Billy Steinberg, a pop songwriter behind a startling variety of basic hits, has handed away. Steinberg helped write enormous hits for artists like Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles, Whitney Houston, Coronary heart, and the Pretenders, and he was nonetheless penning huge songs into the twenty first century. Billboard experiences that Steinberg died immediately after a battle with most cancers. He was 74.
William Endfield Steinberg was born in Fresno, California, and he grew up there and in Palm Springs. He went to school at Bard after which fronted a band referred to as Billy Thermal. The group by no means discovered success, however Linda Ronstadt had a top-10 hit when she lined their music “How Do I Make You” in 1980. Steinberg wrote that music, and he rapidly connected with Tom Kelly, the person who would turn out to be his longtime songwriting companion. Steinberg would write the lyrics, and Kelly would write the music. Collectively, additionally they recorded as a duo referred to as i-10, however they made a a lot larger influence with the songs that they wrote for different artists.
Steinberg and Kelly wrote “Like A Virgin,” which grew to become Madonna’s first #1 hit in 1984. Coronary heart’s cowl of i-Ten’s energy ballad “Alone” reached #1 in 1987. The duo additionally Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colours” and Whitney Houson’s “So Emotional,” two extra chart-toppers, they usually co-wrote one other one, “Everlasting Flame,” with Bangles frontwoman Susanna Hoffs. That is simply the #1 hits! Steinberg and Kelly’s items for grand, emotive pop anthems prolonged past these songs. Different Steinberg/Kelly hits embody Pat Benatar’s “Intercourse As A Weapon,” the Bangles’ “In Your Room,” Lauper’s “I Drove All Evening,” Divinyls’ “I Contact Myself,” and the Pretenders’ “I will Stand By You.”
Tom Kelly stepped away from songwriting within the ’90s, however Steinberg stored working. He discovered a brand new writing companion in Rick Nowels, they usually co-wrote Céline Dion’s 1996 smash “Falling Into You.” Within the ’00s, Steinberg and producer Josh Alexander co-wrote huge songs like JoJo’s “Too Little Too Late,” t.A.T.u.’s “All About Us,” and the Veronicas’ “When It All Falls Aside.” That is a hell of a catalog, and it really spans pop eras. Steinberg and Kelly had been inducted into the Songwriters Corridor Of Fame collectively in 2011. Revisit Steinberg’s chart-toppers under.
