There were a number of songs, that to me, defined the identity-searching yet innocent zeitgeist of the nineties. A time that could give us the most one-hit wonders of any other period, and a flurry of rock before it died.
One of those songs was Crazytown’s ‘Butterfly’. The other one was LFO’s ‘Summer Girls’. It was possibly the dumbest song recorded in any era – but it was unspeakably catchy and is probably in your head right now. You know the lyrics to LFO’s ‘Summer Girls’ – everybody does. LFO was a boy-band, one of the myriad floating around at the time, singing wholesome songs about girls and partying. Really wholesome songs about girls and partying. To the point where you wished they were slightly more explicit and then gangsta rap had a second incarnation and violated the spectrum to the other end.
Rich Cronin was the lead singer of LFO, a fact which you probably were blissfully ignorant of, and could’ve been for the rest of your life. But by all accounts, he was a decent man who liked girls and partying, and succumbed today to leukemia – which he had been fighting for years.
Rest in peace, Rich. LFO only needed one hit. It brought enough joy to the people who made out to it. Which was pretty much everyone. You were a good man, and went far too soon.
Rich was 35.
