Died On This Date (October 19, 1997) Glen Buxton / Alice Cooper Guitarist
themusicsover Glen Buxton
November 10, 1947 – October 19, 1997
Glen Buxton is best remembered as the founding guitarist of Alice Cooper’s original band. Formed while they were still in high school, the band was initially called the Nazz, but since Todd Rundgren already had a band of the same name, they switched it to Alice Cooper, with the former Vincent Furnier taking the name as his own. Buxton co-wrote several of Cooper’s hits, including “School’s Out,” “Elected,” and “I’m Eighteen,” while playing lead guitar on seven Alice Cooper albums. He drifted from Cooper in the ’80s, playing an occasional gig with local musicians. Glen Buxton died of pneumonia at the age of 49.
What You Should Own
Kazuhiko Kato was a singer, songwriter and producer whose career began in the mid ’60s as the member of the Folk Crusaders, a Japanese psychedelic folk rock band. The band’s 1967 debut single, “Kaettekita Yopparai (I Only Live Twice)” which was written by Kato, sold over a million copies and is considered one of Japan’s most successful records of the era. Following the break up of the Folk Crusaders, Kato began working as a producer, contributing to hit albums by several Japanese rock artists, his most significant being Sadistic Mika Band, a ’70s rock band formed by he and his wife. The band found moderate success outside of Japan, even appearing on BBC’s popular Old Grey Whistle Test television program in 1975. Kato spent his later life writing and composing for other artists, video games and film soundtracks. His body was found hanging in a Japan hotel room on October 17, 2009, dead at 62. Police discovered a suicide note nearby.
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.