In the spring of 1987, the aching synth-pop single "Shattered Dreams" rose to number five on the UK singles chart and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, introducing millions of listeners to a London trio called Johnny Hates Jazz. Calvin Hayes, who co-founded the band and played keyboards and drums throughout its classic run, died on July 9, 2026, at his home in Washington state. He was 63.

Hayes was born in London on November 27, 1962, the son of record producer Mickie Most, founder of RAK Records. Before forming a band of his own, he played in a group called Hot Club alongside former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and Generation X guitarist James Stevenson, Classic Pop reported, and in the early 1980s he drummed in singer Kim Wilde's touring band.

He founded Johnny Hates Jazz in 1986 with singer Clark Datchler and bassist Mike Nocito. Most watched the trio perform at London's Marquee Club and signed their earliest recordings, and the group went on to release its records through Virgin, Yahoo Entertainment reported.

The band's debut album, Turn Back the Clock, entered the UK Albums Chart at number one on January 23, 1988, and spent 39 weeks on the chart, according to the Official Charts Company. Beyond "Shattered Dreams," it produced the UK hits "I Don't Want to Be a Hero," which reached number 11, "Turn Back the Clock," which reached number 12, and "Heart of Gold," which reached number 19.

The momentum did not last. In 1991, shortly before the release of the band's second album, Tall Stories, Hayes and singer Phil Thornalley, who had replaced Datchler, were seriously injured in a car accident on the way to a radio interview. The crash left Hayes hospitalized for an extended period, and the band dissolved the following year, That Eric Alper reported.

Datchler, Nocito and Hayes did not speak for 21 years. They reconnected in 2009 after Datchler wrote a song called "Magnetized" that he felt belonged to Johnny Hates Jazz, and the original lineup reunited for festival dates that carried into 2010, according to Classic Pop. Hayes left the band again before it returned to the studio, and Datchler and Nocito eventually released Magnetized without him in 2013.

News of Hayes's death was confirmed by Datchler and Nocito in a joint statement posted to the band's Instagram account. "As many of you now know, our old friend and former bandmate Calvin died on Thursday," they wrote, adding, "We are utterly shocked and deeply saddened." They described the three of them as "brothers in arms for an extraordinary moment in time, one in which we managed to touch the world with the music we created together." Hayes's wife, Kathy, separately confirmed his death to the Express UK, Yahoo Entertainment reported.

Johnny Hates Jazz still draws more than a million monthly listeners on streaming platforms, and "Shattered Dreams" alone has been streamed more than 140 million times, according to Wide Open Country. Those numbers have outlasted the band itself, which existed as an active unit for barely five years before the accident and the two decades of silence that followed. What remains is the record: three musicians from London, a single that reached number two in America, and the sound of a young Calvin Hayes on keyboards and drums, still audible on the radio and on streaming services decades after the sessions that made it.