Neil Sedaka

And

and learn how to move in a more macho way, how to carry my books, how to... It was a metamorphosis.

Yes, but I must correct you.

I didn't use the word sissy.

I used the word effeminate because I was raised by six women.

We were, believe it or not, 11 people in a two-bedroom apartment in Brighton Beach.

My mother, my sister, my five aunts, and my grandmother.

So these are the people who I emulated.

So it was a marvelous upbringing because I was spoiled by all these women.

Yes.

My mother played the Barry Sisters records.

These were the great old standards.

I heard them at bar mitzvahs and weddings and family picnics.

And I decided at this stage of my career that I wanted to do things for my own heart, for my own spirit, not particularly looking for commerciality.

And I got some wonderful reaction.

I did an all-Yiddish concert at Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago for the folks being Jewish theater in New York.

It wound up to be a very exciting album.

I performed with a few klezmer groups in California and Chicago, the klezmatics.

It was my roots and I'm very proud of where I came from.

I think you have to remember where you came from and this was very special.