Musician Robert Hazard; Wrote Hit for Cyndi Lauper

Robert Hazard, 59, the Philadelphia musician and songwriter who wrote Cyndi Lauper's 1983 hit "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," died Aug. 5 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after surgery.

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was written by Mr. Hazard while he was in a motel bathtub in Delaware, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, and he recorded a demo of it in 1979.

Lauper's version of the bouncy anthem reached No. 2 on Billboard's pop charts and has since been covered by others, including Miley Cyrus, who featured it on her most recent album.

Born Robert Rimato, Mr. Hazard started singing and writing songs when he was about 10. He later formed Robert Hazard and the Heroes, a rock band that became a fixture on the Philadelphia bar scene in the 1980s, the Inquirer reported.

The band's break came in 1982, when Rolling Stone magazine writer Kurt Loder wrote an article after seeing the group perform, and Mr. Hazard's song "Escalator of Life" hit the charts soon afterward, the Inquirer said, citing Mr. Hazard's autobiography.

In recent years, Mr. Hazard and his second wife, Susan, ran an antiques shop near their home in Old Forge, N.Y., the Associated Press reported.