'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' Scribe Dies

Hazard, 59, best known for writing Lauper hit
By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 7, 2008 1:31 PM CDT

Philadelphia music icon Robert Hazard, best known for writing the Cyndi Lauper hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” died at the age of 59 on Tuesday from cancer complications, the Philadelphia Daily News reports. "He was one of the biggest local performers ever," Hazard's former road manager says. "He literally exploded out of Philadelphia."

Hazard’s band, Robert Hazard and the Heroes, gained local and national acclaim in the '80s with New Wave hits like “Escalator of Life.” Later in life, he turned increasingly to folk music, recently releasing two folk-tinged albums. "His roots were in folk music," another former manager says. "His local fame and international notoriety were not for the types of music that was the essence of his soul.” (More music stories.)

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