Remembering 2024’s Music Losses: Greg Kihn

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Wow, has it been a bad 24 hours for me. Bad news from two friends. I’ll support them with my prayers and continue on here, remembering the bad news we got over 2024 when these musicians passed away. Here’s today’s salute. Greg Kihn Unquestionably, Greg Kihn’s obituaries were the oddest of 2024. Nearly every one of the news stories about his death mentioned the fact that Weird Al parodied his song “Jeopardy” as “I Lost on Jeopardy.” Kihn said that he was honored and flattered that he was the subject of a Weird Al parody. Yankovic even sweetened the spoof by putting Kihn at the end of the video, similar to the way the original “Jeopardy” video ended. That’s the power of Weird Al for you. (Of course, let’s give Greg Kihn credit for giving Weird Al a great pallet on which to paint.) While “Jeopardy” was Kihn’s biggest hit, it wasn’t his only one. He hit the top 40 two other times, with “The Break-Up Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em Like That Anymore)” and “Lucky.” And, despite his “flash in the pan” appearance in commercial music, Kihn actually had developed a loyal following from touring as an opening act in a lot of arena shows. Bruce Springsteen thought enough of his music to give him a song (“Rendezvous”) in 1979. Did you know that, in addition to his music, he was also an author? In fact, he was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for “best first novel” for his 1996 book Horror Show. Kihn died rather young (comparatively speaking) from Alzheimer’s in August. He was “only” 75. His career was spent mostly as a “cult artist” figure, but his splash was quite big. Greg Kihn Born Gregory Stanley Kihn, July 10, 1949, Baltimore, Maryland Died August 13, 2024, San Francisco, California (Alzheimer’s disease) (age 75) HALL OF FAME: San Jose Rock Here’s the “other big hit,” “The Break-Up Song”: