{"id":1415,"date":"2026-03-19T16:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2026-03-19T16:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:06:11","slug":"the-immigrant-sung-by-neil-sedaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/blog-posts\/the-immigrant-sung-by-neil-sedaka\/","title":{"rendered":"The Immigrant, sung by Neil Sedaka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

March 5, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Tom Ewing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death of singer and songwriter Neil Sedaka on February 27, 2026 brought attention to his remarkable catalog of hits and performances over many decades. In 1976, the year of the Bikecentennial, Sedaka already had numerous hit songs spanning more than fifteen years. In 1975, Sedaka released \u201cThe Immigrant,\u201d which was a top seller in the popular charts and No. 1 on the easy listening song list. Dedicated to John Lennon, whose legal status was questioned in part because of his political views, the song celebrated the contributions of generations of immigrants to American society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The immigrant song was generally well received by critics who attended Sedaka\u2019s performances. The Los Angeles Times described The Immigrant as a song of \u201cgenuine insight and emotion.\u201d (May 2, 1976) A profile in the Long Beach Independent quoted Sedaka\u2019s view that \u201cthe country was founded by immigrants,\u201d and he and co-author Phil Cody \u201cwere so proud of it were wanted to frame the lyrics.\u201d (September 28, 1976)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The background of \u201cThe Immigrant\u201d resonates with America in 2026, the year of Sedaka\u2019s death.  As Sedaka recalled in numerous interviews, the lyrics drew upon his own family backgroun, as he was the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Turkey and Eastern Europe who came to the United States in the early twentieth century. Cody also reflected how his father\u2019s journey from Sicily to the United States in the 1930s contrasted with attitudes toward immigrants by the 1970s. As evident in the lyrics, the welcome extended to immigrants in an earlier era is contrasted to the closed door that now greeted those who approached America with hopes for miracles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyrics to \u201cThe Immigrant\u201d, Phil Cody and Neil Sedaka (1975)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harbors opened their arms to the young searching foreigner
Come to live in the light of the beacon of liberty
Plains and open skies, bill boards would advertise
Was it anything like that when you arrived?
Dream boats carried the future to the heart of America
People were waiting in line for a place by the river<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Chorus]
It was time when strangers were welcome here
Music would play
They tell me the days were sweet and clear
It was a sweeter tune, and there was so much room
That people could come from everywhere<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he arrives with his hopes, and his heart set on miracles
Come to marry his fortune with a hand full of promises
To find they\u2019ve closed the door, they don\u2019t want him anymore
There isn\u2019t any more to go around
Turning away, he remembers he once heard a legend
That spoke of a mystical, magical land called America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 5, 2026 by Tom Ewing The death of singer and songwriter Neil Sedaka on February 27, 2026 brought attention to his remarkable catalog of hits and performances over many decades. In 1976, the year of the Bikecentennial, Sedaka already had numerous hit songs spanning more than fifteen years. In 1975, Sedaka released \u201cThe Immigrant,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}