I Dream of Sedaka

I became a Neil Sedaka fan during his mid-1970s comeback. Sedaka had signed to Elton John’s Rocket Records label, which boosted his profile considerably and led to the albums Sedaka’s Back and The Hungry Years. Plus, Captain & Tennille took Sedaka’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart in 1975. Tennille even teased, “Sedaka is back” in the fadeout of the song.

Knowing that I was a Neil fan back in the day, you can imagine how happy and excited I was to have the following dream one day last summer:

I had a dream that I went to an intimate home concert by Neil Sedaka. However, it quickly became apparent to me that the young guy who was lip syncing and awkwardly tapping at a cheesy Casio keyboard was Neil Sedaka Jr., impersonating his father. Nobody else seemed to realize what was going on but the way Junior nervously glanced at me, he knew that I knew. I was going to blow the lid off the whole scam as soon as Junior finished “singing” “Laughter in the Rain” but then I woke up.

Just to be clear: Neil Sedaka does have a son, but he is not named Neil Jr. And he has not tried to impersonate his father.

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