Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette

We had a great guest on Phoenix FM last week in the shape of Steve Kipner, who may not be a household name but his writing has left a major impact on millions of people all over the world.

Steve was born in Cincinatti in 1950 but moved to Brisbane at any early age. He had some success in his own band, Steve and the Board, and also sang backing vocals for the Bee Gees while they were still based in Australia.

He relocated to Los Angeles in the 1970s and had little success until he bumped into Olivia Newton-John’s manager and gave him a demo of a song he’d written called “Physical” …

Physical was number one in the USA for 10 weeks and Steve went on to write dozens more songs which enjoyed major chart success, including Chicago’s “Hard Habit to Break”, “Genie in a Bottle” by Christina Aguilera, “Fight for This Love” by Cheryl Cole and Natasha Bedingfield’s “These Words”.

Steve chatted to Georgia for half an hour about his life and some of the interesting characters he met on the way. He also talks about how to write a hit record, which could be very useful for today’s aspiring pop stars.

You can hear the interview again at phoenixfm.com and Georgia’s Drive show is on air every weekday from 3pm.