(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer to the "Poor Little Fool" post.)
Neil Sedaka - "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"
Hit Number 1: August 11, 1962
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
The online music database "AllMusic" has its own descriptions of songs that it likes to give out. One time it took note of a song that was pretty short, but described it as "2 minutes and 16 seconds of pure pop magic". The song in question is today's entry "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do", a pretty bubble-gummy yet incredible song that had a lot of underrated work that was put into it. The biggest trait that it has, is that besides the Cookies who sang background on the track, the other voices you hear are not other background singers. Those other voices are also Sedaka, and he used a method called multi-tracking, where he records himself singing the song numerous times, but singing different pitches and words. All of it is thrown together, almost making Sedaka sound like he's singing a near acapella with just himself. That's pretty cool!
Sedaka had always been a sort of lurker on the charts, but he couldn't get one to ever reach the top. The closest he ever got was with "Calendar Girl", that song where he lists each month of the year, with some little line associated with it about the girl in the song. A couple examples are with January "you start the year off fine", and then February "you're my little Valentine". I'm sure you can see where it goes for the rest of the song. Anyway, "Calendar Girl" made it up to #4, and it's a 7. While "Calendar Girl" and "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" are closely related songs by the way they sound, they couldn't be any farther from each other lyrically. As I said, "Calendar Girl" is a song about a relationship that apparently is a strong one, cause it obviously lasts at least a year. "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" is a song about love on the rocks, and the guy keeps begging the girl to stay because breaking up is not an easy thing to do. On paper, it's pretty sad.
You might think that the right approach here was to have a slow and somber sounding song to go with the lyrics. If you do, you'd be very wrong. For one, Sedaka didn't do slow and somber songs in the early 60s. That guy made more bubble gum hits in the early 60s, than the Jackson 5 could ever do. But there's also proof on why that wouldn't work too. Sedaka made a new version of it in 1975, slowing it way down, and essentially whispering into the microphone. In other words, he is singing very softly. That version turned out to be good success for Sedaka, though it didn't hit #1. It made it up to #8 instead, but that version never had any business on ever existing, so it's a 3. This song needs those "comma comma down doo be doo down down" chants in the beginning, because that's what immediately draws me in as a listener. It needs Sedaka's self-acapella, and it needs that free-moving doo-wop sound that made it great in the first place. The original version is so much fun!
So obviously, now you know that Sedaka was still having success in the 1970s, but he experienced some hard times in the late 60s. In that time, no one was listening to his old bubble gummy sounding tracks, and instead listened to psychedelia music and the British Invasion music which was still very popular. So a guy like Sedaka fell on some pretty hard times, but eventually found success in the mid-70s, when he started recording classic rock songs, and fitting in with the times again. He even hit #1 a couple more times in 1975. So naturally, we will hear from Mr. Sedaka again.
GRADE: 9/10
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