"Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" is a song recorded byNeil Sedaka, co-written by Sedaka andHoward Greenfield. Sedaka recorded this song twice, in 1962 and 1975, in two significantly different arrangements, and it is considered to be hissignature song.[1] Between 1970 and 1975, it was a top-40 hit three separate times for three separate artists:Lenny Welch,The Partridge Family and Sedaka's second version. The song was also adapted into multiple languages, most notably inItalian andFrench.
In his daily mini-concert on June 12, 2020, Sedaka recalled that the song's iconicscat intro ("come-a come-a down, dooby doo down down") was a result of him and Greenfield being unable to come up with a lyric for that section of the song and Sedaka improvising avocalise, which they liked so much that they kept it in the finished product.[2]
Described byAllMusic as "two minutes and sixteen seconds of pure pop magic,"[1] "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" hit No.1 on theBillboard Hot 100 on August 11, 1962, and peaked at No.12 on theHot R&B Sides chart.[3] The single was a solid hit all over the world, reaching No. 7 in the UK, sometimes with the text translated into foreign languages. For example, the Italian version was called "Tu non lo sai" ("You Don't Know") and was recorded by Sedaka himself.
On this version, background vocals on the song are performed by the female groupthe Cookies.
The personnel on the original recording session included: Al Casamenti,Art Ryerson, and Charles Macy on guitar;Ernie Hayes on piano;George Duvivier on bass;Gary Chester on drums;Artie Kaplan on saxophone; George Devens and Phil Kraus on percussion; Seymour Barab and Morris Stonzek on cellos; and David Gulliet, Joseph H. Haber, Harry Kohon, David Sackson, and Louis Stone on violins.
In 1968, Americansunshine pop andcover band The Happenings covered the song for their 1968 album, "The Happenings Golden Hits", in which the cover was a minor hit. Released in June 1968 onB.T. Puppy Records, the song reached Number 67 on the USBillboard Hot 100 and Number 56 on the CanadianRPM charts.[11][12]
Though it was originally an uptempo song,Lenny Welch (best known for his 1963 hit version of "Since I Fell for You") re-recorded the song, reimagined as atorch ballad. Welch had approached Sedaka to see if he had any songs in his repertoire that fit Welch's style; as most of the songs Sedaka had written with his usual partnerHoward Greenfield were upbeat pop songs, he did not, but playing around on the piano, he discovered "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" worked well as a slow ballad, so he wrote a new introduction and offered it to Welch.[13] It peaked at #34 on the USBillboard charts and #8 on theeasy listening chart in January 1970.[14] It was Welch's third and final top-40 pop hit, and his first since 1964.
Five years after Welch's successful cover, Sedaka, in the midst of a comeback in his native United States after several years in career decline and a detour through the United Kingdom, re-recorded his signature song in the same style that Welch used. The song begins with the first few bars of Sedaka's 1962 recording, before fading and segueing into the slow version. Sedaka's slow version peaked at No. 8 in February 1976 and went to No. 1 on theEasy Listening chart.[16] It was one of only a few times an artist made theBillboard Top Ten with two different versions of the same song.[17] Sedaka has credited Welch's song "Since I Fell for You" as well asThe Showmen andDinah Washington as his inspiration for the new rendition.
Apart from Sedaka's own reworking of the song, by far the most successful cover of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" was done bythe Partridge Family in 1972. While only a medium hit in North America, their version reached No. 3 in both the UK and Australia. Their version was never released in stereo until the 2013 Bell/Legacy release, "Playlist: The Very Best of the Partridge Family".
"Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" was adapted intoFrench in late 1962 by André Salvet andGeorges Aber as "Moi je pense encore à toi" (meaning "I Still Think of You"). The French adaption was first recorded and released by singerClaude François in October 1962 but failed to chart, however, one month later, a cover by French singerSylvie Vartan would follow and would reach Number 12 on the French Belgian charts in early December 1962 and would be later featured on Vartan's debut album,Sylvie, around the same time.[36]
^Whitburn, Joel (1993).Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 253.
^Breihan, Tom (August 9, 2019)."The Number Ones: Neil Sedaka's "Bad Blood"".Stereogum. RetrievedJune 26, 2023....Sedaka would record one more crossover success — a chintzy soft-rock ballad version of his original 1962 smash "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do".
^Whitburn, Joel (2002).Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 218.
