Twin spins

I came down hard on one-decade-wonder performers from the pre-Beatles years in my last post.

But there was one artist from the very early 1960s whose fame -- and talent -- has endured and who managed to morph his 1962 bubble-gum-rock song into a hit for a second time 14 years later as a beautiful ballad.

Same song. Same lyrics. Totally different style and delivery.

And there's more: he co-wrote the song.

Give up?

It was Neil Sedaka, pictured above, and the song was "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do."

(Only one other act -- actually, it was a group -- managed to have a hit twice with different versions of the same song. The Ventures broke into the top 10 twice with recordings of "Walk, Don't Run" in 1960 and 1964.)

Sedaka, a Brooklyn boy (born in 1939), first recorded his "down-do-be-do-down-down" version of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" as an upbeat pop song in 1962. It shot to No. 1 on the U.S. hit charts.

Fourteen years later, he took that same song (he co-wrote it with Howard Greenfield) and made another success of it, this time as a slow, tender and touching ballad. It made it to No. 8 on the U.S. charts.

Unlike so many of those I mentioned in my last post, Sedaka has nurtured his career through both the successful and the lean years by changing, growing, and maturing. His fame is international. On September 11 of last year, he performed at the Hyde Park, London, venue of "Proms in the Park," which was broadcast to much acclaim by the BBC. The song that brought the loudest audience reaction was his 1976 arrangement of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do."

And when Sedaka aims for a note, he hits it dead-on.

You can listen to both of Sedaka's versions of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" on YouTube. (The song has also been recorded by many other singers). Click here for the 1962 version. And then click here to listen to the 1976 -- and in my opinion, far better - rendition, which begins with a few bars of the 1962 version and then becomes something totally different.