Neil Sedaka, 86, is 'rushed to hospital'

Neil Sedaka, 86, is 'rushed to hospital'
Source: Daily Mail Online

Famed 1960s and 1970s singer Neil Sedaka was reportedly rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles on Friday morning.

TMZ has claimed the crooner woke up not feeling too well, so paramedics were called to his home at around 8 AM PST.

The 86-year-old musician was then taken to a nearby hospital to get checked out and is reportedly still there resting up.

Daily Mail has reached out to his representative for an update.

The velvet-voiced Grammy-nominated Sedaka got his start in the 1950s with the band The Tokens.

He is best known for the catchy 1960s tune Breaking Up Is Hard To Do which he recorded after he became a solo artist.

The Brighton Beach, New York native also sang Oh! Carol and Calendar Girl which skyrocketed on the charts.

He had two big hits in the 1970s with the beloved singles Laughter In The Rain and Bad Blood.

Sedaka has been nominated for five Grammy awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983.

The star is a prolific songwriter who has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists.

Some of the top songs Sedaka wrote for other stars include Stupid Cupid for Connie Francis, Is This the Way To Amarillo for Tony Christie and Love Will Keep Us Together for Captain & Tennille.

He also served as a guest judge on season two of American Idol.

The artist has been married to Leba Strassberg since 1962 and they have two children: Dara and Marc.

Sedaka grew up to a taxi driver father and his parents struggled to make ends meet.

His mother worked a second job to save up for a piano so her son could practice when in the second grade after his teacher noticed he had talent.

The move paid off: In 1947, he auditioned successfully for a piano scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music's Preparatory Division for Children, which he attended on Saturdays.

He started writing pop songs at age 13 with a poet neighbor. His first hit was 1961's Calendar Girl.

Because of disputes with RCA Records over the ownership of his original hits from the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sedaka in 1991 re-recorded those tunes.

Other early hits were Little Devil, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen and Next Door to an Angel.

The year 1962 was one of the most successful of Sedaka's career, with Breaking Up Is Hard To Do reaching number one and Next Door to an Angel getting to number five.

He financed the recording, production, and distribution of new CDs and repackaging of his existing catalog of music through his own business, Neil Sedaka Music.