Greg Kihn, the rock singer-songwriter who scored with “Jeopardy” and “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” and helped definite an era of power pop in the 1980s, died Tuesday at age 75, his family announced in a statement. The cause of death was complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
With the Greg Kihn Band, the singer reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981 with “The Breakup Song,” scaling even greater heights in 1983 with “Jeopardy,” which hit No. 2 on the national chart and became an early staple of the nascent MTV. The latter song continues to be part of the public consciousness not just because of its own enduring earworm qualities, but because of a popular parody by “Weird Al” Yankovic, “I Lost on Jeopardy.