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Best known for the 1987 hit single “Hot Hot Hot,” singer, performer, and actor Buster Poindexter was a pseudonym of rock icon and New York Dolls vocalist David Johansen. Although intended as a part-time character so that he could perform a different style of music outside of his normal gritty rock and roll, Buster Poindexter ended up being more commercially successful than any of Johansen’s other musical projects. Born in Staten Island, New York on January 9, 1950, David Johansen began his musical journey in the late 1960s as a member of Vagabond Missionaries before joining bassist Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane, drummer Billy Murcia, and guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivits in the New York Dolls in 1971. After two albums – New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974) – the group split up and David Johansen began a solo career. Although his solo career earned him plenty of accolades, his albums never charted higher than the lower regions of the Billboard 200. Towards the end of his major label solo career, he began appearing at a local club in the mid 1980s under the name Buster Poindexter. Initially using that name to avoid the attention of fans of his rock-oriented material, this new persona adapted a musical style that incorporated lounge, swing, jump blues, jazz, and other genres. Buster Poindexter became extremely popular, earning him a record contract and a bona-fide international hit in 1987 with his version of “Hot Hot Hot,” which landed in the charts in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and Belgium. As Buster Poindexter, he released four albums over the span of a decade: Buster Poindexter (1987), Buster Goes Berserk (1989), Buster’s Happy Hour (1994), and Buster’s Spanish Rocketship (1997). During the Buster Poindexter phase of his musical career, he also branched off into acting and appeared in such films as Scrooged (1988), Let It Ride (1989), Freejack (1992), Car 54, Where Are You? (1994) and more. After the Buster Poindexter character had run its course, Johansen returned to his solo career as well as several New York Dolls reunions. Suffering from cancer and a brain tumor, David Johansen fell and broke his back in 2024. He died from cancer on February 28, 2025, at the age of 75.
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