Search - Neil Sedaka :: Hungry Years

Sedaka's solo masterpiece.

J. Anderson | 01/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While not a Neil Sedaka fan, I was still amazed by the versitility and unique approach to contemporary pop music that Sedaka took with this album. If you go deeper, behind the music (as they say on VH1), you will also be amazed. This is just superb music.Sedaka was part of the "Brill Building" crowd that spawned so many joyful hit singles in the late 50's and early 60's. Another Brill alumni was the great Carole King.The Hungry Years was the second of 2 LP's recorded on Elton John's fledgling Rocket Records label. Elton was at his artistic best in the 70's and was instrumental in Sedaka's comeback to the pop mainstream. It kicks off with "Crossroads", an upbeat but pleading tune of hard times and indesicion...something most of us can relate to in the human condition. "Stephen" was written for composer Stephen C. Foster, a favorite of Sedaka's, who is acclaimed as America's first professional songwriter, and lived and died in the early/mid 1800's. The album also sports a couple of top 40 hits: "Bad Blood" did well for Neil and got lot's of radio airplay, and a cover version of "Lonely Nights (angel face)" was taken to the top of the charts by The Captain and Tennille...although I still prefer Neil's original on this record. "The Hungry Years", the album's title cut, has been covered by many top artists of the day, and gives you a look at something else we all go through before we leave this earth...a yearning for our youthful past. "When you were loving me" is another standout track, and the blusey remake of "Breaking up is Hard to do" is simply a classic reborn, and takes on new life. Anyone who lives in the heart of any big metropolitain area can relate to "New York City Blues", a song about life and death in the big city.Simply stated...this is Sedaka's best work to date. Plugging it in to the new millenium, this record holds more meaning for me now than it did when it was released in the 70's. I'm glad to see that it has made it to CD. The only complaint I have about this record is the fact that Neil, at times, likes to recycle his favorite lyric phrases in some of his other songs. Lines like "tear the damned thing down" and "you'll discover, I'm some kind of lover" sound strange when transplanted to more than one composition. As for the new CD version of this classic LP...I could have done without the bonus tracks. They were mediocre at best, and really do not fit in with the feel of the original presentation. Although I did get a giggle out of "The Queen of 1964"."

"Applause, applause, for your favorite entertainer"

R. Bourbeau | Maui, Hawaii, USA | 08/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While you may not necessarily agree with the title of this review--it's a lyric from "Your Favorite Entertainer," one of the cuts on Neil Sedaka's The Hungry Years--this 1975 album features Sedaka at the height of his "second coming." This follow-up to his breakthrough comeback album from 1974, Sedaka's Back, features the biggest-selling U.S. single of Sedaka's multi-decade career: "Bad Blood," a duet with Elton John that was #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 for three weeks and was certified gold. The funky dance hit is one of an eclectic mix of cuts that also includes the Top 10 slowed-down reworking of his #1 hit from 1962, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." That song still remains today as the only hit that made the Top 10 by the same artist, more than once, in different versions.



The best cut, though, is the title song, "The Hungry Years," a lush and beautifully-written longing for the return, with his loved one, to the good-ol', bad-ol' days. Although it wasn't released by Sedaka as a single, Wayne Newton recorded a cover version of the song, becoming a minor hit for Newton in 1976.



After hitting #1 with the worldwide smash "Love Will Keep Us Together" (also from "Sedaka's Back"), The Captain and Tennille recorded a cover version of the second cut on this album, "Lonely Night (Angel Face)," and promptly took it to Billboard's Top 5 as well. A pretty composition thanking renowned 19th-century American composer Stephen Foster, "Stephen" is an interesting change of pace, aptly featuring a banjo solo. "New York City Blues" is another ballad scolding Sedaka's hometown with a heart full of love.



Sedaka enjoys writing about his childhood, and his composition "Betty Grable" (a bonus track on this album) pays homage to the pinup "Sweater Girl" film star of the '40s. The final cut, another bonus track, is "Goodman Goodbye," a scathing revelation against anti-Semitism that honors Sedaka's Turkish-Jewish family heritage.



This is Neil Sedaka at his adult best. Superb.



Rating: ***** (out of 5)...22 Aug 01 -- BOB BOURBEAU"

The Great Sedaka in his Rocket years...

yygsgsdrassil | Crossroads America | 04/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...Brill Building wunderkind Neil Sedaka was picked up by crocodile rockman/pinball wizard piano man Elton John's Rocket Records to produce a series of easy listening cuts beginning with "Laughter in the Rain"--rumor had it was a union inspired in part to compete with another piano man who was causing some stir in the streets. 'Course, being the showman that he was, Sedaka delivered quite well, in fact, and in this album we find him with Captain Fantastic on "Bad Blood". OK, I did the background to rave about Sedaka's slow jams during this period: "Solitaire", I thought there was another mellow jam with KiKi Dee, which I do not remember the name of (and if anyone could set me straight on this let me know), and the smooth remake of "Breaking up Is Hard to Do" here on this CD are simply superb. They will melt your heart...is there anyone out there in that same quantum pocket with me?"