Billy Steinberg

Billy Steinberg was an American lyricist and songwriter whose words became some of the most familiar pop songs of the 1980s and 1990s. With his longtime writing partner Tom Kelly he wrote five Billboard Hot 100 number ones: Madonna's "Like a Virgin," Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," Heart's "Alone," Whitney Houston's "So Emotional" and the Bangles' "Eternal Flame," co-written with Susanna Hoffs. He died of cancer at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on 16 February 2026, ten days before his 76th birthday. He was 75.

He was born William Endfield Steinberg in Fresno, California, on 26 February 1950, and moved with his family to Palm Springs when he was 12. His father, Lionel Steinberg, ran the David Freedman Company, the largest table grape grower in the Coachella Valley, and Billy worked in the family business. He attended Cate School in Carpinteria and then studied literature at Bard College in New York, where he began writing songs in the late 1960s. After his junior year he suffered severe anxiety attacks and left college, as he later described in a 2004 essay on his website. He went home to Palm Springs, worked in his father's vineyards and wrote lyrics while driving around in a red Ford pickup truck.

In the late 1970s he formed a new wave band called Billy Thermal, named after the Coachella Valley town where the vineyards were, and signed to Richard Perry's Planet Records. The band's album went unreleased, but Linda Ronstadt recorded "How Do I Make You" for her 1980 album Mad Love and took it into the Top 10, and Pat Benatar recorded "I'm Gonna Follow You" and, in 1981, "Precious Time," the title track of her album. Around that time he met Tom Kelly at a party given by producer Keith Olsen. The two formed the duo i-Ten, whose 1983 album included an early version of "Alone," and they settled into a partnership in which Steinberg wrote the words and Kelly the music.

Their breakthrough was "Like a Virgin." Steinberg said he wrote it about the elation of a new relationship after a difficult breakup. Kelly first tried it as a ballad before reworking it in a Motown style, singing the demo in falsetto. Some people asked them to change the title, but Steinberg refused. Warner Bros. executive Michael Ostin heard it and thought of Madonna, and her Nile Rodgers produced recording spent six weeks at number one in the United States in 1984 and 1985. "True Colors" followed in 1986; Steinberg had first written it about his mother, and Lauper reshaped it into what became an enduring anthem of love and acceptance. Steinberg and Kelly also wrote "I Drove All Night" (recorded by Roy Orbison, Lauper and later Celine Dion), the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself," Laura Branigan's "Spirit of Love," Pat Benatar's "Sex as a Weapon," Tina Turner's "Look Me in the Heart," the Bangles' "In Your Room" and, with Chrissie Hynde, the Pretenders' Top 10 single "I'll Stand by You." Their songs were also recorded by REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Bette Midler, Belinda Carlisle and Taylor Dayne.

After Kelly stepped back from music in the 1990s, Steinberg kept writing with new partners. With Rick Nowels he wrote Celine Dion's "Falling into You," and he shared in the Grammy Award when the album of that name was named album of the year in 1997. With Nowels and Marie-Claire D'Ubaldo he wrote "One and One," a European and Asian hit for Edyta Gorniak, and he contributed to Melanie C's Northern Star and the Corrs' Talk on Corners. From 2005 he formed a productive partnership with producer Josh Alexander, writing for the Veronicas, t.A.T.u. ("All About Us"), JoJo ("Too Little Too Late"), Katharine McPhee ("Over It"), Leigh Nash, Ashley Tisdale, Jessica Mauboy, Nicole Scherzinger, Miranda Cosgrove and Demi Lovato, whose "Give Your Heart a Break" became a hit in 2012. In 2016 he wrote "My Stupid Heart" for Tini Stoessel.

Away from music he spent three decades building a collection of beads that included ancient stone beads, Roman and Phoenician period glass, Venetian trade beads, Edo period Japanese ojime and Chinese Boshan beads, and he wrote about African beads. He received a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in 2008, and in 2011 he and Kelly were inducted together into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was an ASCAP member from 1980.

His death was confirmed by his lawyer, Laurie Soriano, who said the cause was cancer. Many early reports gave his age as 74. His family called him "a visionary lyricist, devoted husband, loving father, and one of the most influential songwriters of his era," and said his life was "a testament to the enduring power of a well-written song." Cyndi Lauper called him "a great lyricist and a wonderful collaborator." He was survived by his wife, Trina; his sons, Ezra and Max; his sisters, Barbara and Mary; and his stepchildren, Raul and Carolina.