Following their stardom in the 80s, these musicians struggled with illness,
legal troubles, and other tragedies, but their legacies still burn bright.
Pete Burns, frontman of the new wave group Dead or Alive, passed away in October 2016
at the age of 57 from sudden cardiac arrest. His band formed in the late 70s,
but it wasn't until their 1984 single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" that they
really gained worldwide recognition. The track reached number 11 on the Billboard
Hot 100 in the U.S., while it made it all the way to number one in their native U.K.
While Dead or Alive continued to make music well into the 2000s, Burns started to become
more known for his rapidly changing looks by way of extensive plastic surgery. His
androgynous appearance endeared him to his fans. As he declared to The Guardian in 2007,
"Everyone's in drag of some sorts [...] I was brought up with an incredible amount of
freedom and creativity. Society has put certain constraints on things."
After Burns' death, many of his fellow 80s icons took to social media to pay tribute,
such as Marc Almond of Soft Cell, who tweeted,
"We've had some mad times with Pete but he was a one off creation,
a fabulous fantastic brilliant creature."
"I've been in the industry of the filthy quagmire called showbiz for a very long time,
and the excitement of all that rubbish has worn off."
On January 29, 2019, R&B legend James Ingram died of brain cancer at the age
of 66. Throughout his illustrious career, he was nominated for 14 Grammys and won twice,
and he collaborated with the likes of Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt.
Ingram had an interesting start in the industry, moving to Los Angeles from Akron, Ohio with his
band, Revelation Funk. As he told the Chicago Tribune in 2012, while his bandmates were the
better vocalists, he credits his success to his dedication to performing. After a couple of years,
Revelation Funk headed back to Ohio while Ingram stuck it out, snagging backup jobs
with Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye. He then caught the ear of producer Quincy Jones,
and the rest is history, as he went on to dominate the Adult Contemporary charts with
the likes of such hits as "Baby, Come to Me" and "I Don't Have the Heart."
On September 16, 2004, Izora Armstead, one-half of the 80s duo the Weather Girls,
passed away at the age of 62. Alongside Martha Wash,
they were responsible for "It's Raining Men," one of the biggest club anthems of the decade.
Armstead and Wash formed the Weather Girls in the mid-70s and began their rise to the A-list as
backup vocalists for disco singer Sylvester. They were originally known as NOW, an acronym for News
of the World. But then they changed their name to Two Tons O' Fun as a clear reference to their
voluptuous figures. It wasn't until they released their now-iconic song in 1983 that they really
started to leave their mark as musical legends. In a 90s interview with MTV3, Armstead revealed that
the duo changed their name to the Weather Girls because of the opening line in "It's Raining Men."
"And it stuck. So I hurried up and patented the name." (laughs)]
In addition to dominating the 80s club charts, Armstead is also remembered for
the powerful message she wanted to leave the industry with. As she once declared,
"Our audiences expect our music to be gay and positive. Reality
for many people is grim and depressing and, for this reason,
we want to pass on our energy and drive and to bring pleasure through our music."
Quiet Riot lead singer Kevin DuBrow was a part of the glam metal band since their inception
in the 70s. They didn't land their first record deal until the end of the decade,
and it wasn't until 1983's Metal Health album that they gained worldwide recognition. They managed to
top the Billboard chart with that release, all thanks to their cover of the Slade song "Cum on
Feel the Noize." As Blackie Lawless of the metal band WASP once mused to the Los Angeles Times,
"Quiet Riot [was] the first real MTV rock band."
The band continued to make music throughout the decades to come, so it came as a big shock
when DuBrow suddenly died on November 19, 2007, from a cocaine overdose. He
was only 52. He'd recently broken up with his girlfriend of over seven years, Lark Williams,
who was equally shocked by the rocker's death. As she eulogized him to the Los Angeles Times,
"He was as strong as an ox, that boy."
Australian rock band Men at Work released some of the most memorable songs of the 80s. Their
debut album Business as Usual came out in November 1981, and by the following year,
they achieved international fame. They're probably best remembered for their hit song,
"Down Under," which is more or less an unofficial anthem for their home country.
Men at Work surely wouldn't have been as successful as they were without Greg Ham,
who played the saxophone and flute and was responsible for the riff in "Down Under."
Unfortunately, Ham and the rest of the band ran into a rough legal snag in 2010,
years after they disbanded. That was when they were accused of stealing the "Down
Under" riff from the children's campfire song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree." They
were ultimately ordered to pay five percent of the song's royalties. A friend of Ham's told
the Washington Post that he was never the same after the ruling. Just a couple of years later,
he was found dead of a heart attack on April 19, 2012. He was only 58.
"Yeah, a lovely man. Just surprised literally. Very shocked."
The Pointer Sisters had a storied career that spanned a remarkable five
decades. They consistently refused to place themselves in the confines of just one genre,
as they spanned the worlds of R&B, pop, electro,
jazz, and even country. As Ruth Pointer recalled to Fader in 2016,
"People kept saying, 'You gotta pick a category.' "Why? Why do you have to do
that? It wasn't something we felt we had to do."
Originally formed in the late 60s by sisters June and Bonnie Pointer,
their other two siblings, Anita and Ruth, joined the group in 1972 and released their debut album
the following year. By the time the 80s rolled around, the quartet released 1983's Break Out,
which went on to be certified triple-platinum. In the following decade, the sisters all decided
to experiment with solo efforts, none of which reached the same level of fame.
On April 11, 2006, the youngest Pointer sibling, June, died of cancer at the age of 52. Fourteen
years later, on June 8, 2020, Bonnie went into fatal cardiac arrest at the age of 69.
Austrian singer Johann Holzel, better known by his stage name Falco, achieved
international stardom with his 1986 hit "Rock Me Amadeus." Interestingly enough, he was the
first male rap artist to have a number-one pop song on the American Billboard chart.
While Falco may have been a one-hit-wonder in the United States, he actually remained near the
top of the German and Austrian charts well into the 90s. Then in the latter part of that decade,
he moved to the Dominican Republic and began building his own recording studio,
although he tragically never got to see the final product. In February 1998,
he died in the city of Puerto Plata when a bus struck his car. He was only 40. As his
fellow Austrian musician Thomas Lang noted to The Independent, Falco will forever be remembered,
quote, "not as the biggest Austrian pop star but as the only Austrian pop star."
"What we human beings want to do always on this planet is to climb mountains, you know?"
Laura Branigan enjoyed immediate success with her 1982 debut studio album, which featured
her cover of "Gloria," one of the decade's most enduring pop songs. The single skyrocketed to
the number two spot on Billboard's Hot 100 and sat pretty on the chart for an impressive 36
weeks. But Branigan had already been building her career well before then. In the late 70s,
she won an audition to become a backing vocalist for Leonard Cohen and toured with
him until the end of the decade, subsequently landing her own record deal with Atlantic.
Branigan likely would have had even longer success if it weren't for her husband's cancer diagnosis
in the 90s, which prompted her to hang up her microphone in 1994. As she noted to CNN in 2002,
"It was not even a choice."
Sadly, Branigan's husband died in 1996, leaving her too overwhelmed with grief to return to music.
In the early 2000s, she finally went back into the recording studio, though she never got a
chance to revive her once-flourishing career. In August 2004, she complained of a headache
for two weeks, and on the 26th she suffered a fatal brain aneurysm at the age of 52.
Boney M is pretty much synonymous with the '70s disco era. Fronted by Bobby Farrell, they're
probably best known for their hit "Rasputin," which saw a sudden resurgence in 2021 thanks to
a viral TikTok dance trend. Farrell, who actually l​ip-synched on stage in place of Frank Farian,
who assembled the band, remained with the group until 1981, until he was fired by Farian himself.
"What does the M in Boney M. stand for?"
"The M means mother, meditation, money, misery, mysterious."
Farrell tried going solo after getting the boot from Boney M. But it didn't quite work out,
and he eventually fell on hard times in his home in the Netherlands, living on welfare and even
spending a few weeks in prison. By the time the 2000s rolled around, he'd landed back on
his feet and was performing again, this time re-recording the biggest hits of his heyday.
Farrell was ultimately found dead from heart disease in his hotel room in St Petersburg,
Russia after a performance in 2010. He was 61. In a bizarre coincidence,
he died on December 30, the same day and in the same city as Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin,
the subject of Boney M's most iconic hit.
Swedish duo Roxette ​​had a very bizarre rise to international fame. Per Gessle and
Marie Fredriksson met in the late 70s, ultimately forming their band in 1986,
and subsequently reaching success in their home country with their single "Neverending Love."
After an American exchange student who was studying in Sweden bought the band's
second album, Look Sharp!, he brought it home to Minneapolis, where he took it to ​​the local radio
station KDWB. From there, the station began playing "The Look," a single off the album,
which ultimately became a national hit, peaking at number one on Billboard's Hot 100.
"They started playing it." "Yes."
"And then it was practically number one before you got a record deal."
"Yeah."
Roxette went on to enjoy other hits in the U.S. and continued to tour and release new
material into the 2000s. After battling cancer for 17 years, Fredriksson died of a brain tumor
on December 9, 2019, at the age of 61. Gessle issued a statement on Twitter, writing in part,
"I'm honored to have met your talent [and] generosity. All my love goes to you
[and] your family. Things will never be the same."
British band Talk Talk was one of the most influential acts of the 1980s.
Although they're often associated with some of their new wave hits,
like 1984's "It's My Life," it's their later endeavors into post-rock
that certain modern-day acts cite as key inspirations. Radiohead's Philip Selway,
for one, had high praise for their 1988 album, Spirit of Eden. That release could very well be
considered lead singer-songwriter Mark Hollis' magnum opus. As The Guardian put it in 2008,
"Spirit of Eden has not dated; it's remarkable how contemporary it sounds,
anticipating post-rock, the Verve, and Radiohead. It's the sound of an
artist being given the keys to the kingdom and returning with art."
Hollis was also known for his refusal to conform to his label's desires. When
EMI tried to change the band's image and the way they spoke to reporters,
the singer refused, which earned him a bit of a reputation as surly and self-obsessed.
Hollis ended up leaving EMI and eventually Talk Talk as well. Then in February 2019,
he passed away at the age of 64, with his manager Keith Aspden confirming,
"Sadly it's true. Mark has died after a short illness from which he never recovered."
Talk Talk's bassist Paul Webb posted a tribute to his old bandmate on Instagram, writing in part,
"He was one of the greats, if not the greatest."