The heartbreaking tragedy surrounding pop group LFO

When LFO stopped by in the summer of 1999, they dropped an extremely catchy hit.

"Summer Girls," with its ode to brand-name treats past and present and generation-spanning pop culture references—Has any tune since successfully comingled New Kids on the Block with Mr. Limpet, ruby slippers, Macaulay Culkin and Paul Revere?—went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and announced the arrival of another "boy band" to watch.

Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing girls everywhere took a shine to Rich Cronin, who was 24 when the song hit, Devin Lima, then 22, and Brad Fischetti, 23. "Summer Girls' wasn't the group's first-ever single (1997's non-charting "Sex U Up" may have hit too close to Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up"—and what a time it was, kids), but it was the lead offering from their self-titled 1999 debut album.

By the time LFO (for Lyte Funky Ones) became a radio staple, Lima had replaced founding member Brian "Brizz" Gillis—which is why so many headlines heralded Fischetti as the group's sole surviving member years before Gillis died March 29 at the age of 47.

Now, Fischetti officially has that distinction.

"Every story is made up of chapters," the now 47-year-old musician, who started LFO with Cronin and Gillis in 1995, wrote on Instagram a day after Gillis' passing. "Some develop naturally. Some you have to cut up in your mind. The first two chapters of the LFO story lost a main character yesterday."

Admittedly "struggling" with the news, he wrote, "I've said it before and I will continue to say it; the LFO Story is a tragedy. If you know what I've been doing, you know I'm trying to bring light into the darkness. Trying find redemption in pain and suffering. Trying to honor the legacy."