Pioneering New York Dolls punk guitarist Sylvain Sylvain was born Sylvain Mizrahi on February 14, 1951 in Cairo, Egypt. As a teenager he played with future New York Dolls bandmates Billy Murcia, Arthur Kane, and Johnny Thunders. After the group’s tumultuous run from 1971-1977, only Sylvain and singer David Johansen were still in the group, and they decided to abandon the name. He played on Johansen’s early solo albums, and finally recorded his own self-titled LP in 1980. Sylvain Sylvain sounded like a tribute to the 50s rock and roll that laid at the heart of the songs Sylvain had written with the Dolls, and featured the standout track “What’s That Got to Do with Rock ‘N’ Roll?” His 1981 follow-up, Syl Sylvain and the Teardrops was a bomb. He attempted a new band, The Criminal$, but their only album, 1985’s 78 Criminals, went nowhere. He ended up in L.A. and then surprised longtime fans by issuing 1998’s Sleep Baby Doll, a strong return to the sound and feel of the New York Dolls. The surviving members of the New York Dolls reunited in 2004 and went on to produce three new albums before Sylvain and Johansen officially ended the group in 2011. Sylvain died on January 13, 2021.
