ORANGEVILLE, Ontario (CelebrityAccess) — Shirley Eikhard, the Juno and Grammy-Award winning Canadian songwriter behind hits such as Bonnie Raitt’s “Something To Talk About” has died. She was 67.
Her passing was announced by a statement from her publicist, who said she died at Orangeville Hospital in Ontario but provided no additional details about a cause of death.
A native of New Brunswick, Eikhard came from a musical family, with her mother June Eikard being a noted fiddle player and her father, bassist Cecil Eikhard, both members of the regional band, the Trantramar Ramblers.
Eikhard made her own musical debut at the age of 13 when she successfully auditioned for the Songwriter’s Workshop at the Toronto’s 1969 Mariposa Folk Festival, and she wrote her first hit song two years later when fellow Canadian Anne Murray recorded “It Takes Time” which peaked at #1 on the Canadian A/C chart.
In 1972 Eikard, through Capitol Records, released her debut solo album, Shirley Eikhard, which included three charting singles, “It Takes Time,” “Smiling Wine,” and “Something In Your Face.”
She also continued to write hits for other artists, such as Bonnie Raitt, Cher, Anne Murray, and Ginette Reno/
Raitt’s recording of Eikhard’s composition “Something to Talk About” proved to be her biggest hit. The single, which was featured on Raitt’s Luck of the Draw album, cracked the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and the A/C Charts in 1991 and at #3 on Canada’s RPM Top 100 chart and #4 adult contemporary and made the top 20 on RPM’s 1991 year-end chart.
The song also earned Eikhard the Juno nomination for Songwriter of the Year, as well as laurels from SOCAN and BMI and in 2020, she was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame for the hit.
Eikhard released her final album, “On My Way to You” featuring the “Anything is Possible” single in October 2021.
“I had known Shirley for over 50 years,” says CelebrityAccess senior writer Larry LeBlanc. “We were close friends, and we were in touch only a few weeks ago. Shirley was an exceptional artist and songwriter from a musical family. Her mother was the renowned June Eikhard, Canada’s First Lady of the Fiddle. Shirley is best known as the writer of Bonnie Raitt’s “Something To Talk About,” but her song catalog was quite deep, and she had covers by the likes of Anne Murray. She was also one of the most upbeat people I know.”
