Robert Hazard RIP

Growing up in Philly, in the late 70's/early 80's it was impossible to escape the music of Robert Hazard. Like Tommy Conwell, Ben Vaughn, John Eddie and The Hooters from around that same time, Robert was one of our hometown heroes. He remains a hometown hero in spirit now, as sadly Robert passed away today at the age of 59 from pancreatic cancer at Mass General Hospital in Boston. Robert is best known for writing "Girls Just Want To Have Fun," which went on to become a huge hit for Cyndi Lauper and most recently was recorded by Miley Cyrus on her new album. But it was songs like "Escalator Of Life" and "Change Reaction" that brought him beyond the Philly clubs like JC Dobbs (where I think I saw him play about 200 times - or so it seemed) to the world of MTV and New Wave-era rock stardom.

I used to write a local music column back in those days for a newspaper called the South Street Star and I got to know Robert reasonably well. I had seen him over the years and he and I always had great conversations about music and life and the last time I saw him was early this year, a couple months after he played a concert/live broadcast for WXPN, the station I work at. He had recently been signed by Rykodisc and was excited by the many new songs he was writing. I always joked with him when I saw him that he never had to write another song again given the success of "Girls." And everytime he responded to me he'd always answer the same way - "That was a good one, but not as good as "Like A Rolling Stone."

Listen to Robert Hazard from WXPN and NPR Music here

Robert Hazard "Escalator Of Life"