{"id":473889,"date":"2026-02-17T13:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/473889\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:28:10","slug":"cyndi-lauper-on-true-colors-co-writer-billy-steinberg-pure-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/473889\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyndi Lauper on ‘True Colors’ Co-Writer Billy Steinberg: ‘Pure Genius’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSongwriter Billy Steinberg, who died Monday (Feb. 16) from cancer<\/a>, was responsible for some of the most indelible pop songs of the \u201880s and \u201890s, including \u201cTrue Colors,\u201d which became one of Cyndi Lauper<\/a>\u2019s signature hits and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the Grammy-nominated song wasn\u2019t the only tune that Steinberg and his then songwriting partner Tom Kelly had cut by Lauper. She recorded a number of their songs, including \u201cI Drove All Night\u201d and \u201cUnconditional Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement to Billboard, Lauper said, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry to hear of Billy Steinberg\u2019s passing. He was a great lyricist and a wonderful collaborator. He and Tom had such a way of capturing the range within an emotion, from the subtlety to urgency. When I think back across \u2018True Colors,\u2019 \u2018Unconditional Love,\u2019 \u2018I Drove All Night,\u2019 \u2018My First Night Without You,\u2019 and \u2018Heading West,\u2019 I\u2019m wowed. I mean, come on, \u2018I\u2019m like a letter with no address.\u2019 Pure genius. For \u2018True Colors,\u2019 there was a lot of back and forth which I know was hard for him. In the end, he said that I had really invented my own \u2018very exquisitely beautiful version\u2019 of the song. That really meant a lot to me. It is a special song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSteinberg initially wrote \u201cTrue Colors\u201d about his mom, but Lauper then amended it to be about a friend who died of AIDS during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. \u201c\u201dHe died of AIDS, and [\u2018True Colors\u2019] was for us to feel better,\u201d she told People in 2023<\/a> on the red carpet of the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of her new documentary\u00a0Let the Canary Sing. \u201cHe had wanted me to write a song for him, and I tried.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe song subsequently became and remains a powerful LGBTQIA anthem of love and acceptance.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the Grammy Museum\u2019s 2023 \u201cThe Power of Song: A Songwriters Hall of Fame Exhibit,\u201d Steinberg was represented by a demo for \u201cTrue Colors\u201d\u00a0recorded on a TDK SA 60 cassette and a note from Lauper that read, \u201cBilly \u2014 Thanks for sending me and writing such a beautiful song. [Heart] Cyndi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSteinberg also co-wrote such pop classics as Madonna\u2019s \u00a0\u201cLike a Virgin,\u201d the Bangles\u2019 \u201cEternal Flame,\u201d Heart\u2019s \u201cAlone\u201d and Whitney Houston\u2019s \u201cSo Emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Songwriter Billy Steinberg, who died Monday (Feb. 16) from cancer, was responsible for some of the most indelible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,497,216],"class_list":["post-473889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-pop","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}