Single – Neil Sedaka:
Two different versions of Breaking Up is Hard to Do charted in Australia. The first entered the Australian singles chart* on 7 July 1962 and peaked at #19. A re-recorded version entered the Australian singles chart* on 1 March 1976 and peaked at #48.
Single – The Partridge Family:
Breaking Up is Hard to Do entered the Australian singles chart* on 21 August 1972 and peaked at #3. The single was #23 on the Top 100 of 1972.
Album – Neil Sedaka:
The 1975 version by Neil Sedaka is on Overnight Success which entered the Australian albums chart* on 10 November 1975 and peaked at #64.
Songwriters:
Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield
Producers:
Sedaka – 1975 version: Neil Sedaka, Robert Appere
Partridge Family: Wes Farrell
Record labels of Australian releases:
Sedaka 1962 version: RCA
Sedaka 1975 version: Polydor
Partridge Family: Bell
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Neil Sedaka, 1962:
Neil Sedaka, 1976:
Neil Sedaka in concert, 1975:
The Partridge Family, 1972:
From The Partridge Family television show:
Wikipedia:
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do was co-written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. Sedaka recorded the song twice, in 1962 and 1975, in two significantly different arrangements, and it is considered to be his signature song.
Sedaka later said that the song’s iconic scat 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 and Sedaka improvising a vocalise. They liked it so much that they kept it in.
On the 1962 version, backing vocals are by the female group The Cookies.
The most successful cover of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do was done by the Partridge Family in 1972. While only a medium hit in North America, their version reached #3 in both the UK and Australia.
The song was also adapted into multiple languages, most notably in Italian and French.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Up_Is_Hard_to_Do
Lyrics:
Don’t take your love away from me
Don’t you leave my heart in misery
If you go then I’ll be blue
‘Cause breaking up is hard to do
Click for full lyrics
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