Billy Steinberg, the American songwriter whose words defined some of the most enduring pop hits of the past four decades including Divinyls’ I Touch Myself, has died aged 75.
by Paul Cashmere
William Endfield Steinberg, best known professionally as Billy Steinberg, died from cancer at his home in Brentwood, California on February 16, 2026, ten days shy of his 76th birthday. Across a career that stretched from the late 1970s into the streaming era, Steinberg’s songs topped charts, launched careers and became part of the cultural fabric, from Madonna’s Like A Virgin to Divinyls’ I Touch Myself.
Steinberg achieved his greatest commercial success in the 1980s through his partnership with songwriter Tom Kelly. Together they wrote or co-wrote a remarkable run of number one singles including Like A Virgin, True Colors for Cyndi Lauper, So Emotional for Whitney Houston, Eternal Flame for The Bangles and Alone, later a global hit for Heart.
The pair’s catalogue extended well beyond those chart-toppers. They wrote I Drove All Night, first recorded by Roy Orbison and later a hit for Lauper and Celine Dion, as well as I’ll Stand By You with Chrissie Hynde for The Pretenders. For Australian audiences, I Touch Myself, recorded by Divinyls in 1990, remains one of the most significant songs of the era, a fearless pop anthem that topped charts locally and broke internationally.
Born in Fresno, California on February 26, 1950, Steinberg moved with his family to Palm Springs at 12. His father, Lionel Steinberg, ran the David Freedman Company, the largest grape grower in the Coachella Valley, and Billy spent time working in the family’s table grape business. He attended Cate School in Carpinteria before enrolling at Bard College in New York State.
In his mid-20s he formed the band Billy Thermal, which signed to Richard Perry’s Planet Records. The group’s breakthrough came when Linda Ronstadt recorded their song How Do I Make You? for her 1980 album Mad Love. The album reached the top three in the United States and went platinum, with Ronstadt’s version of the song becoming a top 10 hit. Around the same period, Pat Benatar recorded I’m Gonna Follow You and later cut Precious Time, a Steinberg composition that became the title track of her 1981 album.
The turning point came when Steinberg began writing with Tom Kelly in 1981. Like A Virgin, written in 1983 in the aftermath of a failed relationship, captured a mix of vulnerability and resilience in a lyric that resonated worldwide. When the song was presented to Warner Bros., executives earmarked it for Madonna. Her recording spent six weeks at number one in the United States in 1984 and anchored a global smash album of the same name.
Following that success, Steinberg and Kelly became one of the most reliable songwriting teams in contemporary pop. Their songs were recorded by artists as diverse as REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Bette Midler, Belinda Carlisle and Taylor Dayne. In Australia, the impact of I Touch Myself endured long after its release, its candid lyric later embraced in health campaigns and cultural retrospectives.
After Kelly retired from music in the 1990s, Steinberg entered a new phase of collaboration. With Rick Nowels and Marie-Claire D’Ubaldo he co-wrote Falling Into You, a hit for Celine Dion, and One & One, which became a European and Asian success. He later worked extensively with producer Josh Alexander, contributing to All About Us for t.A.T.u., Too Little Too Late for JoJo, Over It for Katharine McPhee and Give Your Heart a Break for Demi Lovato.
Steinberg also maintained strong Australian connections. He co-wrote When It All Falls Apart with Jessica and Lisa Origliasso for The Veronicas’ debut album The Secret Life Of… and penned What Happened To Us for Jessica Mauboy’s Get ’Em Girls. His ability to adapt to new voices and shifting pop trends underscored a craft grounded in structure, melody and emotional clarity.
In 2008 he was honoured with a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. Three years later, Steinberg and Kelly were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, recognised as a team whose catalogue shaped the sound of modern pop.
He is survived by his wife Trina, his sons Ezra and Max, his sisters Barbara and Mary, and his stepchildren Raul and Carolina. In a statement, Ezra Steinberg said his father passed down a love of music along with discipline, integrity and a reverence for great songwriting, believing in building things that last in art, relationships and legacy.
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