A Philebrity Passes,....

Shocked and stunned,....

Robert Hazard, Philly rocker and songwriter

By Dan DeLuca and Michael Klein
Inquirer Staff Writers

Robert Hazard, 59, whose regional hits such as "Escalator of Life" made him one of the most prominent Philadelphia rock acts of the 1980s and whose song "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" was turned into a massively popular feminist anthem by Cyndi Lauper, died Tuesday night.

Mr. Hazard, a Philadelphia native who was raised in Springfield, Delaware County, died unexpectedly after surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, his wife, Susan, confirmed yesterday.

The singer and songwriter, who in recent years operated antique shops in Old Forge, N.Y., and Vero Beach, Fla., was born Robert Rimato, the son of Umberto Rimato, who sang with the Philadelphia Opera Company.

In 1979, he wrote "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" - which was covered this summer by teen megastar Miley Cyrus on her album Breakout - in 15 minutes while sitting in a bathtub in a Wilmington motel. For years, the song, which has been featured in several movies and in Carnival Cruise Line television commercials, provided Mr. Hazard with a steady income. In the early 1990s, he estimated that it had earned him more than $1 million in royalties.

But Mr. Hazard's rise to become one of the brightest hopes of the Philadelphia music scene in the 1980s had little to do with "Girls." In 1981, he recorded a five-song EP at Sigma Sound Studios that included "Escalator," "Change Reaction" and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" that was heavily promoted by rock-radio powerhouse WMMR-FM (93.3) and sold 50,000 copies locally.

"He played an instrumental, vital part in the Philadelphia rock scene" at such clubs as J.C. Dobbs and the Ripley Music Hall, recalled 'MMR DJ Pierre Robert, who began work at the station in 1981. He remembered "going to see this band that I had heard about called Robert Hazard and the Heroes" at the Ambler Cabaret, "and they just ripped it up. They were all dressed in black, with red accents. It was a macho, stripped-down, lean, mean attack machine."

Mr. Hazard's approach - releasing an EP that was pushed hard by WMMR - led to the singer's signing by RCA in 1984, and was followed by other nascent Philadelphia acts such as the Hooters and Tommy Conwell.

Rob Hyman of the Hooters, who played on Lauper's 1983 recording of "Girls," remembered first seeing Mr. Hazard play when the Hooters shared a bill with him at a Center City block party.

"They were playing their tight and solid New Wave rock, with the musicians in line behind their fearless leader, and rocking the hell out of the downtown crowd," he recalled yesterday in an e-mail.

"They'd move back and forth as a unit, raising the energy of the crowd with each and every step. It was a talented group of players, and Robert's songs and stage presence were not to be denied."

On later albums, such as 2004's The Seventh Lake and last year's Troubadour, Mr. Hazard recast himself as a folk-rock singer. When he returned to play local venues, he would concentrate almost entirely on acoustic new material, which recalled the music he played when finding his way in the 1960s.

"I started singing and writing songs about age 10," he wrote in 2003. "I didn't really play guitar till much later. In my teens I would audition at coffee houses like the Second of Autumn and the Edge" in the Philadelphia area. "I never got a job, but learned about acoustic music by hanging out at these places listening to Eric Andersen, Chris Smither, Jimmy Webb, and other great songwriters and poet guitar players."

Randy Alexander, a publicist who once managed Mr. Hazard, said yesterday that the singer "fought this dichotomy. He was known for one thing, but that was really not his essence, his soul. He was a folky, rootsy guy."

The TrekMedic mourns:

I came of age during the time when Hazard, Tommy Conwell, The Hooters, The A's, and John Eddy and The Front Street Runners were all poised to hit the big time as answers to New York and LA's burgeoning post-disco rock scene.