Robert Hazard | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Robert Rimato |
Born | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | August 21, 1948
Died | August 5, 2008 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged 59)
Genres | New wave |
Labels | RHA Records, RCA Records |
Robert Hazard (né Rimato; [1] August 21, 1948 – August 5, 2008) [2] was an American musician. He wrote, composed, [3] [4] and recorded (as a demo) the song " Girls Just Want to Have Fun" in 1979, which was recorded in 1983 by Cyndi Lauper, who turned it into a best-selling hit. [5] He also composed the new-wave and MTV songs " Escalator of Life" and "Change Reaction", which he performed with his band, Robert Hazard and the Heroes, that was popular in the Philadelphia club scene during the 1980s. [6] These songs appeared on the five song EP Robert Hazard, released in June 1982 by his own record label "RHA Records", and the next November by major label RCA Records. [7] RCA released his first LP album, Wing of Fire, in January 1984. [8] [9]
Robert Hazard was born on August 21, 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of an opera singer. [1] He grew up in Springfield Township, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Springfield High School in 1966.
Kurt Loder profiled him in a 1981 Rolling Stone article, describing Hazard as a musician "...who started out as a Dylan-era folkie, then spent eight years singing country & western. 'I just love country music', he explains, which of course explains nothing, least of all the two years he subsequently spent with a reggae band... or his current electro-pop approach, which owes little to any of the above." [10]
His final recordings were country albums, beginning with The Seventh Lake (2003) and continuing with Blue Mountain (2004). In 2007, Rykodisc signed Hazard and released his album, Troubadour. [2]
Hazard died 16 days before his 60th birthday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on August 5, 2008, following surgery for pancreatic cancer with which he had recently been diagnosed. [11] He was living with his wife Susan K Selander and two sons Rex and Remy near Old Forge, New York, at the time of his death. He also is survived by an older daughter from a previous marriage to a woman named Corrina. [12]
The catchy, chanting Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which Lauper rewrote from the demo by Robert Hazard, was her first hit...