Glen Burtnick

Glen Burtnik (born 8 April 1955) is a singer, songwriter, entertainer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a former member of Styx.

The spelling of his name has changed a few times over the years (born Glenn Burtnick, then changed to Glen Burtnick, and finally Glen Burtnik, spelled with one N, no C).

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 cover band Liverpool. This band are regular performers at the Fest for Beatles Fans, annually held in the Metropolitan New York City area and Chicago with occasional stops elsewhere.

He has written chart-topping hits such as "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough" for Patty Smyth and Don Henley, "Spirit Of A Boy, Wisdom Of A Man", and "Delicious Surprise", hosted the School of Rock radio show on The Hawk - 105.7 FM, and recorded/toured/collaborated with well-known artists. He has also put together the annual Glen Burtnik's Xmas Xtravaganza since 1989 (skipping 1990 and 1991), making 2009 the 19th year (December 19, 2009 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ).

He was a member of LaBamba and The Hubcaps led by New Jersey shore favorite Richie 'LaBamba' 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 and Zeroes.

While solo success has been relatively elusive, he did score a minor hit in 1987 with "Follow You," a soaring track off his Heroes and Zeroes album. Unfortunately, follow-up releases have been less successful.

In 1989, Burtnik performed the song "Not So Far Away", for the film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

One of his songs, "Face in the Mirror" was used in a series of TV commercials for Philishave electric shavers in the 1990s. Burtnik officially left Styx in 2003 due to his wanting to be closer to home.

In 2006, Dennis DeYoung asked him to be a part of his band for selected shows to help promote his CD One Hundred Years From Now, which was released in Canada in 2007 and in the USA in 2009. Burtnik performed with DeYoung some of the material he wrote with Styx during the Edge of The Century album including "Love Is The Ritual", "Edge of the Century" and some "Lost Treasures", which are some songs that were written for Styx on Edge of the Century II which never got recorded because Styx at that time didn't have a recording contract with a record company in 1992.

Burtnik and his family were featured on the October 16, 2006, season premiere episode of the Discovery Channel show, It Takes a Thief. During the second season of this show, Burtnik and his family were the "victims" of a staged robbery.

In April 2009 he accepted an offer to tour with The Orchestra in Europe, replacing the late Kelly Groucutt on bass.

The Biography appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Burtnik. Portions of this Biography may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.