Platinum & Gold Collection

by Neil Sedaka

Overview

Neil Sedaka's Platinum & Gold Collection gathers up 12 of the legendary performer and songwriter's hits from the early '60s. Sedaka the performer had a pleasingly innocent voice and a charmingly dorky persona that helped make some of these songs timeless classics. As a songwriter he had a knack for composing instantly memorable melodies that would have been hits no matter who was singing them. The first three songs on Platinum & Gold are his three biggest early hits: "Calendar Girl," "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," and "Oh! Carol" are classic pop, influenced by doo wop and easily hummed by everyone from little kids to grannies. The rest of the disc is in the same easygoing pop vein: cute ("Stairway to Heaven," "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen"), dramatic ("You Mean Everything to Me"), and dreamy ("The Diary, the Dreamer"). The cuts that may surprise casual Sedaka fans are the wild rocker "I Go Ape," which contains the immortal lyrics (courtesy of collaborator Howard Greenfield) "Ranga-tanga-ling-ting-tong/I'm related to old King Kong," and the fairly tough-sounding girl group-style ballad "Bad Girl," which features some wonderfully sassy female-backing vocals. This disc is 30 minutes of easygoing, wholesome, and supremely melodic pop pleasure. The only thing that wrecks the fun is the knowledge that RCA put out The Very Best of Neil Sedaka in 2001, which covers the exact same territory as Platinum & Gold; in fact, the two collections share 11 songs. The Very Best of Neil Sedaka has a total of 14 songs, contains the wonderfully titled "Run Samson Run," and retails for less money, so get it instead. ~ Tim Sendra

Product Details

Release Date:	06/17/2003
Label:	Rca
UPC:	0828765255523
Rank:	114085

Tracks

1. Calendar Girl
2. Breaking up Is Hard to Do
3. Oh! Carol
4. Next Door to an Angel
5. Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen
6. Stairway to Heaven
7. You Mean Everything to Me
8. I Go Ape
9. The Diary
10. Let's Go Steady Again
11. The Dreamer
12. Bad Girl

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Neil Sedaka   Primary Artist
Stan Applebaum   Primary Artist,Conductor
Alan Lorber   Conductor
Mathieu Bitton   Serp

Technical Credits

John Hudson   Project Director
Rob Santos   Compilation Producer
Neil Sedaka   Composer
Alan Lorber   Arranger
Al Nevins   Producer
Elliott Federman   Mastering
Howard Greenfield   Composer
Bob Pollard   A&R
Dean Harmeyer   Art Direction
Mathieu Bitton   Design,Art Direction
Tom OFlynn   Art Direction
Michael Hill   Liner Notes
Jeremy Holiday   Project Director
Gretchen Brennison   Compilation Producer