Bugzy: Plan B (Divebomb)

How is it possible that a band can be active starting in the early 1980s, record under Tony Bongiovi at the legendary Power Station studio, work with producers John Ryan (Santana) and Chris Lord-Alge (Aerosmith, Cheap Trick), gain major label attention and yet never once see a song released? That’s exactly what happened with Bugzy, one of the best kept secrets in melodic rock. During the ’80s and early ’90s the trio, which featured singer/guitarist William “Bugsy” Boyer, keyboardist Franki Gorgo and drummer Bob Kimmel, recorded some absolutely first-class melodic rock that no one has heard…until now.

Divebomb’s Bugzy collection, titled Plan B, includes a hefty 17 tracks from the band members’ archives, all newly remastered. It’s a good two albums’ worth of prime “’80s soundtrack rock,” and nearly every song will have you scratching your head wondering why we’re only now getting to hear it. Bugzy’s sound was right in that AOR/melodic rock zone, but dipped a toe or two into pop territory. The result is somewhere between Honeymoon Suite, Atlantic, the Brian Howe Bad Company albums and Night Ranger meets Rick Springfield and Bryan Adams. You can pick literally any song on Plan B at random and hear something that takes you back to melodic rock’s glory days. Bugzy served up melodies to die for, and Boyer’s vocals had real range and emotion. It doesn’t get much more radio-friendly than this, which makes Bugzy’s failure to launch that much more of a shame.

2017 has been a banner year for finally hearing some of melodic rock’s secret gems. First the newly-released Arti Tisi and Jimmy Davis & Junction albums on the MelodicRock label, and now this amazing collection of vintage melodic rock unearthed by the Divebomb label. This is a great-looking, great-sounding collection, and one that belongs in literally every ’80s AOR/melodic rock fan’s collection. Plan B is limited to 500 copies though, so don’t delay on this one.