Canadian songwriter Shirley Eikhard, who wrote “Something to Talk About” which brought Bonnie Raitt a Grammy Award in 1991, died Thursday. She was 67.
Eikhard died at a hospital in Orangeville, Ontario, after a three-year battle with cancer, longtime friend Deborah Duggan told the Toronto Star.
“She lived a big life,” Duggan told the newspaper. “It was always a joy to be around her. She really did have a glow about her.”
You can read about her life and music here. Another one, gone too soon. I will be forever grateful for our beautiful connection and friendship. -- Bonnie
— Bonnie Raitt (@TheBonnieRaitt) December 16, 2022
https://t.co/rmso8RuJR7
“I’m deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my friend Shirley Eikhard, the wonderful Canadian singer/songwriter who wrote my hit song, ‘Something to Talk About,’” Raitt tweeted. “My condolences go out to her family and friends.”
Eikhard also wrote songs that were covered by Cher (”Lovers Forever,” “Born With the Hunger”), Emmylou Harris (”Good News”), Anne Murray (”It Takes Time”) and Chet Atkins (”Pickin’ my Way”), CBC reported.
Murray wanted to record “Something to Talk About” in 1985 was voted down by her producers, People reported. Raitt, now 73, contacted Eikhard several years later to tell her that she had just recorded the song.
The bluesy song was the first single from Raitt’s 1991 album, “Luck of the Draw” and spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song peaked at No. 5 in October 1991, according to Billboard.
Raitt won a Grammy Award for best female pop vocal performance, and the single was nominated for best record of the year.
“Right when I needed it, I found the cassette (that Eikhard had sent), played the song and knew it was a catchy, smart and fresh way of looking at romance -- playful and something I really hadn’t done before,” Raitt said, according to CBC.
Eikhard was born on Nov. 7, 1955, in Sackville, New Brunswick. She recorded her first song, “It Takes Time,” when she was 15, People reported.
She was signed by Capitol Records in 1972 and released her first album, “Shirley Eikhard,” which won Juno Awards for county female artist of the year in 1973 and 1974, the magazine reported.
Eikhard released 18 albums between 1972 and 2021, CBC reported. Her version of Sylvia Tyson’s “Smiling Wine” in 1972 topped the country charts in Canada for two weeks, the Star reported.
“Regardless of her many accomplishments, Shirley was a very modest woman; and although she was so talented, the reasons those around her loved her so deeply -- the reason we are heartbroken today -- were not connected to her gifts. They were connected to her character,” according to the obituary on Eikhard’s website.
Eikhard was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in October 2020, according to the Star.
Her most recent album was 2021′s “On My Way to You,” according to The Associated Press.
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