Robert Hazard
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Robert Hazard is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, musician, probably best known for composing and recording the song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" which Cyndi Lauper covered, turning the song into a best-selling hit. He also composed the 1980s New Wave and MTV hits, "Escalator of Life" and "Change Reaction", which he performed with his band, Robert Hazard and the Heroes, which was popular in the Philadelphia club scene during the '80s. These songs appeared on the five song EP Robert Hazard, released in 1982.
Hazard was profiled in a 1981 Rolling Stone article by Kurt Loder. In the piece, Loder goes through Hazard's musical history 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".[1]
Hazard's love of country music, however, does explain the direction his most recent recordings have taken, beginning with The Seventh Lake (2003) and continuing with Blue Mountain (2004). In 2007, Rykodisc signed Hazard and released his album, Troubador.
[edit] References
- ^ Scan of Kurt Loder's Nov. 1981 Rolling Stone article, "Robert Hazard, Philly Hero". The scan is hosted on Phillyrockers.com. Retrieved: 13 January 2008
[edit] External links
- Robert Hazard Bio at Phillyrockers.com
- Robert Hazard and the Heroes history page at Phillyrockers.com
- "Escalator of Life" music video, on YouTube
- 2007 performance of "Escalator of Life" by students of The Paul Green School of Rock Music, with Robert Hazard singing, on YouTube
- RobertHazard.com, currently redirects to Robert Hazard's MySpace page
