US Jewish songwriter Billy Steinberg, who penned lyrics for ‘Like a Virgin,’ dies at 75

Award-winning US songwriter Billy Steinberg, who wrote several top hit songs including Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” died Monday at age 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 to a Jewish family 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.

Among his hits was Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” co-written with Tom Kelly, which was released in 1984 and spent six consecutive weeks at the top of the charts. In a Q-and-A posted on his website, Steinberg said that he and Kelly came from different backgrounds but shared the same taste in music.

“Tom comes from Indiana and he and I are sort of opposite types,” Steinberg said. “He plays golf, I play tennis, I’m sort of very driven and a neurotic Jew in a very stereotypical sort of way and Tom would be a little more relaxed. We sort of complemented each other, but at the same time, we’re so opposite.”

He helped write five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Steinberg won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his work on Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You.”

He and Kelly were also responsible for Lauper’s “True Colors,” The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” (co-written with Susanna Hoffs), Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional,” Heart’s “Alone,” and a host of other hits.

Steinberg was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. He is survived by his wife and two sons, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In the Q&A, Steinberg recalled that he was inspired to write “Like a Virgin” after beginning a new relationship following a bad breakup. He said he began writing the lyrics in a notebook while driving a red pickup truck around his father’s vineyard in southern California. He and Kelly then wrote the song.

The duo met Madonna in person much later, he said. It was a very brief encounter.

“I was introduced to her and Tom and I were there together, and I said, ‘Madonna, it’s great to meet you. I’ve wanted to meet you for so long,'” he recalled. “And she said, ‘Well now you did,’ and walked away.”

He continued, “Well, I was devastated. Of course, Tom thought it was hilarious. He thought it was really funny because he saw how excited I was to meet her and then how crestfallen I was and he couldn’t help but laugh. I was okay with that, I guess. It didn’t take long for me to think it was funny too.”