Billy Steinberg, a Hall of Fame songwriter who co-wrote Madonna‘s smash “Like a Virgin” and four other U.S. No. 1 singles including Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional” and The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame,” died Monday of cancer in Brentwood. He was 75. His attorney confirmed the news to The Los Angeles Times.
Born on February 26, 1950, in L.A.’s Brentwood neighborhood, Steinberg also was a producer and performer, but his greatest success came as a songwriter. With his writing partner Tom Kelly, he co-penned five singles that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s. Along with “Like a Virgin,” “So Emotional” and “Eternal Flame,” he wrote chart toppers for Cyndi Lauper (“True Colors”) and Heart (“Alone”).
Among their other hits songs are Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself,” which reached the Top 5 on the Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Modern Rock chart in 1990 and was No. 1 in the band’s native Australia, and The Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand by You,” which went Top 10 in four countries and hit No. 16 in the U.S. The duo wrote five other songs for The Pretenders’ 1994 album Last of the Independents.
Steinberg and Kelly also wrote Lauper’s 1989 international hit “I Drove All Night,” which first was recorded by Roy Orbison in 1987 and appeared on his posthumous 1992 album King of Hearts. The Bangles’ “In Your Room,” which made the U.S. Top 5 in early 1989, was another Steinberg-Kelly hit.
The pair also co-wrote songs for the likes of Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Pat Benatar, Bette Midler, Belinda Carlisle, Carrie Underwood, Chicago, REO Speedwagon and Little River Band. Celine Dion covered “Alone” and “I Drive All Night.”
The pair’s signature tune is “Like a Virgin,” which made Madonna an international star in the music business’ lucrative year of 1984. The song spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and went Top 10 in more than a dozen other countries. It ranked No. 4 on Rolling Stone‘s list of 100 Greatest Pop Songs. Madonna’s floor-writhing performance of the song at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards was a cultural landmark — or landmine — and fueled her rise to becoming one of the biggest musical acts of the 20th century.
Steinberg and Kelly were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.
After Kelly retired during the 1990s, Steinberg continued to pen songs into the 2010s. He also wrote tracks recorded by such artists as Demi Lovato, t.a.T.u., Josh Alexander and others. Earlier in his career, Steinberg formed the band Billy Thermal, which signed to star producer Richard Perry’s Planet Records. The group recorded a 1980 album that went unreleased — until 2014 — but Linda Ronstadt covered its Steinberg-penned cut “How Do I Make You” for her platinum album Mad Love. It was the lead single from that disc and hit No. 3 on the Hot 100.