Neil Sedaka, not a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but one of the inventors of the music, got his wish Friday night: a 50th anniversary salute at Avery Fisher Hall with famed DJ Cousin Brucie, crack musicians, great guest stars and lots of love. Could it be any better?

Connie Francis, 68, who rarely sings for anyone, turned out to be the surprise hit of the evening, knocking out Sedaka's "Where the Boys Are " and "Stupid Cupid" as if she were still a bobby soxer. Her voice is supple as ever.

Sedaka wrote those two hits for her with Howard Greenfield, his late writing partner. As he said, from 1958 to 1963 they had a great run with Neil as the star. Then the Beatles came to town.

"It wasn't good," he said, ruefully.

Like Carole King, Neil Diamond and all the other Brill Building writers whom the Beatles claimed to admire, the gang was out of work. (Francis's run of 34 top 40 hits also ended in 1964 with the Beatles' arrival. She's not in the Rock Hall, either.)

Until the early '70s, they all wrote for pop acts like the Monkees. Moptops were in; Brooklyn-born warblers were out.

Luckily, in 1975, Elton John rescued Sedaka from oblivion. He released the "Sedaka's Back" album on his Rocket Records. It featured "Laughter in the Rain" and "Bad Blood," two hits that were highlighted on Friday night.

The Captain and Tennille, a strange duo, had the biggest hit of 1975 with Sedaka's "Love Will Keep Us Together." During the outro, Toni Tennille blurts out, "Sedaka's back!"

On Friday night, the pair - married 33 years - made it seem like nothing except maybe a nip and tuck had changed when they recreated Sedaka's zenith.

The show had lots of other guests: mega-producer David Foster, who once worked for Sedaka, emceed part of the show with a lot of panache. He introduced a protégée, Renee Olstead, who sang a lost Sedaka hit, "Should've Never Let You Go" with style and substance.

Natalie Cole performed the gorgeous slow version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," Lou Christie did himself proud and Dion - yes, Dion DiMucci, "The Wanderer" himself - serenaded Neil with "Calendar Girl" on acoustic guitar. Sedaka, sitting in the theater's guest box, watched it all grinning from ear to ear.

Maybe the oddest part of the night, though, was an appearance by Clay Aiken. An acquired taste to say the least, Aiken enjoys a fan base that travels with him. They are called Claymates. At least 50 suburban housewife types screamed through his one song. They don't care about the rumors, the stories, the scandals. Their scary devotion to him recalled Liberace's huge following in the '50s and '60s, and Barry Manilow's in the '70s and since then. Using this as a barometer, the Broadway producers of "Spamalot" are in for quite a culture shock soon.

In the end, though, it was Sedaka who stole his show. Sure, he's schmaltzy. At 68, he's three years older than his old pal, Carole King. Like King and Gerry Goffin, Diamond, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Sedaka and Greenfield - they all wrote for publisher Don Kirschner - came from traditions of Broadway, jazz, vaudeville, big bands. They were also all either trained musicians or prodigies, quite unlike the young people who make it big today.

Sedaka even brought one of his own pianos to Avery Fisher Hall, a Lucite and silver number that glistened under the spotlights. Melodies poured out of him, and it didn't hurt that an enthusiastic Paul Shaffer joined him on stage for several numbers. Shaffer, also the real thing, gets it.

The songs of the Brill Building were sweet, catchy, clever and as it turns out, damn lasting. They are to the rock era what Cole Porter and Jerome Kern's work was to the previous one.

Jann Wenner - we are still boycotting Rolling Stone - can only be embarrassed that Sedaka and most of the Brill Building participants are not in the Hall of Fame while Donna Summer and Afrika Bambaattaa are being considered for induction this year.

Of course, no one knows where Rolling Stone is, its address or if its building has any history. But Sedaka and co always have 1619 Broadway, sitting there in all its splendor between 49th and 50th Streets, a living landmark. It will be there long after the whole debacle of the Hall of Fame is a distant memory.

By the way, the money raised by Neil at Avery Fisher Hall was sent to Elton John's AIDS Foundation. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, with $12 million in assets, gives no money to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland other than to maintain its own archives. It also donates around $150,000 a year to indigent musicians, but pays its own director upwards of $300,000 a year. Just in case you forgot.

Although Neil Sedaka has been associated with plenty of flamboyant characters over the course of his expansive career, he's never given in to style-over-substance gremlins in his own right. That was certainly evident at this low-key Gotham gig staged on the release day of the Razor and Tie retrospective "The Definitive Collection."

Sedaka's appearance onstage was preceded by a video montage of the hits he penned for others, from the well-known (Carole King, Captain and Tenille) to the under-the-radar (Patsy Cline, Abba). The singer -- who evinced a casual mood in cardigan and T-shirt -- referenced that track record a number of times over the course of the perf, making note of his 55 years in the biz and his scores of millions in sales.

He offset the self-praise with plenty of palpably genuine self-effacement, downplaying his lyric writing by dubbing himself "the king of the dooby-doos" and cracking wise about the "forced retirement" he was dealt by the rise of the Beatles. The clever way he wrapped the perf's 18 songs -- pre- and post-Fab Four -- around those riffs, however, pointed out the durability of his deceptively simple compositions.

Playing sans band made Sedaka work a bit harder, and he rose to the occasion beautifully, particularly as a pianist, a skill he doesn't get enough credit for. That came to the fore on a subtly jazzy take on "Solitaire" and a playfully vamping "Laughter in the Rain."

Balancing the poignant and the perky has been one of Sedaka's career-long strengths, and while telescoping the extremes into one relatively short perf made for a few tricky transitions, he managed to work both styles well, injecting the proper twinkle into takes on teen-dream anthems "Oh Carol" and "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and drawing a wizened weariness from latter-day works like "Cardboard California."

Set's only guest appearance came at the midway point, when Fountains of Wayne mainmen Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger -- the latter of whom confided, pre-show, that he first came into contact with Sedaka when he bunked with the star's son at summer camp --- pitched in on "Calendar Girl"s backing vocals.

The upbeat give-and-take between the parties made one wish the Fountains would have stuck around a bit longer, but Sedaka proved more than capable of holding down the fort on his own. For a guy who insisted -- in closing "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" -- that "I never know how to end these things," he wrapped the evening's musical package up with panache.

Sedaka reprises his Joe's Pub stand with shows on May 1st and 2nd.

WEST PALM BEACH -- Neil Sedaka didn't so much give a concert Monday night as host a vast reunion. With 2,000 "classmates" of '58 or thereabouts at the Kravis Center, he flipped through the "yearbooks" again, with film clips, photo stills, memory-jogging tunes and peppy rhythms. With each new "page," you had to laugh and wonder, "Did I really ever look -- dress, dance, talk, swoon -- like that?"

Well, yeah, say the 40 million recordings sold between 1958 and 1963, the 1,000 songs he has written -- and Monday's sold-out crowd.

Pop singer and songwriter Sedaka unearthed a time capsule of emotions and remembrances in the program's 20 ballads and dance tunes, followed by five encores. With his five-member band, he tapped into the energy and idealism of the 1950s and '60s, the carefree spirit of the largest generation of American youth -- still his fan base.

At age 64, Sedaka has written hit songs for 50 years. Yet his story-style lyrics and rousing, singalong choruses rarely wander from specific themes: the upbeat optimism of love and camaraderie, the distress of loneliness and loss, and Yiddish songs from his boyhood in Brooklyn.

An odd high point for a solo concert featured Sedaka singing duets with two "virtual" soloists. The heart-warmer was Should've Never Let You Go -- a 1980s film of his singer-daughter, Dara, singing on-screen -- while Sedaka sang onstage. A similar "reenactment" with the great Dinah Washington, in Never Again, wasn't a match.

The personal pain of Sedaka's sad songs is infectious, like Merry-Go-Round, and 2004 hit Solitaire, re-popularized by American Idol star Clay Aiken. But the jumpin' rock songs have lost not an ounce of bounce. Both the gospel-style Good Times, Good Music, Good Friends and Laughter in the Rain with sax soloist Pat Pere just about turned the place out.

Laughs rolled through the 1961 video of Calendar Girl, staged with women in a swimsuit show and a youthful Sedaka.

Monday, his voice was less predictable. But the distinctive high, light-textured tenor, so popular in the '50s, projected the lyrics and sang-spoke the mood of the moment in a personal, outgoing way. Sadly, solos by back-up vocalist Emily Bindinger couldn't be heard well.

No problem for Sedaka in two haunting Yiddish songs: a plaintive cantorial catch in his voice for My Yiddishe Mamme and the touching Mein Shtetele Belz (My Little Town). Especially fine were two encores, both "classics": Turning Back the Hands of Time (with new lyrics to Puccini's Nessun Dorma) and Never-Ending Serenade (set to Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9, No. 2).

Whatever your preconceptions about the singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka, prepare to have them blown out of the water by this compilation of the Brooklyn-born performer's early works. He may never have been a true rock'n'roll idol, but he had genuine talent.

A classically trained pianist, Sedaka was cutting his first doo-wop discs at the age of 17. But it wasn't until he signed with RCA in 1958 that he got into his stride. In Howard Greenfield he found a writing partner with whom he could produce a succession of classics, both for himself and for stars such as Connie Francis, Lavern Baker and Jimmy Clanton. Success came with tracks such as The Diary, I Go Ape and Oh Carol.

As the photos in the lavish book that accompanies this box set show, the early sessions included the cream of New York's jazz talent, including Kenny Burrell, Everett Barksdale and King Curtis. The music spread over the first four CDs is of an impeccably high standard, whether it is the soulfulness of Another Sleepless Night or the in-your-face impact of Breaking Up is Hard to Do, on which Sedaka's vocals are launched into orbit with the help of the black female trio the Cookies.

The rest of the package concentrates on Sedaka's foreign language record- ings, but you are unlikely to want to hear him singing in Spanish or Japanese too often. Settle instead for the new take in stereo of one of his best rockers, No Vacancy, unheard since it was first recorded in 1958.

Neil Sedaka might be 64, but his voice hasn't aged since he was teenage pop star in the '50s and '60s.

Sedaka vocals have remarkable range and he didn't hit a sour note in his all-but-sold-out, 90-minute performance at The Orleans' 700-seat showroom earlier this week.

The voice is as smooth, clear and strong as ever.

If you're staying away from a Sedaka show because you think he's just another performer from the glory days of rock 'n' roll who refuses to grow old, think again.

Sedaka doesn't merely sing well for his age, he sings well for any age.

Nor does he merely pay tribute to himself during his concert, performing only his greatest hits, such as "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do," "Oh, Carol," "Calendar Girl" or "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen."

He is not a caricature of himself.

Backed by a guitar, drums, sax, keyboards and a backup singer, Sedaka performs those instantly recognizable hits, of course, but they don't adequately reflect the range of his vocal ability.

He also sings an array of newer, more challenging songs, such as "You," "Hands of Time" and "Never Ending Serenade,"

Sedaka's live performance gives him the opportunity to surprise fans with just how talented, and personable, a performer he truly is.

Sedaka reaches back into musical history, far past the early days of rock 'n' roll, and uses the music of such classic composers as Puccini, Chopin and Rachmaninoff to frame contemporary lyrics he has written.

Using a video of his daughter, Dara, filmed in the '80s, he sings a duet -- "Should've Never Let You Go."

Also using a video, he sings a duet with the late Dinah Washington.

He performs "Solitaire," a song he wrote decades ago, which singer Clay Aiken recently sang on "American Idol" and has since recorded.

And the audience loved Sedaka, giving him five standing ovations before the evening was through.

Several times during the show Sedaka would pause in the middle of a song and let fans complete the lyrics, so familiar are the words -- at least to the middle-aged crowd that dominated the showroom.

As do so many performers these days, Sedaka began the show with a montage of black-and-white film to set the mood. We got to see him wearing a suit with thin lapels and pegged pants and a skinny tie while appearing on "American Bandstand" and "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Having grown up onstage, where he has spent most of his life, the Brooklyn-born Sedaka is as at ease in front of an audience as most people are in their own living rooms. He is as cool as they come.

In the middle of a song he can joke with his fans and pose for a picture.

Between songs he talks about his life -- his cab-driving father who worked hard to pay for his music lessons, his twin 10-month old granddaughters, his brief retirement from performing.

"I was known as king of the tra-la-las," Sedaka joked.

He also discusses a forced early retirement.

"Between 1958 and 1963 I sold 40 million records around the world," the gracious performer told the fans. "In 1963 a new group came out called the Beatles -- not good. I retired and I stopped singing for 10 years, but I wrote for Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Karen Carpenter, Peggy Lee and others."

Sedaka's performing career was revived in 1974 when Elton John's label, Rocket Records, recorded "Laughter in the Rain" and "Bad Blood."

In 1975 Sedaka wrote "Love Will Keep Us Together," which was made into a hit by Captain & Tennille.

"Love" won Sedaka his first Grammy, for Song of the Year.

Although he clearly enjoys performing new songs he has written, Sedaka embraces his past hits as well.

"The songs of the '50s were happy songs," he said. "They were a little naive, but at least you could understand the lyrics."

And once you have seen him perform, you will have a better understanding of Neil Sedaka.

Who had the best time at Saturday's pops concert -- the audience or headliner Neil Sedaka? It was difficult to tell.

Clearly, Sedaka, a pop icon for 47 years, is a performer who still loves to sing, play piano and entertain. The Civic Center audience gave Sedaka four standing ovations, and he returned to the stage to sing five encore songs.

Sedaka, 64, reminisced about singing songs he'd written on TV's "Ed Sullivan Show" and Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" in the 1950s, when he was just getting started. "Songs were very happy in the 1950s, and perhaps a little naive, but you could understand all the lyrics," Sedaka said.

With a voice as clear, agile and strong as when he first recorded them, Sedaka performed "Oh! Carol," "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen," "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and "Calendar Girl." In the latter song, Sedaka added a little soft-shoe dance and a piano duet with his longtime conductor, Dick Palombi.

Sedaka also reprised his song "Where the Boys Are," which became a trademark hit for singer Connie Francis, and a spring- break anthem for college kids in the 1960s.

Between 1958 and 1963, Sedaka performed around the world and sold some 30 million records. That ended when pop music tastes changed to the Beatles' sound, and Sedaka did not sing for 10 years -- although he continued songwriting.

In the 1970s, Sedaka reinvented his sound and bounced back with a string of No. 1 hits that included "Laughter in the Rain." In addition, a Sedaka song, "Love Will Keep Us Together," won a Grammy for the Captain and Tennille as record of the year. In addition to singing both timeless hits, Sedaka performed three more pensive compositions: "The Hungry Years," "Solitaire" and an under-appreciated gem, "One More Ride on the Merry Go Round."

Sedaka finished his set by singing some of the most famous and captivating classical melodies by Puccini, Chopin and Rachmaninoff, which he has combined with his own romantic lyrics, as well as performing a second, slower version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do."

The entire show was, as several concert-goers could be heard saying, "the best pops concert I've seen in years."

Bravo, Sedaka. Come back and see us.

Concert: Performer played old favorites, new songs Sunday

The amount of enthusiasm and vibrancy in Neil Sedaka's crooning, dancing and piano playing surprised even some of his longtime fans. The rock and roll legend wowed more than 1,300 listeners Sunday night in his concert with Richmond Symphony Orchestra. "I think he sounds better now than he did years ago," said Ginny Barth of Richmond. Sedaka didn't show many of his 64 years as he wove quick-paced fancy footwork and whole-body motion into the show, much to fans' delight. The concert took place at the Performance Gym in the Athletics and Wellness Center on Earlham College's campus.

Sedaka performed some of his signature hits, including both the slow and doo-wop versions of "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" plus "Laughter in the Rain," "Love Will Keep Us Together," "Calendar Girl," "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen," "Oh! Carol," "Where the Boys Are," "Solitaire" and "The Hungry Years." But the classically trained pianist and songwriter also treated the crowd to new material and songs he rarely performs, those he called his "neglected or forgotten children." He took fans through the history of his music, saying how listeners can understand all of the lyrics of the 1950s compared to today's songs. Sedaka also received applause as he mentioned his appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and Dick Clark's "American Bandstand." Between 1959-1963, Sedaka and his songwriting team sold about 25 million records. "But in 1963, then a new group came out -- the Beatles," Sedaka said. "Not good. I retired."

Retirement didn't last long, however, as he concentrated on writing songs and traveling around the world to record his hits in Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese and Hebrew. "I recorded in five different languages before Julio Iglesias," he laughed. Sedaka's lively performance of a tune with a Brazilian beat received some of the night's heartiest applause.

He evolved from the self-described "king of tra-la-las and doobie-doos" as he concentrated on songwriting. His breakthrough hit "Laughter in the Rain" came out in 1974.

Sedaka joked that in his songwriting he "usually starts at the piano with two vodka martinis because it scares me." However, Sedaka has written more than 1,000 songs in his lifetime, which have been recorded by numerous stars.

He will be a guest judge on an upcoming "American Idol" show on Fox. The singers will bring Sedaka's songs to a new generation. "I will not be as mean as (judge) Simon (Cowell)," Sedaka said.

Sedaka performed one of his latest compositions, receiving a standing ovation from some fans.

He also struck a chord with the audience as he performed some of his lyrics to classical songs by composers such as Chopin, also reaching the high notes in a Puccini aria.

But he ended the concert with the slower-tempo "Breaking Up" and then a fast-paced rock song.

Debbie Perry, a Centerville High School teacher, went near the stage toward the end of the concert to snap some pictures of Sedaka as he departed. "I enjoyed it," Perry said. "It brought back many memories."

Judy Kidwell of Cambridge City said she loves the kind of music Sedaka performs. "It's fun music and very catchy and sticks in your mind."

Melvin Monroe and his brother Eddie, both of Columbus, Ind., are both longtime Sedaka fans. This was their first trip to Richmond because Melvin won tickets from an oldies radio station there. He said he couldn't believe how beautiful Earlham College's campus is. "I'm looking forward to his rock and roll or classical," Melvin said. "I just enjoy his music so much -- he's phenomenal."

Local WECI oldies show host DJ "Big" Don Allen was rewarded for his persistence in getting a Sedaka autograph. He brought one of his records, which Sedaka signed during the show. The album will now go up on Allen's Wall of Fame at home.

Local resident Gary Phillips was amazed by Sedaka's ability to still hit high notes and dance. "He's an inspiration for me," Phillips said. Sedaka sat and played piano or stood and even danced while playing. He also took his microphone to serenade fans at each corner of the stage. Phillips said he enjoyed Sedaka's audience interaction. "He zoned in on the crowd. We might be in the bleachers but I think we have the best seats in the house," Phillips said. Phillips described Sedaka's new song as "cutting edge." "That's something that's going to be on the charts," Phillips said.

Susan Hawkins of Richmond said she hadn't realized until after the concert how many of Sedaka's songs she had heard Barry Manilow sing, assuming Manilow had written them.

Many of the teens and twenty-somethings in the audience were familiar with at least some of Sedaka's songs.

Melanie Falcone brought her daughter, Kristen, a junior at Ball State University, to the concert. Both were familiar with Sedaka's songs since they like music of the 1950s and '60s. "I'll probably embarrass her," Melanie Falcone said. "I'll probably sing along." Kristen Falcone is taking a music history class at Ball State and plans to turn in a program for class credit.

Earlham College first-year student Jane Bryant, an usher, was looking forward to the concert. "I know he wrote 'Breaking Up is Hard to Do' and 'Calendar Girl' but I never knew what his name was," Bryant said. "I'm amazed at the turnout we've had."

Legends concert committee chairwoman Ginger Gray said about 1,300 tickets were sold in advance, plus business was brisk at the door.