Billy Steinberg
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Billy (William) Steinberg is an American songwriter. He has achieved most of his success as part of a song writing team, most notably with Tom Kelly. He has also co-written several hit songs with Rick Nowels.
Steinberg grew up in Palm Springs, California and worked with his father's table grape operation. He attended Bard College in New York and in his mid-20's formed the group Billy Thermal which was eventually signed to Richard Perry's Planet Records label.
Their breakthrough occurred in 1980 when Linda Ronstadt heard their album and decided to record their song "How Do I Make You?" for her 1980 Mad Love album. The album hit the top three of the charts and went platinum. Ronstadt's version of their song reached the American top ten.
In 1981, Steinberg wrote "Precious Time", the title track for Pat Benatar's Precious Time album; he also penned "I'm Gonna Follow You" that appeared on her second album Crimes of Passion the previous year. His band Billy Thermal included "I'm Gonna Follow You" as well as "How Do I Make You?" on their EP that was released by Planet Records in 1979. Also that year, Steinberg began writing with Tom Kelly, who had written another song ("Fire and Ice") on the album for Benatar.
Further success followed with the song "Like a Virgin," when it was played for Warner Bros. executives who thought that "Like a Virgin" would be perfect for Madonna. Steinberg later recalled writing the lyric in 1983 following a failed relationship, and recalled that he had genuinely felt that he'd "made it through the wilderness" and that he was "beat, incomplete". Her version of the song spent six weeks at number one in the United States in 1985, and became a worldwide hit. It was also the title track for her number one album.
The success of the partnership continued with more number one singles "True Colors" (recorded by Cyndi Lauper), "So Emotional" (by Whitney Houston), "Eternal Flame" (by The Bangles) and "Alone" (by Heart).
Some of their other hits include "In Your Room" (The Bangles), "I Drove All Night" (recorded by Cyndi Lauper, Roy Orbison and Celine Dion), "I Touch Myself" (the Divinyls), "Sex as a Weapon" (by Pat Benatar), and "Look Me in the Heart" (by Tina Turner). They also wrote several songs with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, including the top-ten single "I'll Stand By You". Artists such as REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Bette Midler, and Belinda Carlisle have also recorded their songs.
In the mid 1990s Steinberg began writing with Rick Nowels, who had previously established himself as a songwriter for such artists as Stevie Nicks and Belinda Carlisle. Their greatest success of the period was the Céline Dion recording of "Falling Into You" for which they won Grammy Awards. Their songs have been recorded by artists such as Kylie Minogue, k.d. lang, Melanie C., The Corrs, Robert Miles, Amber, Enrique Iglesias, Chynna Phillips, Ace of Base, Edyta Górniak, Vitamin C, and Lisa Loeb.
Steinberg continues to write songs. In 2005, he collaborated with producer Josh Alexander and Jessica and Lisa Origliasso of The Veronicas to write several tracks for The Veronica's debut release, The Secret Life Of..., including the third single, "When It All Falls Apart". They wrote "All About Us", a hit for the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u.. Steinberg and Alexander's recent work includes JoJo's 2006 single "Too Little Too Late" and Katharine McPhee's "Over It" in 2007.
