Doug Bennett
October 31, 1951 – October 16, 2004
Doug Bennett was the founder and lead singer of Canadian new wave band, Doug & the Slugs, whose biggest hit, “Too Bad,” appeared on their 1980 debut album, Cognac and Bologna. That song found a second life when it was featured as the theme song in comedian Norm MacDonald’s 1999 sitcom, The Norm Show. Doug & the Slugs’ brand of bar room pop had been likened to those of such bands as Huey Lewis & the News. Although very popular in their home country and having released a half-dozen albums, four of which reaching gold status, they never got much beyond their one-almost-hit-wonder status in the U.S. Outside of the band, Bennett produced and directed several music videos by such Canadian bands as Trooper, Zappacosta and Headpins. Bennett had been suffering from a long term, though publicly unknown, illness when he fell into a coma after being admitted to a local hospital. He never regained consciousness and passed away at the age of 52.