'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' Writer Dies

By Rennie Dyball

Thursday August 07, 2008 01:30 PM EDT

Robert Hazard, Cyndi Lauper

Bryan Bedder/Getty

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Songwriter and musician Robert Hazard, who wrote the 1983 Cyndi Lauper hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," died Tuesday after a brief illness, his record label said in a statement. He was 59.

Hazard's widow Susan told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Hazard passed away unexpectedly after surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The musician – who led the Philadelphia band Robert Hazard and the Heroes in the 1980s – released his last album, Troubadour, in October. And his iconic hit song made a comeback recently: Miley Cyrus covered the track on her new album, Breakout.