Spotlight: 1983 Freelancers

The Freelancers of Sacramento, California, took eighth place with a program that opened with a quiet version of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” that quickly turned into a loud and brassy fanfare. Howard Greenfield and Neil Sedaka wrote the song, which was first recorded by Sedaka in 1962 as a pop tune. When he re-recorded the tune in 1975 as a slower ballad, it resulted in Sedaka making the Billboard Top 10 twice for two different versions of the same piece.