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Reelin’ in the Years 262: Laughter in the Rain. RIP Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka died last Friday.

He was one of the most distinctive pop acts of the late 1950s and early 1960s before the advent of The Beatles overturned everything.

His many songwriting credits include Stupid Cupid, a 1958 hit for Connie Francis, and Love Will Keep Us Together (Captain and Tenille, 1975.) (Is This the Way to) Amarillo (1971) eventually became a big hit for Tony Christie – aided by Peter Kay’s video – in 2005.

Sedaka’s own hits include Calendar Girl, Little Devil, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.

He kind of reinvented himself as a singer-songwriter in the 1970s with a more adult-oriented approach.

Here’s a live performance from 1975.

Neil Sedaka: Laughter in the Rain

This one was a hit for The Carpenters but this is a Sedaka performance-

Neil Sedaka: Solitaire

Though he had an earlier hit with I Go Ape this was the song which really announced him in the UK in 1959.

Neil Sedaka: Oh! Carol

Neil Sedaka: 13/3/1939 – 27/2/2026. So it goes.

Solitaire: Not The Only Game In Town

You wait all your life to see one pipe-laying ship… and then two appear at once.

Solitaire has been joined by the Audacia. This was the pair of them yesterday afternoon.

Audacia and Solitaire

Here is the Solitaire foreshortened.

Close up of Foreshortened Solitaire

And the Audacia aftshortened. (You can just see the Bass Rock in the background to the right.)

Audacia in close.

By this morning, when conditions were much hazier, they had swung around.

Audacia and Solitaire

Here’s a close-up of Audacia from today.

Audacia

The link to the Audacia above has a cracking picture of her as well as a couple of promo videos!

Swiss Army Knife Ship

One of the interesting aspects of living in Kirkcaldy is the ever changing view out to sea. There are usually quite a few ships either at anchor or moving up and down the Forth.

For the last week one in particular has been prominent. Here it was along with another about a week ago.

Ships off Kirkcaldy

As you can see the one on the left has a peculiar shape. The good lady remarked that it was the shipping equivalent of a Swiss Army knife what with all the bits hanging off it.

Here is a crop of the above.

Solitaire A Swiss Army Knife Ship

The ship is still hanging around and I finally looked it up on a shipping movement website. It turns out it’s the Solitaire, the largest pipe laying vessel in the world.

I don’t know if it’s actually been laying any pipes.

This is a picture from the ships and harbours photos site.

Solitaire, pipe layer

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