Hit-making songwriter Billy Steinberg passed away on February 16 at age 74 after a long battle with cancer. With songwriting partner Tom Kelly, Steinberg co-wrote an impressive number of major hits for various artists in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Among the tunes Steinberg co-wrote was the pop ballad “I’ll Stand By You,” a Top-20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for The Pretenders in 1994. Now, Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde has posted a heartfelt tribute to the songwriter on her social media pages.
“Very sad to hear of the passing of my dear friend Billy Steinberg,” Hynde wrote. “Billy and I, along with his songwriting partner Tom Kelly, enjoyed hours of mirth writing songs together in [Los Angeles] and London. It was with Billy and Tom that I learned to collaborate with other songwriters… and we wrote some crackers, including I’ll Stand By You. Billy, a gentle soul and great talent will be greatly missed.”
“I’ll Stand By You” appeared on The Pretenders’ sixth studio album, Last of the Independents. The song peaked at No. 16 on the Hot 100 and is the band’s last tune to crack the Top 40 of the chart to date.
Steinberg co-wrote five songs with Hynde and Kelly that were featured in Last Of The Independents. Among them was “Night In My Veins,” which reached No. 10 in the U.K. and No. 71 on the Hot 100.
Meanwhile, three songs Hynde co-wrote with Steinberg and Kelly appeared on the 1999 Pretenders album ¡Viva El Amor! The trio also collaborated on two tracks featured on the band’s 2002 studio effort, Loose Screw.
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With Kelly, Steinberg co-wrote five songs that topped the Hot 100 during the 1980s. They were Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” (1984), Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” (1986), Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional” and Heart’s “Alone” (1987), and The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” (1989).
Other hits co-written by Steinberg included Pat Benatar’s “Sex As A Weapon,” The Bangles’ “In Your Room,” The Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself,” and “I Drove All Night,” which was recorded by Roy Orbison, Lauper, and Celine Dion.
Steinberg was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.
Sony Music Publishing also posted a tribute to Steinberg on its socials.
The homage described Billy as “a songwriter who knew how to encapsulate the most complicated feelings and set them to melodies we’ll never forget.”
The message continued, “[H]is words captured heartbreak, hope, desire, and reinvention with a kind of honesty that felt both intimate and universal. 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.”
(Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Songwriters Hall of Fame)
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