This CD is for any AGE. The songs are timeless, addicting and amazing for any generatjion.
February 10, 2008This is Sedaka's best recording. Great singing with great songs. Even better than Sedaka's Back!!!
January 27, 2008 |  | Hard to find slow version of a Sedaka hit song |  |
I was in grade school when Neil Sedaka had a hit with "Breaking Up is Hard to Do"...I later bought "The Hungry Years" album (in vinyl!) when it was released because I had liked the song "Breaking Up..." and the newly released duet with Elton John, "Bad Blood." I was in college then. I LOVED his reworking of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" in the 1970s, because it really seemed to fit the lyrics--a more melancholy version of the song than the "up tempo" one of the original. The '70s slow version is very hard to find these days. Thankfully, this album has come out in CD. I'm not fond of all the songs on this album, but do really think the reworked version of "Breaking Up..." is a better fit for the lyrics.
June 4, 2007Thanks again for putting all your track listing on line. So much easier to download from other sites for free.
Remember me always I am the guy who loves to wear long ankle lenght flowing full circle skirts
January 8, 2006 | | Sedaka's solo masterpiece. | |
While not a Neil Sedaka fan, I was still amazed by the versitility and unique approach to contemporary pop music that Sedaka took with this album. If you go deeper, behind the music (as they say on VH1), you will also be amazed. This is just superb music.Sedaka was part of the "Brill Building" crowd that spawned so many joyful hit singles in the late 50's and early 60's. Another Brill alumni was the great Carole King.The Hungry Years was the second of 2 LP's recorded on Elton John's fledgling Rocket Records label. Elton was at his artistic best in the 70's and was instrumental in Sedaka's comeback to the pop mainstream. It kicks off with "Crossroads", an upbeat but pleading tune of hard times and indesicion...something most of us can relate to in the human condition. "Stephen" was written for composer Stephen C. Foster, a favorite of Sedaka's, who is acclaimed as America's first professional songwriter, and lived and died in the early/mid 1800's. The album also sports a couple of top 40 hits: "Bad Blood" did well for Neil and got lot's of radio airplay, and a cover version of "Lonely Nights (angel face)" was taken to the top of the charts by The Captain and Tennille...although I still prefer Neil's original on this record. "The Hungry Years", the album's title cut, has been covered by many top artists of the day, and gives you a look at something else we all go through before we leave this earth...a yearning for our youthful past. "When you were loving me" is another standout track, and the blusey remake of "Breaking up is Hard to do" is simply a classic reborn, and takes on new life. Anyone who lives in the heart of any big metropolitain area can relate to "New York City Blues", a song about life and death in the big city.Simply stated...this is Sedaka's best work to date. Plugging it in to the new millenium, this record holds more meaning for me now than it did when it was released in the 70's. I'm glad to see that it has made it to CD. The only complaint I have about this record is the fact that Neil, at times, likes to recycle his favorite lyric phrases in some of his other songs. Lines like "tear the damned thing down" and "you'll discover, I'm some kind of lover" sound strange when transplanted to more than one composition. As for the new CD version of this classic LP...I could have done without the bonus tracks. They were mediocre at best, and really do not fit in with the feel of the original presentation. Although I did get a giggle out of "The Queen of 1964".
January 19, 2005More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(10 reviews)