Greg Kihn, the rock singer-songwriter who scored with “Jeopardy” and “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” and helped definite an era of power pop in the 1980s, died Tuesday at age 75, his family announced in a statement. The cause of death was complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
With the Greg Kihn Band, the singer reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981 with “The Breakup Song,” scaling even greater heights in 1983 with “Jeopardy,” which hit No. 2 on the national chart and became an early staple of the nascent MTV. The latter song continues to be part of the public consciousness not just because of its own enduring earworm qualities, but because of a popular parody by “Weird Al” Yankovic, “I Lost on Jeopardy.”
Related Stories
VIP+
'Rob Peace' Review: Chiwetel Ejiofor Finds Nuance in the Story of a Gifted Student Who Sells Drugs to His Classmates
Kihn was part of the Beserkley Records stable of artists to come out of the Bay Area in the mid-’70s, having released his first song as a solo artist on the influential compilation “Beserkley Chartbusters Vol. 1” in 1976, coming up alongside such labelmates as Jonathan Richman, the Rubinoos and Earth Quake.
Popular on Variety
“We weren’t like the other SF bands,” Kihn said in a 2018 interview. “Our music was derived from the British bands like the Who and the Faces. We were always writing new songs, and the fans came back week after week to see what we’d come up with. It was all about the songs, not the jamming.
Before moving to San Francisco in 1972, Kihn grew up in Baltimore, and won a talent contest sponsored by a local radio station while still in high school. He signed with Beserkley in 1973, though it would not be till 1976 that he released his first album, “Greg Kihn.”
Eventually he established a pattern of pun-fueled titles, with album releases that included “Next of Kihn” (1978), “RocKihnRoll” (1981), “Kihntinued” (1982), “Kihntagious” 1984) and “Rekihndled” (2017).
Kihn also published six novels, starting with “Horror Show” in 1996.
Kihn was grateful to Yankovic for giving his No. 2 hit even more of an afterlife than it otherwise would have had. “I loved his version of ‘I Lost on Jeopardy’,” he said. “It was a brilliant parody. Al is a super talented musician. He invited me to appear in his video and I had a ball. God bless that man! I still get mailbox money from Weird Al!”
Kihn was also pleased when “The Breakup Song” got picked up for “Grand Theft Auto V,” saying the song “is attracting a whole generation of fans and it’s very exciting. The song has endured many years and shows no signs of slowing down. It fits well in the game and I am proud to be part of it.”
He was the first to record a Bruce Springsteen song, “Rendezvous,” thanks to the Boss being a fan. Kihn admitted he sang the words wrong, which involved a funny story. “Bruce would start showing up the gigs and he showed up when we played at the Roxy in L.A.,” he recalled in a 2019 interview. “And here comes Bruce and he’s hanging backstage with us and he loved my version of ‘For You,’ so (he says) ‘I want to give you another song’ — it was ‘Rendezvous.’ So he writes the lyrics on a napkin from the Roxy.I stick it in my pocket. In those days we had to do an early show and alate show, and I sweated like a pig! Well, I go out there and when I go back to the hotel I reach in my pocket to look at the lyrics and it’s white pulp. I was freaking out and I go, ‘Oh my God, Springsteen gave me a song and now I can’t do it!’ So I called Jon Landau’s office and explained Bruce gave me the song and he says, ‘Okay, no problem I’m going to send you a cassette,’ so he sends me a cassette which I must’ve listened to a million times…
“Bruce is not really known for his diction, and there were some lyrics I could not figure out what he was saying, like the bridge totally sounds to me like he’s singing ‘And we desire so much more than squirrels’ — I can’t be right. I played that cassette 1000 times for everybody that I knew… the guys in the band go ‘Yeah, it’s squirrels, it got to be squirrels.’ So I tried to slur my voice when I did it… I didn’t really sing it either way, but I knew it wasn’t squirrels. So a yearlater Springsteen shows up at a gig and goes, ‘Hey Greg, there ain’t no squirrels in that song.'”
He was a morning radio host for KFOX for 18 years, beginning in 1996, as well as a syndicated nighttime radio host. “Of course, while I was there, it had been bought and sold many times: Clear Channel, Intercom, Cumulus, all these different various ownerships, and they moved it to San Francisco to a high rise up there, a penthouse suite of radio stations… I had great ratings, everything, but I think they fired me because they were paying me too much money for too long, and I can totally understand that.” But, he noted, “The day that I got fired was the day I got inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. So go figure.”
In a 2022 interview, Kihn admitted he hadn’t always had a healthy lifestyle, and was happy to still be around. “Everybody would have said that I’d have been the first one to go, I’m sure… I lucked out. And, you know, life has been very good to me. I’ve had a wonderful career, several careers: radio, records, and literary. I feel like I’ve been blessed and I had a great life. And if it all ended tomorrow, which I don’t think it will, I look back on it as a big fat plus. I really feel like I’ve been very lucky. And being a musician, you’re just trying to put one foot in front of the other. You just follow your footsteps. And it’s like that being a writer or a guy on the radio. So for me, I follow my footsteps. And it has led me here, and I don’t know where it’s going to leave me next, but I’m ready, man.”
A private memorial celebration for friends and family is expected to be followed by public celebration of life concert for fans and fellow musicians, with details to be announced.
Kihn is survived by Jay Arafiles-Kihn, his wife; a son, Ryan Kihn, and daughter, Alexis Harrington-Kihn; Samora Harrington, his son-in-law; grandsons Nate Harrington-Kihn and Zuri Harrington-Kihn; his sister, Laura Otremba; Lou Otremba Jr., his brother-in-law), and nephews Larry Otremba, Lou Otremba III and Matthew Otremba.
In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be made in Kihn’s name to the Alzheimer’s Association.
