David Johansen

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David Johansen (born January 9, 1950, in Staten Island, New York) is an American rock, punk, blues and pop singer, songwriter and actor.

[edit] Career

Originally influenced by Mick Jagger and by Rob Tyner of MC5, Johansen began his career as the singer of the protopunk band, the New York Dolls, in the early 1970s. The bulk of the material was written by Johansen and guitarist Johnny Thunders, who left in 1975.

After the dissolution of the final Dolls line-up in early 1977, Johansen embarked on a solo career. His first two albums, David Johansen and In Style, featured original songs. His fellow ex-Doll Sylvain Sylvain frequently performed with him, and his band covered many Dolls tunes. A number of Johansen-Sylvain standards which are now identified with the Dolls (e.g., "Frenchette" and "Funky But Chic") actually first appeared on vinyl on Johansen's solo albums.

His live albums Live It Up and The David Johansen Group Live represented his abilities as a live performer. The studio releases Here Comes the Night (including his signature song "Heart of Gold") and Sweet Revenge featured original material. In the late 1980s commercial success came his way under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, performing a mixture of jazz, lounge, calypso, and novelty songs and appearing as part of the house band on the television program Saturday Night Live. As Poindexter he scored his first hit song, "Hot Hot Hot" which, in an interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air he called "the bane of my life," owing to its pervasive popularity. "Hot Hot Hot" was initially written and recorded by Montserratian-Antiguan Soca Artist Arrow. As Poindexter, he often used his band the Banshees of Blue.

Johansen can also be seen in the Jim White documentary film Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus in which he does a version of "James Alley Blues" (by Rabbit Brown) from a motel room.

Johansen acted in several films during the 1980s and 1990s, and had a brief role on the HBO drama Oz. He also appeared in the television series, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, in the episode "On Golden Pete," in which he played a park ranger. One of his more memorable roles is of a wisecracking ghost of Christmas past in Scrooged. He then turned to the rendition of country blues with his back-up group, The Harry Smiths. The group was named by way of tribute to Harry Everett Smith, who compiled the Anthology of American Folk Music; "James Alley Blues" and some of the other songs covered on their eponymously-titled debut recording come from the Anthology. Johansen's second album with the Harry Smiths is called Shaker.

Johansen is currently touring with a re-formed version of the New York Dolls. Because of the success of the tour, the Dolls released their first album in nearly 30 years - in 2006. He also hosts a weekly show on Sirius Satellite Radio.