He Wrote 'Hair' In A Hoboken Apartment: James Rado Dies At 90

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken resident James Rado, part of the trio who created the iconic free-love era musical "Hair," passed away Tuesday at the age of 90, media outlets reported Thursday.

Rado composed "Hair" in the 1960s while living at 64 10th St. in Hoboken with his partner, Gerome Ragni.

Rado had been seen publicly in the mile-square city as recently as last year when he attended a concert at Church Square Park performed by the Karen Kuhl Band. The group performed "Aquarius" from "Hair" at the event.

He lived in Hoboken until his death, Deadline confirmed.

Over the years, the mile-square city celebrated anniversaries of the musical in various ways, including a 50th-anniversary party at the library in 2018.

"A musician before he’d become an actor, Mr. Rado began writing songs with Mr. Ragni, which they sometimes sang in what were then beatnik coffee houses in Greenwich Village," the New York Times wrote on Thursday. "Moving to an apartment in Hoboken, N.J., where rents were even cheaper than in downtown Manhattan, they borrowed a typewriter from their landlord and went to work writing their musical in earnest."

The 1968 musical, which became a film in 1979, follows the exploits of a group of friends in New York City after one of them receives his draft notice.

It included a raft of famous songs, from "Aquarius" to "Good Morning, Starshine" to "Easy to Be Hard" to the title number, "Hair."

James Alexander Radomski died in a New York hospital Tuesday of cardio-respiratory arrest, surrounded by family, reports said.