Remembering Billy Steinberg

Aka how lucky I was to write songs with the man behind 'Like A Virgin' and 'Eternal Flame'

I was scrolling through Instagram on Monday night when I saw a seemingly innocuous post- a picture of Billy Steinberg, renowned lyricist and an erstwhile collaborator of mine. I’m used to seeing his face pop up on my feed, his emails pop up in my inbox. Only this time, underneath the picture were three doleful letters… ‘R.I.P’.

Suddenly my doomscroll lived up to its name and I pored over news articles, sad posts, old songs. He really was gone. I was devastated. We weren’t particularly close over the years, but his legacy- his songwriting had informed me in ways that had changed my brain chemistry forever.

You might not have known Billy, but you’d sure as heck know his songs. He was the man who wrote such hits as ‘Like A Virgin’, ‘I Drove All Night’, ‘Too Little Too Late’, ‘True Colors’, ‘Eternal Flame’- classics that outgrew the artists who sang them- becoming karaoke go-to’s, X Factor calling cards; funeral staples, ear worms which lingered longer than all others. As a songwriter, you would literally kill to have a hit that huge. As a singer, a Billy song in your weaponry was a sure shot. Quite simply, he was and remained the top of his game.

I grew up in the ‘80’s and Billy provided the soundtrack. First snog- ‘Eternal Flame’, first rejection at Becca’s rollerdisco whilst wearing tie dye and a neon bumbag-‘I Drove All Night’. Somehow his words just seemed to voice how young love felt, how it hurt. And they healed too. Deeply. I didn’t know it then, but one day, I would write balms of my own with this LA dude; love songs for the loved AND the broken-hearted.

It was the early 2000’s and I found myself on yet another writing trip to Hollywood. My publishers at Warner Chappell had an astonishingly endless budget and would happily pop me on a flight to LA on a whim to go and write some pop bangers. I used to take so much stuff with me in those days- guitars, my recording rig, laptop, several notebooks and plenty of circa Dirrrty clubwear to guarantee me some LA beefcake.

I used to stay at the Standard or sometimes, if I was really cheeky, the Chateau Marmont (endless budget, remember) and just kind of drape myself in corners. I knew how soddingly lucky I was. My friends were back home working as admin assistants and teachers and I was mimosa-ing whilst spotting Wilson brothers at the bar (Owen, Luke, Dave?).

I networked my heiny off in the songwriting scene and somehow met someone who knew someone who sort of knew Billy Steinberg. I recognised the name instantly. This was the man who’d written for Madonna fer crissakes! At the time I had just nursed my pride back to health after being dropped from my Warner label deal and was coming back fighting. I’d already written with Rick Nowels (Dido, Lana Del Rey, FKA Twigs, Lykke Li) and Jon-John Robinson (TLC, Diana Ross) on that trip and I sort of had some pop credits with some European acts who had covered my songs, so I was feeling… emboldened.

I lay on my bed, surrounded by Hersheys’ kisses wrappers and a half eaten taco and drafted my email to Billy in one of my songwriting notebooks. So analogue. The gist of it was like this, ‘Hey Billy, I am a super accomplished (lie) english (truth) songwriter who’s out in LA on a writing trip. I am a big fan of your writing and was wondering if we could meet up?’

After a night out partying at some terrible club where supermodels were doing lines in the cramped toilets, I got back and typed out the email. I hit send.

Within a half hour, Billy had messaged back, inviting me to a writing session the next day with his co-writer at the time, Paul Inder. I was stunned. This huge songwriting talent had been so easy to contact, so welcoming to me. I was used to cynical LDN and being put in my place, told what level I was at on fame’s ladder and rejected outright. I hadn’t anticipated a yes in such a sea of no’s.

The next day I downed some overpriced Urth Cafe coffee in Melrose and drove to Billy’s. As I walked in the door, he greeted me with one of his lever arch files, full of neatly printed out lyrics. ‘Pick one!’ he exclaimed and I honestly thought he was joking. I had never written songs that way. It had always been me on lyrics and things happened way more ‘organically’, with me and the other songwriter chatting for 7 hours or an 8 hour session, realising we hadn’t written anything yet and then rushing to get something done in the last hour whilst eating biscuits and copious amounts of tea. If only I’d realised back then just how ADHD I and most other songwriters I wrote with were! Ha!

I couldn’t imagine that anyone could write my voice. I was a girl fer crissakes, not yet a woman and how would this older dude know my experience?!! But despite my arrogance, I found myself in awe as I leafed through his lever arch file- I recognised my experiences in the black and white print and withing a few page flips found a lyric set I instantly connected with. It was called, ‘It Could Be You’.

Paul, Billy and I sat around his computer with a guitar and I started to sing. The melody for the verse came to me first and Paul scrabbled around trying to follow me with various chords. It was pure joy. Absolute connection.

I think we wrote the song in thirty minutes. Maybe thirty-five.

‘It Could Be You’, the song Billy, Paul and I wrote.

Billy was fun, funny and intimidating but I could see that he was warming to me. We talked about live music and he suggested some venues I should visit. The pace of the session started to slow down a bit and I felt more and more relaxed. We started a second track, ‘My Idea Of Heaven’. Before long it was time to go. I had a meeting that afternoon and Billy had another session, I think.

The demo vocal I recorded that day was the one we actually used on the master. It just felt and sounded right.

Soon after that writing trip I managed to sign another deal with Universal Records this time. You and I both know what happened with that and it would be a whole 15 years later before that particular album was released. Spoiler alert, I lost another record deal, quit music, pivoted to acting, got married, had a baby, got divorced, worked in IT, posted a tweet that went viral and then came back to music again in 2023.

I stayed in touch with Billy, mainly on socials, so the odd comment and the occasional like, but it wasn’t until 2024 that we spoke again on the phone.

I’d had a vision.

It sounds bonkers, but I had a vivid dream that I would record an album of Billy’s back catalogue and I woke the next day, convinced that this was my destiny. I pinged Billy and yet again, like all those years before, he was open to the idea of working with me. He was open to me. And once again, it was reassuring- this huge writer guy was happy to take my calls and entertain my bonkers idea.

We went back and forth on the shortlist of songs I would record and I chose a couple of lesser known songs Billy had recorded himself in his old band so as to keep things fresh and unexpected. I wasn’t even signed to a record deal but Billy didn’t seem to mind. He was just keen that I didn’t f*ck the lyrics up! I asked if he’d be up for writing some new songs and he said he didn’t really write anymore but he had some lyrics that had never been set to music if I was interested. Of course I was interested!

It was just like the olden days only this time, the lever arch file was replaced with word docs pinging their way into my inbox.

I settled on a couple and began to write- first on my guitar and then exploring a more electronic vibe on Logic. I planned to get the album recorded by winter but then my mum got really sick and fell into an Alzheimer’s related coma and we were told to say our goodbyes that March.

You probably already know this too, but she survived. Nevertheless, I was absolutely overwhelmed and around that time wrote ‘Swim’ about mum, which was later used in some campaigns for Alzheimer’s Society. I couldn’t really think about anything else and I needed to put my own feelings into my own words. I put everything on pause, including the Billy project which by now had the working title, ‘Through The Wilderness’, a lyric from ‘Like A Virgin’ of course.

As an artist, writing is a compulsion and before long, I had a bunch of songs written which narrated my grief. Even when they were upbeat. ‘If You Think I’m Too Much’ was about a soulless situationship I could just about handle delving into at the time. ‘Everybody’ was about feeling left out and alone but really it was about me missing the voice in my head- my mother.

I didn’t have time to do much else other than promote the album, also called ‘Swim’ when it came out in September and funnily enough had only a few weeks back thought about my what next and the Billy Project had popped into my head.

I don’t know what will happen with it now. I’m just going to let the news sink in and reflect. As I said, he wasn’t a close friend but he left a huge impact. Even in the way I have evolved my own songwriting. It takes enormous discipline to write a fully fleshed out song from top to bottom without any melody. Like fellow lyricist Bernie Taupin, Billy had a poet’s heart and boy, will his words live on.

And as for me, I found I like singing other people’s words after all, especially when they are as iconic as Billy Steinberg’s…

So do please check out Billy’s playlist of his songs on Spotify- he asked me to give it a follow and I had some of my best ever car journeys listening to it, belting his songs out with my daughter on the way to Butlins and beyond.

And while you’re there, don’t forget to give me a follow too.

Much love,

Alexis x

Stay Up To Date With My Music

Watch my live streams and regular songwriting Q&A sessions on Lounges, stay subscribed here and buy the album, ‘Swim’. It honestly is really rather good!

Thought For The Day

• On “Like a Virgin” (1984): “I wasn’t just trying to get that racy word ‘virgin’ in a lyric. I was saying... that I may not really be a virgin—I’ve been battered romantically and emotionally like many people—but I’m starting a new relationship, and it just feels so good, it’s healing all the wounds and making me feel like I’ve never done this before...”. Billy Steinberg