Jim Newton

Itasca

Hitmaker Neil Sedaka was ahead of his time in more ways than one. While we remember “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” and “Laughter In The Rain” following his February 27 passing, he had one record that might have slipped through the cracks: “The Immigrant” from his 1974 album “Sedaka’s Back.”

Immigration wasn’t quite the hotbed issue in 1974 that it is today, but the record reached #22 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. It wasn’t Sedaka’s biggest seller, but talk about prophetic. Lines like, “To find they’ve closed the door, they don’t want him anymore” and the “It was a time when strangers were welcome here” refrain over a lilting piano made “The Immigrant” a favorite easy listening favorite. Very 1970s. And for the wrong reasons, very 2026.