About Glen Burtnik
Glen Burtnik is an American singer, songwriter, entertainer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a former member of Styx. Burtnik is originally from North Brunswick, New Jersey, in the Raritan Bayshore, of the larger Jersey Shore and lives in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Burtnik has written hit songs for Randy Travis, Patty Smyth and Don Henley. The spelling of his name has shortened a few times over the years .
Born in Irvington, New Jersey, Burtnik was raised in North Brunswick, New Jersey, and graduated from New Brunswick High School.
Burtnik appeared in the Broadway production of Beatlemania as Paul McCartney, alongside Marshall Crenshaw, who played John Lennon. He continues his love of The Beatles to this day, with the tribute band Liverpool. This band are regular performers at The Fest For Beatles Fans, annually held in the Metropolitan New York City area and Chicago, Illinois with occasional stops elsewhere.
He has co-written songs such as "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough" with Patty Smyth, "Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man" with Trey Bruce, and "Delicious Surprise " and "Fat Man" with blues belter Beth Hart; hosted the School of Rock radio show on The Hawk 105.7 FM; and recorded, toured, and/or collaborated with many other artists. As a member of Styx, he was featured on the hit album Edge of the Century, on which he wrote the top ten mainstream rock hit, "Love Is the Ritual", and co-wrote the last Billboard Top 40 hit for the band, "Love at First Sight" . Styx broke up again, after being active for only two years since their previous break up. Styx got back together again four years later, but Burtnik did not join because Tommy Shaw quit Damn Yankees and came back with Styx. Burtnik rejoined Styx in late 1999, as original bassist Chuck Panozzo could not play full time anymore because of illness. Thus, Burtnik took over playing the bass guitar and Styx started playing songs from Edge of the Century live again. He went on to record Cyclorama with Styx in 2003, leading on two songs. Burtnik's song "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" was made and recorded before Cyclorama, but they rerecorded it and put it on the album. Burtnik also sang lead on the song "Killing the Thing That You Love", and shared vocals with Shaw on "Yes I Can". Burtnik left a year later in 2004 being replaced with Styx' current bassist Ricky Phillips.
He was a member of LaBamba and The Hubcaps led by Richie Rosenberg, before leaving to start his solo career in 1986. One of the Hubcaps' popular songs was the Burtnik-written "Here Comes Sally", which later appeared on Burtnik's 1987 solo LP Heroes & Zeros.
While solo success has been relatively elusive, he did score a minor hit in 1987 with "Follow You," a track off his Heroes & Zeros album, which peaked at No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100. Follow-up releases have been less successful.
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