Died On This Date (October 16, 1973) Gene Krupa / Jazz Icon
themusicsover Gene Krupa
January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973
Gene Krupa was arguably the most influential jazz drummer of all time. Krupa learned to play drums as a youngster, and by his late teens he was playing his first professional gigs with bands throughout Wisconsin. He graduated to the Chicago scene in the late ’20s when he was selected to back the popular Thelma Terry and her Playboys. He played on six recordings by Terry. Krupa moved to New York City in 1929 to play with Red Nichols and eventually Benny Goodman, with whom he became a household name. In 1938, he formed his own band which featured such greats as Anita O’Day and Roy Eldridge. The next year, the band appeared as themselves in Some Like It Hot, in which they performed the hit song of the same name. Movie fans may also recognize Krupa playing himself in 1954’s The Glenn Miller Story which starred Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson. Krupa was also the subject of a Hollywood film, The Gene Krupa Story, which starred Sal Mineo as the drummer. He retired from performing to open a school in the late ’60s. Future Kiss drummer, Peter Criss was one of his students. Gene Krupa died of leukemia and heart failure at the age of 64.
What You Should Own
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.
Art Blakey was a drummer and band leader whose Jazz Messengers, a band he led for an astonishing thirty years, was the onetime home of such future legends as Horace Silver, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd, 
Jud Strunk was an American singer-songwriter who flirted with success during the 1970’s. He recorded several records through the course of his career, one of which, “The Biggest Parakeets in Town” continues to get airplay on Dr. Demento’s syndicated radio program. His biggest hit came in 1974 with the release of “A Daisy a Day,” which landed in the Top 20 of Billboard’s pop and country charts. Though his name might not have been a household one, he was a semi-regular guest on such television programs as Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. A licensed pilot, Jud Strunk suffered a heart attack while taking off in his small plane on October 15, 1981. The plane crashed, instantly killing Strunk, age 45, and his passenger.
A self-taught musician whose first banjo was made of a frying pan and raccoon skin, Gus Cannon was one of the first popular jug band artists of the ’20s. He was so talented, he reportedly could play the banjo AND the jug at the same time. By 1914, he had his own band, Cannon’s Jug Stompers and was touring with medicine shows. He made his first recordings for Paramount Records in 1927, with Blind Blake providing back up. His most famous song of that era was perhaps, “Walk Right In,” which was made into a hit by the Rooftop Singers in 1962. Although his records were well received and he was growing in popularity outside of his later home of Memphis, Cannon stopped recording in 1930. He and his band, however, continued to be one of he biggest draws along Beale Street. Cannon was all but retired by the late ’30s, but made a comeback in time for the blues and folk revival of the early ’60s. During this later part of his career, he toured coffeehouses with 