British musician Steve Harley, seen here in 2016, was a member of the Cockney Rebel band. Harley’s family said on Sunday March 17, 2024, that he had “passed away peacefully at home, with his family by his side.”
LONDON — Steve Harley, a British musician whose glam-rock band Cockney Rebel had an enduring hit with the song “Make Me Smile ,” has died. He was 73.
Born in London in 1951, Harley spent almost four years of his childhood hospitalized after contracting polio, periods during which he began reading and writing poetry. He worked as a trainee accountant and as journalist on local newspapers, and began his performing career at London folk clubs. With its barbed lyrics – aimed at Harley’s former bandmates -- and infectiously catchy chorus, the Alan Parsons-produced “Make Me Smile” topped the U.K. singles chart. It went on to be covered scores of times and was used on countless soundtracks, including in the 1997 film “The Full Monty” and in ads for Carlsberg beer, department store Marks and Spencer and Viagra.
Ultravox frontman Midge Ure, who produced Harley’s 1982 track “I Can’t Even Touch You,” called him a “true ‘working musician.’”
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