Award-winning US songwriter Billy Steinberg, who wrote several top hit songs including Madonna’s Like a Virgin, died on Monday aged 75, according to media reports.
Steinberg wrote some of the biggest pop hits of the 1980s and 1990s and was behind songs performed by singers from Whitney Houston and Celine Dion to Madonna and Cyndi Lauper.
He died following a battle with cancer, his attorney told the Los Angeles Times and BBC News.
“Billy Steinberg’s life was a testament to the enduring power of a well-written song — and to the idea that honesty, when set to music, can outlive us all,” his family said in a statement to the outlets.
Steinberg was born in 1950 and grew up in Palm Springs, California, where his family had a table grape business. He attended Bard College in New York and soon began his career in songwriting.
He helped write five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Among those was Like a Virgin, co-written with Tom Kelly, which spent six consecutive weeks at the top of the charts.
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In a social media post, American singer, songwriter and actress Cyndi Lauper paid tribute to Steinberg.
“I was so sorry to hear that my friend Billy Steinberg had passed away,” the post read.
“He was such a nice guy and very supportive.
“My thoughts were with his family, loved ones, and Tom during this sad time.”
Steinberg won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his work on Celine Dion’s Falling Into You.
ABC/AFP