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New York – Shirley Eikhard, singer-songwriter who provided songs for Cher, Emmylou Harris, Anne Murray, Chet Atkins and rose to fame with Bonnie Raitt’s 1991 Grammy-winning hit “Something to Talk About,” has died . She is 67 years old.
Eckhard died Thursday at Headwaters Medical Center in Orangeville, Ontario, from complications of cancer, publicist Eric Alper said.
The blues-rock hit “Something to Talk About” was written in 1985, and Eikhard offered it to Murray and other artists, but they all refused to record it. Years later, Raitt left a message on Eikhard’s cell phone saying she had just recorded it. Raitt later said she discovered the song on a demo Eikhard sent and admired it.
The song was the first single from Raitt’s 1991 album, Luck of the Draw, and spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 5. The song earned Raitt a 1992 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance and was nominated in the Record of the Year category.
On Grammy night, Raitt made sure to thank Eikhard, who tweeted she was “deeply saddened” after Eikhard’s death, writing “I will always be grateful for our wonderful connection and friendship.”
Eikhard won the Juno Award for Best Female Country Artist in 1973 and 1974, and she has also won several BMI Awards. She was inducted into the Canadian Composers Hall of Fame in October 2020. Her most recent album is 2021’s On My Way to You.
During her career, Eikhard released 18 full-length albums between 1972 and 2021 and taught herself to play guitar, piano, bass, drums, percussion, chromatic harmonica, saxophone, banjo and mandolin.
At age 15, Eikhard’s song “It Takes Time,” recorded by country singer Murray in 1971, became a hit in her native Canada. The following year, Eckhard released her self-titled debut album in 1972. “Pickin’ My Way,” the title track from Atkins’ 41st studio album, was one of Eckhard’s earliest successes.
She also co-wrote the frenetic dance number “Lovers Forever” with Cher for the 1994 film “Interview with the Vampire,” but it didn’t make it into the final soundtrack cut. They collaborated again on “Born With the Hunger” from Cher’s 2000 album Not.com.mercial.
Eikhard sang the theme song to Stanley Kramer’s 1976 film “The Domino Principle,” starring Gene Hackman and Candice Bergen, and in 2000 to “The Passion of Ayn Rand.”
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