>Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:04:19 -0400
>From: John Micek <jlmicek@verizon.net>
>To: Auditeers <audities@smoe.org>
>Subject: Robert Hazard, RIP
>Message-ID: <C9BD0095-021E-456C-986D-8E6C5CB34440@verizon.net>
>
>The Philly songwriting great was 59. This is a big loss for  
>Pennsylvania music:
>
>http://idolator.com/399977/robert-hazard-rip
>
>JLM


This bums me out.  I've spent my whole life in the Philadelphia area,
and Robert Hazard was one of the first in a string of local acts that my
friends and I loved in our teenage years (including the A's and the
Hooters).  My cousin knew one of the guys in his backing band (called
the Heroes back then), who had also played in a local outfit called
Johnny's Dance Band.  I do remember that when Hazard signed to RCA they
made him fire some (maybe all?) of the band, and we all liked "Escalator
of Life" better as an indie single than the over-produced RCA version,
but it was a great song nonetheless.  I was always glad that he made a
lot of money by writing "Girls Just Want To Have Fun".  I remember a
interview with him on the radio saying that he even got royalty checks
from a movie company who made a soft-porn movie and used it as the
title.

RIP

Mike