NEIL Sedaka will match the piano-and-voice acoustic format of his latest album, The Real Neil, when he plays York Barbican this autumn.

“I have seven cities on this tour, starting with the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; all the others will be me and the piano, which I love, because these concerts are so much more personal, telling people how I wrote the songs and why I wrote them,” says the prolific singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, New York.

Now 74, Sedaka has a back catalogue that stretches to more than 1,000 compositions.

By the age of 23, tinkering away in his cardigan in the Brill Building as the doo-wop king of Tin Pan Alley, he had clocked up 25 million record sales between1958 and 1963, a total second only to Elvis Presley.

He went on to have a street named after him in his birthplace as well as being inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame and being given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Last year, 54 years since his 1959 debut Rock With Sedaka, he released his latest album of original material, The Real Neil. “I’ll be coming over with the new set of songs; all studio recordings that are newly recorded,” says Sedaka. “One or two are new versions of old favourites, but 12 of them are new. I wrote them in New York and Los Angeles and recorded them in New York.”

Highlights from The Real Neil will, of course, share Sedaka’s October 25 set list in York with his hit singles that began in spring 1959 with I Go Ape. Oh! Carol, Stairway To Heaven, Calendar Girl, Little Devil, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do and Laughter In The Rain are sure to be aired, too, along with songs he wrote for others.

Sedaka was the songwriter behind Tony Christie’s Is This The Way To Amarillo; Elvis Presley and Andy Williams’s Solitaire; Connie Francis’s Stupid Cupid; Frank Sinatra’s The Hungry Years and Captain And Tennille’s Love Will Keep Us Together.

“It’s been 61 years of writing and 58 years of singing,” he says. “I was 13 years old, studying at the Juilliard School to be a pianist, when this 16-year-old poet, Howard Greenfield, persuaded me to start writing songs.

“The first hit came at 19 and I was the first American rock’n’roller to play many countries, coming to England in 1961 for the first time.”

Sedaka never took singing lessons. “Like a Sinatra or a Streisand, the voice came out naturally, and I remember it was quite a shock to the teachers of the Juilliard School, who’d hoped I would be a concert pianist,” he says.

“It’s wonderful for the soul, to play a Beethoven sonata, but it’s not good for the pocket book, though I did write Manhattan Intermezzo, which I recorded three years ago with the Royal Philharmonic at Air Studios, George Martin’s studio.”

Sedaka’s gift for song-writing has seen him record 55 albums, including records in six languages.

“German was the most difficult; I couldn’t sing ‘Ich’,” he says. “Japanese was the simplest phonetically, and my favourites were Spanish and Italian, and Portuguese was lovely, too.”

He has an affinity with England, not only because of a shared language with the United States. “England has been very lucky for me. I moved there in 1970 with my wife and lived there for three years because the English have more respect for the original artistes,” says Sedaka, who is forever grateful for the part that fellow piano-playing singer and songwriter Elton John played in his career.

“Elton was responsible for my amazing comeback; I was recording with 10CC in Stockport at the time, and he came to see me in my flat in London, just behind the Dorchester in Park Street.”

Buoyed by Elton’s enthusiasm, the revival ensued with Sedaka’s Top 20 hit Laughter In The Rain in June 1974. “I’d been doing the smaller clubs, in Batley and Manchester, which was a sobering experience because people come for their fish and chips and their pints, but I’m a survivor,” says Sedaka, who duly draws attention to Rich Podolsky’s 2013 book, Neil Sedaka: Rock’n’Roll Survivor, The Inside Story Of His Incredible Comeback.

Sedaka the survivor is grateful to be on the road once more. “Oh my goodness, how many people at 74 are still writing, recording and touring the world?” he asks. “I love what I do and people can sense that.”

Does he gain more satisfaction from his songs becoming hits for the likes of Sinatra or Presley or performing them himself? “Financially, the cover records are very lucrative, especially Elvis, Frank and Tony Christie, but my great pleasure is singing the songs. I’ll always prefer that,” he says.

Asking him to pick a favourite Neil Sedaka song is the equivalent of asking “which child you like better”, he says, “but I would say, out of the 1,000 songs, the one that made the greatest impression was Laughter In The Rain, my comeback song, though ‘Amarillo’ was a hit twice and Solitaire has been recorded by 60 artists.”

Should you be wondering, he reckons Shirley Bassey’s rendition is the best.

Neil Sedaka plays York Barbican on October 25, 7.30pm. Tickets cost £45 to £50 on 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk