BILLY STEINBERG (1950 - 2026)

Billy Steinberg, the incredibly prolific songwriter who was behind many of the most popular songs throughout the 1980's and 1990's, has passed away on February 16th at the age of seventy-five. With his with longtime songwriting partner, Tom Kelly, together wrote or co-wrote with other artists the songs, "Like a Virgin" by Madonna, "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper, "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston, "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls and "I'll Stand by You" by The Pretenders to name just a few.

Born in Palm Springs and raised in Fresno, Steinberg formed a band called, Billy Thermal and they were signed to Richard Perry's Planet Records. The band's actual breakthrough came only when their songs that Steinberg wrote were covered by other artists like Linda Ronstadt who did her version of "How Do I Make You", the lead single form her 1980, "Mad Love" album and Pat Benatar recorded "I'm Gonna Follow You" for her 1980 album, "Crimes of Passion". After the band broke-up, Steinberg soon moved behind the scenes, working with Benatar the following year on her next album and writing the title track, "Precious Time" and teaming with Kelly to co-write another track, "Fire and Ice". This lead to Steinberg and Kelly being suggested to work with Madonna, a rising artist who was working on her follow-up album to her self-titled debut. "Like a Virgin" would be the lead single and title of that album, reaching number one in 1984 on the US pop chart for six weeks.

This helped this newly formed songwriting team become very in demand and other popular songs Steinberg and Kelly wrote include "Alone" (recorded by Heart), "Eternal Flame", "In My Room" (both co-written with Susanna Hoffs and recorded by the Bangles) and "I Drove All Night" (recorded by Cyndi Lauper, Roy Orbison and Celine Dion). By the mid-1990s, Kelly had lost enthusiasm for songwriting, leaving the business. But Steinberg continued on with his career, going on to co-write with other musicians including Rick Nowels, Marie-Claire D'Ubaldo and Josh Alexander.

RANDOM SIGHTS + SOUNDS

On the verge of beginning her highly anticipated Celebration Tour which celebrates forty-plus years of making music, Madonna has been busy teaming up with several contemporary musicians for some new music that has all just been released. First, the Queen of Pop appears on "Popular", a song by Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye and also features Playboi Carti for the soundtrack of the buzzy new HBO series, "The Idol" which stars Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp. Madonna lends her voice for three songs on the new album by Christine and the Queens, "Paranoïa, Angels, True Love". And finally, there is "Vulgar" which Madonna collaborates with Sam Smith on a boldly unapologetic yet disappointingly routine dance track that proudly  proclaims the merits of being fearlessly outspoken.







June is Pride month and what better soundtrack for this celebration than getting your hands on "NOW! That's What I Call Proud!", the latest installment in the compilation album series, "NOW! That's What I Call Music!". What makes this edition stand out is that all the artists involved are out and proud: We have the legendary trailblazers (Elton John, k.d. Lang, Melissa Ethridge, George Michael) and the next generation who were able to begin their careers openly because of these pioneers (Sam Smith, Troye Sivan, Hayley Kiyoko, Lil Nas X). Here are a few of the classic songs on this collection:

Best known for the recording of "The Girl From Ipanema", the Brazilian singer, Astrud Gilberto has passed away at eighty-three on June 5th. This song would become an international hit, helping to popularize bossa nova, reaching the top five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and winning the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1965. Astrud Weinert married musician, João Gilberto, who would later be known as the "Father of Bossa Nova", in 1959. João teamed up with American jazz musician, Stan Getz and released the album, "Getz/Gilberto" in 1963. "The Girl From Ipanema" was first recorded for the album as a duet between Gilberto, singing in Portuguese, and his wife performing in English. An edited version of the song with just Astrud was released, becoming very popular and went on to sell over a million copies. Infidelity would bring an end to the marriage of the Gilbertos by 1964 but Astrud continued her career, releasing a self-titled debut album the following year. Gilberto went on to record fifteen studio albums with songs in various languages which impressively included Spanish, German, Italian, French and Japanese. And although she never officially retired, Gilberto said she was taking some time off after the release of her 2002 album. "Jungle" which would become her final recording.

And Cynthia Weil, one half of the songwriting team with her husband, Barry Mann based at the famous Brill Building who together helped shaped the sound of rock & roll throughout the 1960's with many popular songs, died at the age of eighty-two on June 1st. Born in New York City, Weil had studied to be an actor and dancer but not long after marrying Mann in 1961, she discovered her skill at writing pop songs. "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration", "On Broadway", "Walking in The Rain", "Just a Little Lovin' (Early in the Morning)" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" are just a few of the early hits that were written by this songwriting duo. The couple would write as individuals, with other partners as well as team up together with other songwriters. Other popular songs Weil would later be involved in creating included "Just Once", "Never Gonna Let You Go"," He's So Shy", "Here You Come Again", "All I Need To Know" and "Somewhere Out There" for the animated film, "An American Tail" which won the team (along with co-writer, James Horner) the 1986 Song of The Year Grammy Award. With her husband, Weil was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

A TRIBUTE TO LINDA RONSTADT

During the height of Linda Ronstadt's fame, recorded music was still pressed on vinyl and a singer was actually required to be able to carry a tune but she has managed to endure as one of the most dynamic and gifted vocalists in the world who could do it all: pop, rock, country, folk, Broadway, big band, jazz, opera and Mariachi. Unfortunately, her glorious voice is now silenced due to recently revealing that she is suffering from Parkinson's disease. Ms Ronstadt was a passionate vocalist who sang simply and clearly from the heart. In this era where many of today's artists are simply manufactured in the recording studio, this is a great loss for music lovers.

Here is a brief collection of some of the diverse sounds from Linda Ronstadt:

"When Will I be Loved" - Linda Ronstadt (1975)

"Falling In Love Again" - Linda Ronstadt (1984)




Finally, here is some vintage footage of Ms Ronstadt performing with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris:

FOCUS ON: LINDA RONSTADT

I can't think of many singers who can truly be considered versatile but one I can name most definitely is Linda Ronstadt. She is a dynamic song stylist who has managed to perform many different genres of music and used her magnificent and powerful voice to do them truthfully, passionately, competently and even found great commercial success in the process.

She is one of all-time favorite singers. I have always loved her music and I always looked forward to every new album that would come out. My favorite was "Mad Love" (1980) which she did her version of new wave music that included songs by Elvis Costello (who made unnecessarily nasty comments about her take of his music). It's great from beginning to end and if you can get your hands on it, check it out.

Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1946 and her childhood was filled with a wide range of music. She would listen to jazz, rock & roll, opera, country, r&b, folk, gospel, pop standards and mariachi. She grew up singing this music with her family as well as hearing it on the radio and it would eventually inspire her to go on to make albums using all of these different styles of music in the future.

At fourteen, she formed a folk group with her brother, Peter and her sister, Suzy and they played coffeehouses and other small venues. Later, at eighteen and after completing one semester at the University of Arizona, Linda decided to go to Los Angeles to try and start her music career.

In 1964, she formed a folk-rock band with Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and called themselves the Stone Poneys. They signed with Capitol Records and released three albums in a little over a year. Their biggest hit was "Different Drum" written by future Monkees member, Mike Nesmith. The band broke up before the release of their third album although Mr. Edwards would continue to record and tour with Ms Ronstadt later in her career.

In 1969, she released her first solo album, "Hand Sown...Home Grown" and it has been considered to be the first alt-country album by a female artist. She continued to record and tour but didn't have any huge hits and was still considered a cult favorite.

Things began to change with her fourth album, "Don't Cry Now" (1973) when she first started working with her long time producer, Peter Asher. He was the first producer she had worked with who she felt was on the same page with her musically and he would collaborate with her on her all of future recordings through the late 1980's.

Finally, in 1975 with the release of "Heart Like A Wheel", she had her first number one album as well as her first number one single, "You're No Good". The album would top the country charts as well and go on to sell over two million copies. This album also started her reputation as a brilliant interpreter of other artists songs and making some people consider them sometimes even better than the original version.

She continued making hit albums over the years, releasing a total of thirty to date and scoring many more top ten hits. She landed on the cover of Time magazine in 1977 and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone six times. She has appeared on Broadway and starred in the operetta, "Pirates of Penzance" in which she received a Tony award nomination as well as a Golden Globe nomination for the film version in 1983.

She teamed up with Nelson Riddle and recorded a trio of popular albums of the music of the Great American Songbook, made a successful country album, "Trio"(1987) with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris and released an album of traditional Mexican folk music, "Canciones de mi Padre" (1987) in honor of her father and her Mexican heritage, which sold over two million copies in the U.S. Linda Ronstadt is truly an unique artist who has sold over 100 million albums worldwide during her illustrious career.