Buster Poindexter

David Roger Johansen, who worked under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, is an American rock, protopunk, blues, and pop singer, songwriter and actor. He was a member of the seminal protopunk band The New York Dolls.

Johansen began his career in the late 1960s as a lead singer with the Vagabond Missionaries and later in the early 1970s as the singer/songwriter in the protopunk band the New York Dolls. The New York Dolls released two albums, the eponymous New York Dolls in 1973 and Too Much Too Soon in 1974.

His first two solo albums, David Johansen and In Style, featured several enduring originals. His band covered many Dolls songs in concert and he released his live albums Live It Up and The David Johansen Group Live. Other studio releases included Here Comes the Night and Sweet Revenge.

In the late 1980s, Johansen achieved moderate commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, accompanied by The Uptown Horns, performing a mixture of jazz, lounge, calypso, and novelty songs. As Poindexter he scored his first hit song, "Hot Hot Hot". As Poindexter, Johansen often appeared with his band, The Banshees of Blue. Early Poindexter releases combined an eclectic selection of covers with Johansen's own compositions. Johansen released Buster Poindexter's Happy Hour, a CD of songs thematically linked by their subject matter, alcohol. It was followed by Buster Poindexter's Spanish Rocket Ship, a synthesis of R&B, calypso and Latin jazz.

Johansen would create a country blues group, The Harry Smiths. The group was named as a tribute to Harry Everett Smith, who compiled the Anthology of American Folk Music, several songs of which were covered by the band. Johansen's second album with the Harry Smiths is Shaker.

In 2004, Johansen reunited with the New York Dolls and they went on tour. In 2006, they released One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This, their first album in nearly thirty years.

In addition to his own albums, Johansen contributed songs to the soundtracks of the films Times Square and The Aviator. A non-album track of his, "Johnsonius", appears on the 1984 compilation A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse and "The Rope (The Let Go Song)", a track originally recorded during the sessions for his eponymous first album, and published on the B-side of the single, "Funky But Chic", a song that was performed by the original New York Dolls before breaking up.