Born in
Brooklyn, New York City, by his late teens Greenfield formed a songwriting partnership with
Neil Sedaka, a friend whom he had first 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. Their first recorded compositions took up both sides of the 1956 non-charting debut single by
the Tokens, of which Sedaka (but not Greenfield) was briefly a member. They then went on to supply the song "Passing Time" to
the Cookies, as well as other non-hit singles to vocal groups
the Clovers and
the Cardinals. At this point, though their songs were being recorded, the income derived from these songs was minimal, and Greenfield worked as a messenger for
National Cash Register. In 1958, Greenfield and Sedaka signed to Al Nevins and
Don Kirshner's
Aldon Music as songwriters, which had offices at 1650 Broadway in New York. (The company later moved to the Brill Building.) In their first year there, Greenfield and Sedaka wrote material for
Jimmy Clanton and
Bobby Darin, and scored their first major pop
hit single with
Connie Francis' "
Stupid Cupid", which hit #14 on the US pop charts in September 1958. They also wrote Francis' later hits, "
Fallin'", "
Frankie", and the "Theme to
Where the Boys Are," the film in which she starred. When, in 1958, Sedaka signed to
RCA Records as a solo artist, he and Greenfield composed a string of hits for Sedaka to record – among them "
The Diary", "
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". Sedaka's recordings eventually sold a combined 25 million records. As Sedaka's promotional and touring commitments began taking up more and more of his time, Kirshner encouraged Greenfield to collaborate with other Aldon writers. Beginning in 1960, Greenfield began a regular collaboration with
Jack Keller; they would write songs together every Monday and Wednesday for six straight years. Successful Greenfield/Keller collaborations included two consecutive US #1 hits for Connie Francis, "
Everybody's Somebody's Fool" and "
My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own". They wrote another Francis top 10 hit, "
Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart", Jimmy Clanton's top 10 hit "
Venus in Blue Jeans", as well as songs recorded by
Frank Sinatra,
Ernest Tubb,
Patti Page and
Brenda Lee. Greenfield and Keller also supplied the
theme music for U.S. television programs such as
Gidget and
Bewitched. Greenfield also collaborated with other Aldon songwriters, including Helen Miller, with whom he co-wrote "
Foolish Little Girl" (
the Shirelles' final
Top Ten hit), "
It Hurts to Be in Love", originally intended for Neil Sedaka but ultimately recorded by
Gene Pitney, as well as a new theme for the TV series
Hazel for its fourth season. He also collaborated with
Bill Buchanan recording a novelty record called "The Invasion" as Buchanan and Greenfield in 1964. As well, Greenfield's one and only collaboration with Aldon songwriter
Carole King resulted in "
Crying in the Rain", a top ten hit for the
Everly Brothers in 1962. The collaboration came about when, on a whim, two Aldon songwriting partnerships decided to switch partners for a day—
Gerry Goffin (who normally worked with King) partnered with Jack Keller, leaving King and Greenfield to work as a pair for the day. Despite the commercial success of their collaboration, King and Greenfield never wrote another song together. Sedaka and Greenfield also continued to work together as Sedaka's schedule allowed. After Sedaka's singing career cooled in 1963, they kept writing hits for other artists, including
the 5th Dimension's and
Tom Jones' "Puppet Man". Greenfield moved to Los Angeles in 1966, but still continued to collaborate with Sedaka and Keller, both of whom moved to California within a year or two of Greenfield. Sedaka began working with other lyricists in 1970 (most prominently
Philip Cody, who wrote most of the songs for Sedaka's 1970s comeback), though he and Greenfield still occasionally worked together after this time. Sedaka and Greenfield were increasingly argumentative near the end of their collaboration and ended their songwriting partnership in 1973. Their last collaboration, appropriately named "
Our Last Song Together", would be a minor hit for
Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods. In 1975, their song "
Love Will Keep Us Together" (originally recorded by Sedaka in 1973) topped the
Billboard Hot 100 chart in a cover version by
Captain & Tennille, as well as earning a
Grammy Award for Record of the Year. This version of "Love..." was the best-selling single of the year. Sedaka had a substantial hit in 1975 with a drastically re-arranged version of the Greenfield/Sedaka composition "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". As well, a re-release of the Greenfield/Sedaka song "Is This The Way To Amarillo" (originally a UK hit for Tony Christie in 1971) became the UK's best-selling record of 2005. Sedaka and Greenfield would reunite in the late 1970s for Sedaka's
Elektra Records albums; only one of these collaborations, "
Should've Never Let You Go," was a hit, reaching the top 40 as a duet between Sedaka and his daughter Dara. ==Personal life==