Neil Sedaka

When I was young (really young like 3-5) and first discovering music my music exposure was somewhat unusual. The main records I remember(and who owned it) were:

• The White Album and Help (on vinyl, my dads)
• Lilly the Pink (vinyl single, father again)
• Mud - Greatest Hits (Tape Dads I think)
• Don Mclean Greatest Hits (Tape, Grandads)
• Neil Sedaka Greatest Hits (Tape, Nana)

All influenced me in many ways and explain my love of guitar and piano rock, cheesy songs and of course pop music of various forms. I owe a debt of gratitude to the repective owners for giving me such a broad outlook on music.

The reason I'm posting this is that I just happened to find a version of Neil Sedaka performing "Calendar Girl" with one of my current favorite bands Fountains Of Wayne (the other being Barenaked Ladies).

The performance is most entertaining thanks to Neil's good nature. I actually have a bootleg of FoW doing their own version of the song so its clear they have been fans for many years and its good to see that bands I like now are influenced by the songwriters I remember as a child.

As an extra here is a version of Amarillo at the Albert Hall with both Neil and Tony Christie (Neil having written the original - in case you weren't aware).