Howard Greenfield was born in Brooklyn, New York, and worked out of the famous Brill Building with Neil Sedaka, a friend he had met as a teenager when they both lived in the same apartment building, in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn. Greenfield was educated at Abraham Lincoln High School.After first supplying “Passing Time” to The Cookies, Sedaka and Greenfield scored their first major pop hit single with Connie Francis’ “Stupid Cupid”. When, in 1959, Sedaka signed to RCA Records as a solo artist, he and Greenfield composed a string of hits – among them “Oh! Carol”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Calendar Girl”, “Little Devil”, “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen”, “Next Door to an Angel” and the chart-topping “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” – which sold a combined 25 million records.After Sedaka’s career cooled in 1963, the duo continued writing hits for other artists, including The Fifth Dimension’s “Workin’ on a Groovy Thing” and Tom Jones’ “Puppet Man”. Apart from Sedaka, Greenfield also collaborated with Carole King (“Crying in the Rain”), Helen Miller (“Foolish Little Girl”, The Shirelles’ final Top Ten hit), and Jack Keller. The latter was his songwriting partner on “Breakin’ in a Brand New Broken Heart”, “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool”, “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” and “When Somebody Loves You”. In addition Greenfield and Keller supplied the theme music for U.S. television programs such as Bewitched and The Flying Nun.Although Sedaka and Greenfield ended their partnership in 1973, two years later their song “Love Will Keep Us Together” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for Captain & Tennille, as well as earning a Grammy for Record of the Year. He and Sedaka later resumed their collaboration, and continued writing together in the years to follow.Greenfield died, aged 49, in Los Angeles, California in 1986 from AIDS. He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).In 1991, Howard Greenfield was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
- Tim Acito
- Daniel S. Acquisto
- Marion Adler
- Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes
- Gerard Alessandrini
- Todd Almond
- Billy Aronson
- John August
- Glen Ballard
- Annie Barrows
- Chad Beguelin
- David H. Bell
- Nell Benjamin
- Neil Berg
- Jonanthan Bernstein
- Craig Bohmler
- Stephen Bray
- Edie Brickell
- Marshall Brickman
- Jason Robert Brown
- David Bryan
- Sammy Buck
- Craig Carnelia
- Robert Cary
- Warren Casey
- Philip Cody
- Michael Colby
- Andy Collyer
- Patrick Cook
- Gareth Cooper
- Bob Crewe
- Ryan Cunningham
- Joan Cushing
- Lear deBessonet
- Alexander Dinelaris
- Joe DiPietro
- Jeremy Dobrish
- Jenna Donnelly
- Anthony Drewe
- John Du Prez
- Fred Ebb
- Rick Elice
- Stephan Elliott
- Scott Elmegreen
- Ben Elton
- Colin Escott
- Gloria Estefan
- Emilio Estefan
- Beth Falcone
- Jules Feiffer
- Julian Fellowes
- Jeffrey Finn
- Drew Fornarola
- Frederick Freyer
- Mark Friedman
- Larry Gallagher
- Bob Gaudio
- Ned Paul Ginsburg
- Kenneth Grahame
- Howard Greenfield
- John Gregor
- Marvin Hamlisch
- Sean Hartley
- Jon Hartmere
- Tom Hedley
- Alex Higgin-Houser
- Rupert Holmes
- David Howard
- John Michael Howson
- Alison Hubbard
- Eric Idle
- Damon Intrabartolo
- Erik Jackson
- Jim Jacobs
- Brandon Jay
- John Kander
- Victoria Kann
- Elizabeth Kann
- Lawrence Kasdan
- David Kisor
- Timothy Knapman
- David Kornfeld
- Stephen Lawrence
- Robert Lindsey-Nassif
- Andrew Lippa
- Larry Little
- John Maclay
- Ethan Lewis Maltby
- Richard Maltby, Jr.
- Melissa Manchester
- Sonia Manzano
- Dylan MarcAurele
- Steve Martin
- Bob Martin
- Joseph McDonough
- Erin McKeown
- Bill Meade
- Nick Meglin
- Britt Menzies
- Brendan Milburn
- Peter C. Mills
- David Mitchell
- Melvyn Morrow
- Floyd Mutrux
- Marsha Norman
- Kim Oler
- Fitz Patton
- Greg Pierce
- Stuart Matthew Price
- Monty Python
- Queen
- Cara Reichel
- Mike Reid
- Dan Remmes
- Steve Rosen
- David Rossmer
- Robbie Roth
- Bruce Joel Rubin
- Brenda Russell
- Brett Ryback
- Mark Saltzman
- Joshua Salzman
- Gwendolyn Sanford
- Robin Schiff
- Sarah Schlesinger
- Allan Scott
- Neil Sedaka
- William Shakespeare
- Molly Shannon
- Rachel Sheinkin
- Bret Simmons
- Matthew Sklar
- Dave Stewart
- George Stiles
- Peter Stone
- Laura Stratford
- Peter Ullian
- Sharon Vaughn
- Valerie Vigoda
- Janet Yates Vogt
- Bob Walton
- Simon Warne
- Eric H. Weinberger
- Scott Wentworth
- Annabel Wigoder
- Allee Willis
- Ben H. Winters