LFO's Rich Cronin, 36, Dies After Cancer Battle

Rich Cronin, who wrote LFO’s smash hit “Summer Girls” (and its oft-quoted line, “I like girls who wear Abercrombie & Fitch”) passed away Wednesday at 36, after a long battle with leukemia. LFO (Lyte Funky Ones) also had a hit with "Girl on TV" at the height of ‘90s boy-band craze. Three years after the pop trio disbanded in 2002, Cronin was diagnosed with cancer, undergoing treatment for two years until the disease went into remission.

Cronin's health was among the subplots of the 2007 VH1 reality series Mission: Man Band, which featured Cronin and fellow boy banders Chris Kirkpatrick ('N Sync), Bryan Abrams (Color Me Badd) and Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees) forming a new group. ("RIP to a great friend Rich C," Kirkpatrick wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.) Cronin's leukemia returned in 2008, with doctors using a stem cell transplant to treat the disease.

Cronin was well enough to reunite with LFO last year for a summer tour, but his band mate Brad Fischetti tells CNN that Cronin recently had difficulty walking.

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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