Died On This Date (October 17, 2007) Teresa Brewer / Popular ’50s Vocalist
themusicsover Teresa Brewer (Born Theresa Breuer)
May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007
With some 600 recorded songs to her name, Teresa Brewer was one of America’s most prolific singers of the 1950s. Brewer began singing and dancing as early as two years old on various radio amateur shows. She was well at it when at just 12 years old, she decided to “retire” in order to go back to concentrate on her schooling. She released her first of many popular records in 1949. Over the course of her 20+ year career, she recorded with the likes of Liberace, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Dizzy Gillespie. Teresa Brewer died of a rare degenerative brain disease at the age of 76.
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.
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 
Frankie Venom was the lead singer of Ontario, Canada punk band, Teenage Head which he helped form while still in high school. Formed in 1975, the band was one of Canada’s first wave of punk, and was often called “Canada’s Ramones.” The band signed to Epic Records and released their first album Teenage Head, in 1979. By the time their second album came out in 1980, the band were bonafied stars across Canada and beginning to break through in the U.S. It was not unusual for their concerts to break out into riots by the end. ’80s movie fans may recognize the band from their appearance in the Michael J. Fox film, Class of 1984. In 2003, they teamed up with Marky Ramone to re-record a collection of their old songs entitled Teenage Head with Marky Ramone. 51-year-old Frankie Venom died of throat cancer on October 15, 2008.