The Music Men

You may not recognize their names, but Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly have had their hands in the writing of some of the biggest hits of our generation. An induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame was a no-brainer. But just how impressive is their resume? The pair has written five No. 1 singles -- "Like A Virgin" (for Madonna), "True Colors (Cyndi Lauper), "Eternal Flame" (the Bangles), "So Emotional" (Whitney Houston) and "Alone" (Heart), as well as Top 10 hits including "I'll Stand By You" (the Pretenders), "I Touch Myself" (the Divinyls), "I Drove All Night" (Cyndi Lauper), and "In Your Room" (the Bangles).

Songwriter Universe has a great interview with the pair, in which they discuss how they met, the first song they ever wrote together (Rick Springfield!), getting "True Colors" to Cyndi Lauper and what it was like writing with Chrissie Hynde, who was one of their three "dream" artists to work with.

The duo also had this to say about the ditty that would become one of Madonna's signature songs:

Steinberg: It started with the lyric; I was driving around in my pickup truck and came up with the idea for the song. The idea came out of a personal experience. I had been in a difficult relationship, and when it finally ended and I met someone new, I wrote the line, "I made it through the wilderness...I was beat, incomplete, I’d been had." All of the lyrics just poured out.

Kelly: I especially related to the lyric at the time, since I was going through a tough divorce. Initially, I tried to compose a ballad or midtempo song to accompany the lyric, but it wasn’t working. Out of frustration, I started to clown around, performing the song in an uptempo, Smokey Robinson-style, with falsetto vocals. Lo and behold, it worked.

Read the full interview HERE.