Neil Sedaka Passes Away at 86: a Look Back at His Extraordinary Life, Marriage, and Hits

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Any exploration of Sedaka’s life must honor Howard "Howie" Greenfield. Greenfield was sixteen and Sedaka just thirteen when their mothers introduced them in the stairwell of their Brooklyn apartment complex in 1952. Sedaka provided the cascading piano lines; Greenfield supplied the conversational, emotionally direct rhymes.

Their creative workflow was prolific. At their peak inside Aldon Music, they produced as many as three finished songs a day. Greenfield’s personal journey was complex. Living as a gay man during an era that was aggressively hostile to queer identities, Greenfield kept his domestic life private from the press while remaining completely open with Sedaka and Leba. Sedaka treated Greenfield's partner, Tory Damon, as extended family.

When Greenfield fell critically ill in the mid-1980s, Sedaka remained by his side. Greenfield died on March 4, 1986, at age 49. His death devastated Sedaka, who spoke openly about losing a creative soulmate. That deep, emotionally expressive bond was often misread by observers unfamiliar with the collaborative intimacy required to write enduring popular art.