Two-Hit Wonders: The Power Station

yep!! Robert died, and will be sorely missed.

Too true. If doing a cover version really were the "kiss of death", then neither Donny Osmond nor Linda Ronstadt would have had any sort of career.
Donny Osmond's career (his solo career and his team-ups with Marie) up through 1978 consisted of nothing BUT cover versions (the first original song was the #38 hit "On the Shelf" by Donny & Marie; his comeback hits in 1989-90 were also originals--if they'd been previously recorded, those versions must have been pretty obscure).
Linda Ronstadt's career was also rife with covers. "Different Drum" (with the Stone Poneys) was written by the Monkees' Mike Nesmith and had been recorded by a bluegrass band in 1966. Her first Top 40 solo hit, "Long Long Time" was an "original" (by that I mean she was the first to popularize the song) but aside from 1980's "How Do I Make You" (#10), EVERY SINGLE ONE of Ronstadt's other Top 40 hits was a cover. Her hit duet with James Ingram, "Somewhere Out There", was used over the end credits of "An American Tail", but is first performed in that movie by Phillip Glasser and Betsy Cathcart and her duet with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much", was previously recorded and released by others--"Don't Know Much" was an AC hit for both Bill Medley in 1981 and Bette Midler in 1983 (Bette's recording was titled "All I Need to Know"); her other duet with Neville, "All My Life", had appeared on a Karla Bonoff album the year before Ronstadt & Neville's version came out.