British songwriter and performer Steve Harley - born Stephen Nice in London, England on February 27, 1951 - worked as a reporter before giving music a go in the early 1970s. He rose to fame as he frontman for the rock band Cockney Rebel, who scored a pair of Top 10 UK hits before he launched his first solo single, 1974’s “Big Big Deal.” He almost completely overhauled the band’s lineup before 1975’s The Best Years of Our Lives, which gave him the biggest hit of his career: the number 1 smash “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me).” A smattering of successful singles followed, including a cover of “Here Comes the Sun” that hit the Top 10, before Steve Harley disbanded the band entirely and launched a solo career with 1978’s Hobo with a Grin. That album and 1979’s The Candidate failed to make any waves. He found himself back in the Top 10 thanks to a 1986 version of “The Phantom of the Opera” recorded with musical theater luminary Sarah Brightman. He got his musical career back on track in the 1990s, becoming a consistent live draw and releasing a pair of albums: 1992’s Yes You Can and 1996’s Poetic Justice. A re-release of “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” put the beloved track back in the Top 40 in 1995. As the 21st century began, Steve Harley enjoyed a long stint as a BBC radio presenter on a show that featured songs from the 1970s. That gave him enough profile that his 2010 album, Stranger Comes to Town, charted higher than any of his previous solo albums, landing at number 187. He revived his back catalogue in the 2010s, performing live shows that consisted of the entirety of the first two Cockney Rebel albums, and in 2020 he issued Uncovered, which contained a pair of self-penned songs surrounded by covers such as The Band’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” The Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” and David Bowie’s “Absolute Beginners.” Steve Harley was sidelined – along with the rest of the world – when his planned tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He resumed touring in 2021 and continued performing until October 2023, when he cancelled shows due to health issues. At the end of 2023, he announced that he had cancer. Steve Harley died on March 17, 2024, at the age of 73.
