Neil Sedaka is an American singer-songwriter who has written dozens of hit songs. Many of them he sang himself. Others are better known in cover versions by artists ranging from Elvis Presley to Ariana Grande.

Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s wholesome image and infectious cheerfulness are easy to slight and have too often belied an extraordinary career. His song 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant카지노 게임 컬렉션� was a Top 30 hit when he released it in 1975, but today it seems even more relevant, as debates rage in the United States over , repatriation and .

Recent events along the U.S.-Mexican border have revealed how easy it still is for restrictionists and xenophobes to gain the upper hand, and to enact hard-line policies that inflict misery on people drawn to the U.S. in hopes of a better life. Sedaka dedicated 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant카지노 게임 컬렉션� to John Lennon, who at the time was mired in a bitter dispute with U.S. authorities over his application for permanent residence in America. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I thought the song was beautiful,카지노 게임 컬렉션� Lennon told Sedaka after watching him perform it on TV. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Yoko and I were watching and we loved it.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

A musical talent at eight-years-old

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1939, Sedaka was only eight-years-old when he began to attend the Juilliard School of Music on a piano scholarship. By the time he was thirteen, though, his interests had shifted decisively from classical to popular music, and after teaming up with his neighbour, the 16-year-old lyricist Howie Greenfield, they found work in the fabled Brill Building on Broadway, where professional hit-makers wrote rock 카지노 게임 컬렉션�n카지노 게임 컬렉션� roll songs for an exploding teenage market.

Sedaka composed songs for some of the great Black female singers of the late 1950s, including LaVern Baker (카지노 게임 컬렉션�I Waited Too Long카지노 게임 컬렉션�) and Dinah Washington (카지노 게임 컬렉션�Never Again카지노 게임 컬렉션�), but he scored his biggest success with Connie Francis, for whom he and Greenfield penned the trivial 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Stupid Cupid.카지노 게임 컬렉션� Their range and growth as a songwriting team, however, was evident by 1960, when they wrote the lush ballad 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Where the Boys Are,카지노 게임 컬렉션� which Francis recorded for the 카지노 게임 컬렉션�spring break카지노 게임 컬렉션� movie of the same title, and which many artists have since covered.

Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s career as a singer took off during these same years. Beginning in 1959, he produced a string of bubbly, doo-bee-doo-wappy hits such as 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Oh! Carol,카지노 게임 컬렉션� 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Calendar Girl,카지노 게임 컬렉션� and 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen,카지노 게임 컬렉션� before achieving his first number one record with 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.카지노 게임 컬렉션� During these years, Sedaka sold 25 million records, second only to Elvis, and unlike Elvis, he wrote or co-wrote his own songs.

And then the wheels came off. The Beatles arrived, revolutionizing the music scene in America as they had already done in Britain, and immediately casting successful solo acts like Sedaka (as well as Paul Anka, Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Elvis and others) into cultural obscurity.

Sedaka continued to write and record songs, but his most notable airplay during these years came when other people sang his music, including The Monkees, The Fifth Dimension, Tom Jones and Tony Christie (카지노 게임 컬렉션�Is This The Way To Amarillo카지노 게임 컬렉션�).

By 1971, Sedaka had abandoned hope of making his comeback in the United States and moved his family to England, where he played rough working men카지노 게임 컬렉션�s clubs in the north, and tried hard to get his voice back on the radio. His luck turned when he recorded an album with the future members of 10cc (best known for their number one hit, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I카지노 게임 컬렉션�m Not In Love카지노 게임 컬렉션�), and met Elton John, who signed him to his Rocket Record Company, and re-launched him in America.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s Back카지노 게임 컬렉션�

The comeback attempt worked, and Sedaka stormed again to the pinnacles of popular success with his album Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s Back and singles like 카지노 게임 컬렉션�That카지노 게임 컬렉션�s When the Music Takes Me,카지노 게임 컬렉션� 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Laughter in the Rain카지노 게임 컬렉션� (his first number one since 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Breaking Up Is Hard To Do카지노 게임 컬렉션�), 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Bad Blood카지노 게임 컬렉션� (another number one, with Elton John on backing vocals), 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Solitaire카지노 게임 컬렉션� (covered by The Carpenters, Jann Arden, Sheryl Crow, Clay Aiken and many others), and 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Love Will Keep Us Together카지노 게임 컬렉션� (the best-selling single of 1975, not for Sedaka, but for The Captain and Tennille).

카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant카지노 게임 컬렉션� belongs to this period. Strikingly different from the love songs and ballads that make up the bulk of Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s output, it was among the finest products of his new songwriting partnership with the lyricist Phil Cody, and it took Sedaka as close as he ever came to political controversy.

The issue of immigration was important to Sedaka and Cody. Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s parents both came from Jewish families who relocated to New York. His mother카지노 게임 컬렉션�s origins were Russian-Polish. His father카지노 게임 컬렉션�s were Turkish.

Cody카지노 게임 컬렉션�s father, meanwhile, emigrated from Sicily to New York in 1930 with dreams of becoming an opera singer, but he spent his career as a carpenter. Cody said he wrote the lyric for 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant카지노 게임 컬렉션� with his dad in mind, but it also clearly arises from painful personal experience. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I spent a lifetime being teased about being a little dark Italian kid in a white Protestant neighbourhood,카지노 게임 컬렉션� he remarked recently.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant카지노 게임 컬렉션�

In 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant,카지노 게임 컬렉션� Cody and Sedaka do not go back to the beginning of international migration to America when roughly 30,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas crossed over from Asia.

Instead, they concentrate on the powerful allure of what for more than two centuries has been known as 카지노 게임 컬렉션�the American Dream카지노 게임 컬렉션� of freedom, equality and opportunity, and the ways in which that dream 카지노 게임 컬렉션� then as now 카지노 게임 컬렉션� was being betrayed by intolerance and self-interest, as indeed it had been betrayed from the start by vigilante and legislative agendas that were virulently anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-African, anti-Asian and anti-communist.

Cody begins the lyric with a vision of what the United States was like when his father (카지노 게임 컬렉션�the young searching foreigner카지노 게임 컬렉션�) arrived 카지노 게임 컬렉션�to live in the light of카지노 게임 컬렉션�liberty.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

There were, he imagines, harbours with open doors, billboards with advertisements, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�plains and open skies,카지노 게임 컬렉션� 카지노 게임 컬렉션�dream boats카지노 게임 컬렉션� travelling 카지노 게임 컬렉션�to the heart of America,카지노 게임 컬렉션� and people 카지노 게임 컬렉션�waiting in line for a place by the river.카지노 게임 컬렉션� 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Was it anything like that when you arrived?카지노 게임 컬렉션� he asks his father.

In the chorus, Cody is much more confident. Steeped in nostalgia, he asserts that, when his father settled in New York, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�It was a time when strangers were welcome here.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s music enhances the optimism of Cody카지노 게임 컬렉션�s words, lifting the emotional register of the song, and displaying his immense gift for the memorable melody. Above all, the chorus speaks directly to the belief that shaped the U.S. as a nation of immigrants: 카지노 게임 컬렉션�people could come from everywhere.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

In the second verse, Cody makes it plain that those days of acceptance are gone. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Now,카지노 게임 컬렉션� in the 1970s, people still arrive with hearts 카지노 게임 컬렉션�set on miracles,카지노 게임 컬렉션� but they are turned away, and the promises of the 카지노 게임 컬렉션�magical land called America카지노 게임 컬렉션� are denied to them.

Sedaka closes the song with a return to the hope of the chorus, and a reaffirmation of the America Dream that places 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant카지노 게임 컬렉션� in the same tradition as Emma Lazarus카지노 게임 컬렉션�s 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The New Colossus카지노 게임 컬렉션� (1883), the sonnet affixed to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

The promises of the U.S. have always been threatened by powerful forces both within and without the country. Cody and Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s song concerns the liberal ideals of freedom and cultural plurality that drew people like Cody카지노 게임 컬렉션�s father and Sedaka카지노 게임 컬렉션�s grandfather to America, and that in the current political climate are once again under siege.

Like many great songwriters, Sedaka has fallen in and out of favour. But at his finest, he composed songs that lodge themselves firmly in the mind, and that remain moving and relevant. In 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The Immigrant,카지노 게임 컬렉션� he speaks out on one of the most controversial issues in all of American history and champions a vision of the country that prizes compassion and diversity.

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Robert Morrison is a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature..

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