaker 2: multiple voices. We only had three tracks in those days.
Speaker 1: Recording was very different in those days. A expensive usually
Speaker 1: in the record company's studio c union. You're going to
Speaker 1: make a record, to what degree are you in control
Speaker 1: in terms of picking the musicians, etc.
Speaker 2: I was able to pick musicians. I was. I was
Speaker 2: only three hours. You had to do three songs and
Speaker 2: three hours that's what they gave me as their budget,
Speaker 2: and if you went over you'd have to pay. But
Speaker 2: I stuck to the three hours.
Speaker 1: So when you did breaking up as hard to do,
Speaker 1: you cut that song in two other songs in three hours.
Speaker 2: Yes, I break it up with two takes, two takes.
Speaker 2: We were hasted, but the takes were two.
Speaker 1: And what was on the record you were singing? What
Speaker 1: else was on the record? Bass?
Speaker 2: Drums, guitar, keyboard and three meals free, multiple meals?
Speaker 1: And in retrospect would we say you were the producer
Speaker 1: or was there another producer?
Speaker 2: Al Evans was a producer, great producer. I did not
Speaker 2: have any knowledge of that. Little by little I would
Speaker 2: sit with Al in the room and go over the
Speaker 2: balance with him, the mastering room, the recording room, the balance,
Speaker 2: what more of this? Less of this?
Speaker 1: Okay? Al is producing? What made him a great producer?
Speaker 2: He was a musician originally call He was in a
Speaker 2: group called the Three Sons on RCA and they had
Speaker 2: a number one record, heavy Ly Chase of Lighter Falling.
Speaker 2: It's while a time, Da Da Da da, And he
Speaker 2: was very musical.
Speaker 1: Okay, back in those days you cut breaking up as
Speaker 1: hard to do. How long before it hits the radio
Speaker 1: in retail?
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks, three weeks, four weeks most.
Speaker 1: Okay, that was just a gigantic kit. What was it
Speaker 1: like for you?
Speaker 2: Oh? I bought my first car, my Chevy and Palla
Speaker 2: White with the Wings. I. I was on the radio,
Speaker 2: every channel. I turned up the radio on King's Highway
Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, and I listened, and everybody on the street
Speaker 2: listens to the eelsa daks. Then you break it up. It
Speaker 2: was a thrill, an absolute thrill.
Speaker 1: Okay, top forty radio. There's forty records on the chart
Speaker 1: to what degreed? Did you know the other hit makers?
Speaker 2: I knew them very well, very well. I knew the
Speaker 2: writers and the singers.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have these three. Two of them are just
Speaker 1: absolutely gigantic kits. You're thinking to yourself, what's next for me?
Speaker 2: What's next to equal it or more better? Top it?
Speaker 2: Top it? And I got next Door to an Angel
Speaker 2: was the next record. It went before pretty good. You
Speaker 2: can't be a Kaza. Don't be a Kaza deal. You
Speaker 2: know four is great? You can't be number one every time?
Speaker 1: Okay, when did you realize it was not going in
Speaker 1: the right direction?
Speaker 2: After too many Trilla laws and Doobie doos. Nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: three it fell out and I didn't have another chart
Speaker 2: record until nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about sixty three. Yes, let's go through
Speaker 1: your brain.
Speaker 2: I walked down the street and people stopped me. Didn't
Speaker 2: you used to be Nil Sadaka? Oh too bad? Uh?
Speaker 2: Then I had a manager who said, Dick Fox is
Speaker 2: a great ancient manager. Go to England because it's not
Speaker 2: long before then.
Speaker 1: Okay, I wrote, there's like seven or eight years there.
Speaker 1: You're in the wilderness.
Speaker 2: Got it? I jumped. I wrote for Tom Jones, I
Speaker 2: wrote for Peggy Lee. I wrote for the Fifth Dimension.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't me singing. It was great, you know,
Speaker 2: I made money, but it wasn't me singing, and I
Speaker 2: wanted it desperately to sing again. Ok I won.
Speaker 1: So if we had this conversation in nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: we're having a heart to heart, what would you have
Speaker 1: told me.
Speaker 2: I'm going to come back. I'm going to study the
Speaker 2: singer songwriter. I'm going to study Jonny Mitchell. I'm going
Speaker 2: to study Gordon Lightfoot. I'm going to study so many greats.
Speaker 2: Then you know, okay, okay, okay, So Jameson get the
Speaker 2: rights back?
Speaker 1: You sell them for this money. There's tax et cetera.
Speaker 1: In this career, which is going on for almost seventy years.
Speaker 1: Have you always had money or if you had times
Speaker 1: where we were broke.
Speaker 2: I had to do work as a studio musician for
Speaker 2: fifty dollars because I was broke.
Speaker 1: And when was that.
Speaker 2: Sixty five, sixty six, sixty seven?
Speaker 1: What year did you sell the songs? Again?
Speaker 2: From nineteen fifty eight to sixty three? When I sixty
Speaker 2: three till sixty seven sixty eight? Okay, are you cutting
Speaker 2: this into one program or is this going to be
Speaker 2: all on tape?
Speaker 1: We always get into the money. It's always in the tape.
Speaker 1: People feel all that person's a star. They have no
Speaker 1: idea what it's like being on the other side. So
Speaker 1: you got this big check for your songs? What'd you
Speaker 1: do with the money?
Speaker 2: I put the children in private schools. I got an
Speaker 2: apartment in Manhattan. My mother let go and I bought
Speaker 2: a car every year, from the Cadillac, from the Chevy,
Speaker 2: went the Cadillac to the Thunderbird where the top folded
Speaker 2: in the back that I went to a rolls Benflee.
Speaker 1: So in retrospect, did you blow the money?
Speaker 2: No? What happened was uh? In England? I met a
Speaker 2: guy by the name of Elton John. Do you ever hear?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: No? No, wait, wait, wait, whoa whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: Before we get to that, I can't get to that
Speaker 1: story in this down period from sixty three to the
Speaker 1: early seventies. Yes, you're looking back now sixty years. No,
Speaker 1: you feel like, hey, I have this month.
Speaker 2: Wasn't sixty years.
Speaker 1: I had this money. I feel pretty good. And you say, god,
Speaker 1: I was a schmid gaggy. Look at how I spent
Speaker 1: all my money?
Speaker 2: True? True?
Speaker 1: Okay, So how did you meet your wife?
Speaker 2: Her mother had a hotel in the Catskill Mountains estrum
Speaker 2: a hotel. I had a band. We've talked about this.
Speaker 2: I had a band.
Speaker 1: Oh what a little bit slower. You have a band,
Speaker 1: they have a hotel. How do you meet her?
Speaker 2: She was sixteen. She was behind the desk and I
Speaker 2: said to my friend, the trumpet player, I'm going to
Speaker 2: marry that girl. She's sixteen years old. I said, she's
Speaker 2: very pretty. I'm going to ask her for adge. And
Speaker 2: I wanted to impress her, so I said, she said,
Speaker 2: what do you do? I wasn't a doctor or a lawyer.
Speaker 2: I said, I write songs. I don't know anybody who
Speaker 2: writes songs. What what did you write? I said, well,
Speaker 2: I have a big record. Stupid Cupid with Connie Francis.
Speaker 2: She said, I'd never heard of baby so crazy. That
Speaker 2: night she heard Stupid Cupid on the radio. I saw
Speaker 2: her the next day and she said, you were telling
Speaker 2: the truth. You are a song writer. Yeah, okay?
Speaker 1: So was it an instant romance?
Speaker 2: Instant romance? And she lived where she lived in Montcella,
Speaker 2: New York, not far from her hotel.
Speaker 1: What was the name of that deli and mant Sollo?
Speaker 1: It's a famous Delhi whatever.
Speaker 2: So how long is this interview? Babis? Where we're going?
Speaker 1: We're going? Neil myself?
Speaker 2: Does this hurting?
Speaker 1: Now you have the manager who talks about going to England?
Speaker 1: Tell us about that.
Speaker 2: Dick Fox said, I could book you into the Wookie
Speaker 2: Hollow and Liverpool, the Golden Daughter in Manchester, real drinking
Speaker 2: men's clubs. Hey sing, oh Carol thing breaking up. It's
Speaker 2: hard to do. I had to sing it, of course
Speaker 2: they were the his But then I said, I'll never
Speaker 2: have a comeback with these songs. I'll always be a
Speaker 2: ghost from the past. So I said, Dick, what about
Speaker 2: the Albert Hall? What about the Festival Hall in London?
Speaker 2: And it took him a couple of weeks, but He
Speaker 2: booked me with THEE hughs. C. Houston, the aunt of
Speaker 2: Whitney Houston. She was the star of the show at
Speaker 2: the Albert Hall. I opened the show doing breaking Up,
Speaker 2: It's hard to do calendar Girl, Oh Carol, and then
Speaker 2: I did a new song called Solitaire. The audience didn't move.
Speaker 2: They didn't move. They were like hypnotized by me singing
Speaker 2: a new song. At the end there was thunder us applause,
Speaker 2: and that's where Elton Sehn found me.
Speaker 1: He no, wait, wait, wait a little bit slower. Yes,
Speaker 1: before that, you hook up with the guys who turned
Speaker 1: into ten CC.
Speaker 2: Correct. They were called hot Legs before there were ten SEC.
Speaker 2: I was working at the Battley Variety Club and their
Speaker 2: manager who I will remember the name Lisburg. Thank you,
Speaker 2: my goodness, you are something. And he said, Neil, I
Speaker 2: have a great new group called the Hot Legs in Stockport, England.
Speaker 2: I think you should do a couple of sizes with them.
Speaker 2: I said, oh, well, let me hear them. He played
Speaker 2: some of their records. I liked them. We arranged for
Speaker 2: me to go to Stockport and I recorded three songs.
Speaker 2: I said, holy geez, these songs. This group is fabulous.
Speaker 2: In fact, I did wind up doing two albums with them,
Speaker 2: the Solitaire album and the Tralla days are over with
Speaker 2: new songs, So Nils de Daca came to a new
Speaker 2: generation of listeners.
Speaker 1: Okay, so when you play the Royal Albert Hall and
Speaker 1: you sing Solitaire, you've already made two new albums.
Speaker 2: That is correct.
Speaker 1: And to what degree were they commercially accepted?
Speaker 2: They were very big in England, very very big in America.
Speaker 2: Nothing until Rocket Records Elton started.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's get that break. So how does Elton
Speaker 1: approach you?
Speaker 2: He calls me up and he found out where I
Speaker 2: was living, and he came to May I come to
Speaker 2: the apartment. I said absolutely. He said I want to
Speaker 2: hear some of their new deals to Daka so wounds.
Speaker 2: My son was ten or eleven years old living in London
Speaker 2: with me. I said, marks to the door, and he
Speaker 2: went to the door and opened it. He almost fainted.
Speaker 2: There was Elton John in the full regalia and he
Speaker 2: was lovely Elton. He sang Candle in the Wind for
Speaker 2: me and this and that, and he said sit down
Speaker 2: and play and I played Stroller along Country Road. Oh,
Speaker 2: he said, that's very good. I'm gonna make you another
Speaker 2: Carol King. I said, really, I'll take it. She had tapestry.
Speaker 2: I'm Jeane Million, I'll take it, and he did. After
Speaker 2: being off the shows, let me go ahead. After be
Speaker 2: off the child Bow twelve years, I went to number one.
Speaker 2: There are very few people who could do that. Tina
Speaker 2: Turner did it?
Speaker 1: Okay? He can't to your door?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: What happened to make the record number one?
Speaker 2: He walked into the radio station as EJ the GJ.
Speaker 2: When he walked into a station, they fainted. Play this
Speaker 2: nil Sadaka record deal Todaka. Wasn't he a Dooby Dooby singer?
Speaker 2: Listen to it? And he got it on the air
Speaker 2: with his with his presence. They said, if An L.
Speaker 2: John thinks fires great, it must be great.
Speaker 1: Okay, now you have a new lyricist. Why does it
Speaker 1: end with Howie?
Speaker 2: Too much? The same songs sounded too much alike. Howie
Speaker 2: was wonderful. He could tie a ribbon around the words
Speaker 2: beautifully moon June, Cruon spoon, perfectly, very wholesome. I was
Speaker 2: at Screenshem's music. Phil Cody was a new writer and
Speaker 2: he had an album called The Laughing Sandwich. I listened
Speaker 2: to it. Who was on the desk at somebody's office.
Speaker 2: I said, Gee, this is really good. I approached him
Speaker 2: the next day. I said, Uh, Phil Cody, Phil Cody,
Speaker 2: I'm Neil Saijaka. I'd love to write with you. And
Speaker 2: I saw his face. So he said to his friend,
Speaker 2: Neil Sajaka wants to write with me. He's like a
Speaker 2: ghost from that era. And his friend said, it's Neil Sajaka.
Speaker 2: You should Phil, you should write. We got together. It
Speaker 2: was magical, he wrote. He painted pictures. He he did,
Speaker 2: Hi didn't do boon June krun spoon he did Uh
Speaker 2: strolling along country roads with my baby, it starts to rain,
Speaker 2: it begins to pour without an umbrella, with soak to
Speaker 2: the skins. I mean, this was poetry. I loved it,
Speaker 2: and he forced me. He forced me to write new
Speaker 2: kind of melodies because of his lyric.
Speaker 1: How did you tell Howie you were breaking up?
Speaker 2: Well, we wrote one more song, I said, Howie, I
Speaker 2: really like to jump into the new singer songwriter. I'm
Speaker 2: writing with Phil. I know that you've been writing with
Speaker 2: Jack Keller and you've been having success. When I'm on
Speaker 2: the road. He wrote with Jack Keller and we wrote down.
Speaker 2: We sat down and we wrote our last song together.
Speaker 2: It was called Our Last Song Together. It was very moving.
Speaker 2: It has titles of all the twenty years that we
Speaker 2: had written together. It was beautiful.
Speaker 1: Okay, how he was gay? What was it like being
Speaker 1: gay in the fifties?
Speaker 2: Not good? Not good? He would keep it in the closet.
Speaker 2: He would have quiet interludes with the rent men. And
Speaker 2: then he met a wonderful man, Torri Damon, who he
Speaker 2: spent the rest of his life with.
Speaker 1: I jumped he was in the closet, but you and
Speaker 1: the people around him knew he was gay. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: let's jump forward. Tell me about laughter in the.
Speaker 2: Rain, pentatonic scale, all the black notes, Aaron Copeland, open canyons,
Speaker 2: open fields, trees and grass and rain. It was. I
Speaker 2: wanted to capture that musically. I played it for Phil.
Speaker 2: He said, where the hell did you get that? That's great?
Speaker 2: I said, well, I was working before you came, and
Speaker 2: this is it. He said, I the words talk to me.
Speaker 2: Let me go away into the fields for an hour
Speaker 2: and it wasn't raining. He came back with this magnificent
Speaker 2: Two people soaked and they were laughing. And happy and
Speaker 2: in love. It was such a wonderful lyric. Wonderful lyric.
Speaker 1: It goes to number one.
Speaker 2: What is the like after twelve years? Right? The ultimate? Vell?
Speaker 2: You know that? That worse? The ultimate? I mean I
Speaker 2: thought I was jetten buried jed bar and I wasn't
Speaker 2: because I wanted a badly.
Speaker 1: Do people tweet you differently now that you're back?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Because I could reinvent myself where a lot of
Speaker 2: the one shot wonders could not do that. I had
Speaker 2: musical background. I studied classical music for many years. As
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, I'm jumping. I wrote my first
Speaker 2: piano concerdo Manhattan and to mezzo, and my first symphony,
Speaker 2: Jois de Vive, which I recorded with the London Symphony.
Speaker 1: Okay, tell me about bad Blood.
Speaker 2: Okay, Phil? And I sat down. I had had Love
Speaker 2: in the Shadows a hit, I had the immigrant hit,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to change the pace again. I don't
Speaker 2: like to repeat myself in the mood and the tempo feel.
Speaker 2: So I was at the piano. There was an old
Speaker 2: beat bo diddly bah bah bah b. I'm gonna take
Speaker 2: that beat. It could have been me, but it was
Speaker 2: you have nothing to do with him, but it was
Speaker 2: a new tune to an old beat. I mixed the two.
Speaker 1: How did it end with Elton?
Speaker 2: Not great? With still friends, I'm happy to say. After
Speaker 2: the success, my contract ran up and he said, of
Speaker 2: course you you're going to say with Bracket Records. I said, well,
Speaker 2: I have to listen to my lawyers and accountants. How
Speaker 2: much will you pay me to resign? He said nothing.
Speaker 2: I I made you a star again. I said, oh,
Speaker 2: but you made a lot of money, and I, yes,
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I certainly understand you made me a star,
Speaker 2: but it was my writing and singing. And he said,
Speaker 2: you're right. And I went to Electra, who gave me
Speaker 2: four hundred thousand dollars an album for the next three years,
Speaker 2: whether they were hits or.
Speaker 1: Not, all this time later. Good decision, bad.
Speaker 2: Decision, Bad decision, bad decision. They were Seatdwarmers, Smith, Joe Smith,
Speaker 2: Theyris and Peace Joe Smith. Electra, Uh, he didn't. We
Speaker 2: got George Martin to produce the first album. He was
Speaker 2: mouss as you know, and it was wonderful, but Electra
Speaker 2: didn't have the right mechanism to promote it and couldn't
Speaker 2: get it up there. So I didn't have very much
Speaker 2: success with them. It was a mistake.
Speaker 1: Now when you were on Rocket. Other than promoting the records.
Speaker 1: Did Elton have any input creatively.
Speaker 2: On record records? No, not at all. He loved the
Speaker 2: way I sang and wrote. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: I went to one of his record sessions. I played
Speaker 2: him something that I wanted to record Lonlina, I cry myselflessly,
Speaker 2: Tell me what am I going to do? He said,
Speaker 2: go ahead, Neil, I love it. Whatever you think, I'll
Speaker 2: back up ps Jumpin'. It was recorded by the Captain
Speaker 2: and O'Neil Top three record Billboard.
Speaker 1: Tell me about love will Keep Us Together?
Speaker 2: Ah, I think I did. Told you about Diana Rawson's
Speaker 2: and Al Green. It was I couldn't get away from it,
Speaker 2: the radio, the television, the commercials. I couldn't get away
Speaker 2: from it. It was an unbelievable feeling that I was
Speaker 2: correct writing that tune, and Howie was correct with writing
Speaker 2: that lyric. For the time, it was very you know,
Speaker 2: people were upset with the punk and the and the
Speaker 2: other rock things. They wanted a little up, a little brightness.
Speaker 1: Okay, you got back together with how we to write that.
Speaker 2: That was one of the last songs we wrote. It's
Speaker 2: that dormant for a couple of years, with the sense
Speaker 2: disease in an album.
Speaker 1: You recorded it and it wasn't a hit.
Speaker 2: It was in an album, right, I ignored it. I
Speaker 2: forgot about it.
Speaker 1: But when you did the original version, you didn't hear
Speaker 1: it as a hit.
Speaker 2: I thought it was very entertaining, but I wanted to
Speaker 2: put out something controversial, the Immigrant There was a time
Speaker 2: when strangers will welcome here and it was a top twenty.
Speaker 2: I would have had a number one with my love Will.
Speaker 2: It wasn't as good as the Captain. It's nil, but
Speaker 2: I would have had.
Speaker 1: I think, Okay, how did you hear the Captain d'anil
Speaker 1: did it? Did you hear they were gonna do it?
Speaker 1: Or just turn on the radio? How did you discover?
Speaker 2: I was living in England and someone mailed me the record?
Speaker 2: How he did? How he mailed me the record? He
Speaker 2: had driving his car one day and heard the Captain
Speaker 2: and somebody with his song and my song leve will
Speaker 2: keep Us Together hits a meal. You got to hear
Speaker 2: this record? He mailed us to me to wrote London
Speaker 2: and I put it on the turntable. My daughter Dara
Speaker 2: was there and we looked at each other, Holy shit,
Speaker 2: this is a great record. When I got home, it
Speaker 2: was everywhere everywhere.
Speaker 1: So from the moment you heard it, you were happy
Speaker 1: with their arrangement.
Speaker 2: I was thrilled. His keyboards, the Captain's keyboards, her vocal,
Speaker 2: she sounded a little like Elephans Gerald and Linda Ronstead,
Speaker 2: and she was fabulous, fabulous.
Speaker 1: So you have this great running frocket, You make a
Speaker 1: number of albums for Joe Smith. It all drives up commercially.
Speaker 1: Where does that leave you emotionally?
Speaker 2: Uh? I will become a concert artist. That's where the
Speaker 2: money was for me. I want to do concerts, and
Speaker 2: I got the gigs and I got the money, and
Speaker 2: I I loved performing, loved performing, and I became a
Speaker 2: concert artist.
Speaker 1: And did you, in the back of your mind say
Speaker 1: I'm coming back one more number one?
Speaker 2: Well, you always have that dream. Once you're at the top,
Speaker 2: that feeling. You don't lose that feeling. The records were
Speaker 2: repackaged the greatest hits of Nil, said Jaka blah blah
Speaker 2: blah blah bub And I never I went back on
Speaker 2: the chart with an album. Uh. Raisor and Tai Records
Speaker 2: sign I had done a tribute concert to Joni Mitchell
Speaker 2: of many artists, and I sang one of her songs
Speaker 2: and people from Razor and Tire in the audience, and
Speaker 2: they signed me and they put out an album. I
Speaker 2: think it was called The Anthology or Nielson's Actor's Greatest Hit,
Speaker 2: and it went to number twenty on Billboard. I was
Speaker 2: very happy.
Speaker 1: And how much did you work live?
Speaker 2: Oh? Forty weeks a year, wow, every country of the world.
Speaker 2: I recorded Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German.
Speaker 1: Now doing some research, I saw you played the villages
Speaker 1: in Florida that's known as a right wing retirement community.
Speaker 2: What was that like? The money was good and the
Speaker 2: people knew me, of course from the first career and
Speaker 2: the second career, so it was very nice. You know.
Speaker 1: Did you play any other of the condo tour in Florida?
Speaker 2: No, that was the only one, the only one. But
Speaker 2: I started. I remember the Eden Rock Hotel of Miami,
Speaker 2: and yeah I did. I did forty weeks a year
Speaker 2: all over the world.
Speaker 1: And when did you wind down?
Speaker 2: Ah? Then I started writing new songs and I started
Speaker 2: my own label and I'm very proud of the new songs.
Speaker 2: I think they weren't promoted properly. I didn't have the
Speaker 2: wherefore and but some of them are the neglected children
Speaker 2: once again. The songs are as good, if not better
Speaker 2: than my old songs. But you know, it's up to
Speaker 2: the public. What can I tell you? I thought I
Speaker 2: thought they were as good. The public didn't really get
Speaker 2: to hear them. There was no distribution. It was on
Speaker 2: social media or you know those things.
Speaker 1: And how did you decide to stop playing concerts?
Speaker 2: I was eighty one years old and the last concert
Speaker 2: was in Palm Springs. I couldn't hit the high notes.
Speaker 2: I I am a perfectionist. I didn't want to go
Speaker 2: out there under par. I mean a baseball player won't
Speaker 2: go out there if he's under par. So good, and
Speaker 2: I'm a perfectionist. I couldn't hit those notes. Forget it.
Speaker 2: I had a gorgeous voice. Just ask me, I'll tell you. So.
Speaker 1: You mentioned social media during COVID you did some zoom stuff.
Speaker 1: How did that all come to be?
Speaker 2: Well, we were all locked up. I had nothing here
Speaker 2: but just sit at the piano and make all of
Speaker 2: these videos of the public who were stuck at their
Speaker 2: house on YouTube and I got an award. It's in there,
Speaker 2: over one hundred thousand hits for Nil sazakas videos. I
Speaker 2: went back to the fifties songs, the sixty songs, the
Speaker 2: seventies songs, the eighties song and it was a revelation
Speaker 2: to me. I had to relearn them. I had to
Speaker 2: sing them. And it was who the hell wrote that
Speaker 2: it was? It was a marble's feeling and I was
Speaker 2: glad the people were happy that I did it for them.
Speaker 1: Was it your idea?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: And to what degree are you computer savvy?
Speaker 2: Not much? I had some somebody help me. I can't
Speaker 2: do that, Okay, let me before.
Speaker 1: What was it like when the Beatles hit for you?
Speaker 2: People said, didn't you used to be Neil Sazaka? It
Speaker 2: was a terrible drop to the ego, to the pocketbook.
Speaker 2: The Beatles came in, wasn't good? They changed the face
Speaker 2: of music. I thought they were marvelous. I thought they
Speaker 2: were absolutely marvelous and I could write that kind of song.
Speaker 2: But the public wants to do be do downtown the
Speaker 2: old meal.
Speaker 1: Okay. How important to you is legacy and that you
Speaker 1: and your songs are remembered.
Speaker 2: It has become very important to me. I say to
Speaker 2: myself I have left, I will leave things behind that
Speaker 2: will be appreciated and bringing shored people way way into
Speaker 2: the future. And it's a nice feeling. I was given
Speaker 2: a gift and I was able to share it with people,
Speaker 2: and in my passing, they will continue to hear it
Speaker 2: and enjoy.
Speaker 1: It in your everyday life. Do people still know who
Speaker 1: you are?
Speaker 2: Yes, they do. The older people. Some young people get
Speaker 2: into nil sadaka. They'll go into the YouTube or one
Speaker 2: of those and see me, excuse me, they see me
Speaker 2: on a video on Albert Hole and singing in various concerts.
Speaker 1: Well, we had a huge schism in the music business
Speaker 1: at the turn of the sentry where everything went to
Speaker 1: the internet. A lot of people believe the internet is
Speaker 1: the devil. What's your viewpoint.
Speaker 2: I think it brought it more close to the public. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: and they're touching a phone, touching a computer. And it
Speaker 2: brought music most so to the people before it was
Speaker 2: a radio and a record.
Speaker 1: So is a hit a hit a hit and nothing changes?
Speaker 1: Or do things change?
Speaker 2: Things change? A number one record now has to sell
Speaker 2: in the millions. In the old days, you could sell
Speaker 2: six hundred and seven hundred thousand records like The Diary
Speaker 2: and it went to number twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Okay, but I'm a little younger than you, and I
Speaker 1: certainly remember before the Beatles, the Four Seasons and a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that wasn't so good Bobby Rydell, Fabian,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But the Beatles were a whole cultural phenomenon,
Speaker 1: akin to the Renaissance in Italy. So some people say, now, oh, no, no,
Speaker 1: you were just alive back then. It's not the same.
Speaker 1: Do you believe your era was just part of the
Speaker 1: ongoing continuum or was it something really special going.
Speaker 2: On my era at the fifties or the seventies?
Speaker 1: Both.
Speaker 2: Oh. I think the first Korea was very imaginative, very creative.
Speaker 2: The songs were happy, go lucky, perfect with the time.
Speaker 2: Then I reinvented myself for the Elton Days, new songs,
Speaker 2: sing a songwriter, more respected as a songwriter. I think
Speaker 2: the songs were most sophisticated. The chord changes were wonderful.
Speaker 2: It was a hold new ball game.
Speaker 1: So at this late date, you go out for lunch,
Speaker 1: you go out for dinner, you're talking to me, you
Speaker 1: have Allly Marbles, anything on the bucket list, anything you're
Speaker 1: looking forward to doing.
Speaker 2: Maybe the last nil Shazaka concers. They know I'm eighty
Speaker 2: five years old, so I'll go out and croak a little,
Speaker 2: but it's still on the creator. I went through all
Speaker 2: of the sixty years. I would to blow my own horn.
Speaker 2: There's only four artists who had hits in the fifties, sixties, seventies,
Speaker 2: and eighties.
Speaker 1: On one of them, and on that note, Neil, I
Speaker 1: think you've said it all. I want to thank you
Speaker 1: so much for taking time with my audings. I could
Speaker 1: talk to you forever. Great artist, great personality, upbeat after
Speaker 1: all these years. Thanks for taking this time.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed it, Bobby, I really did. I had to
Speaker 2: pick my brain, but I remembered every note.
Speaker 1: Okay, till next time. This is Bob left Sex