Music like The Heartbreakers

The Heartbreakers, also known as Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, were an American punk rock band, formed in New York City in 1975. The band spearheaded the first wave of punk rock.

Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and Jerry Nolan (drums) gained fame in the pioneering proto-punk band the New York Dolls. By early 1975, the Dolls were disintegrating amid poor record sales and tensions within the band, and Thunders and Nolan quit during a tour of Florida in March 1975. Coincidentally, that same week that Richard Hell (vocals/bass) left Television. After returning to New York, Thunders and Nolan invited Hell to join their new band, and Hell agreed. As Hell said, "I was fed up with Television because it was getting so pretentious...so I thought, this is perfect - we'll make a really good rock & roll band that's dealing with interesting subjects." The three dubbed their new band the Heartbreakers. Their first gig was on May 30 of that year, at the Coventry, a rock club in Queens. (Tom Petty's backing band was also named the Heartbreakers, but they did not begin gigging until 1976.) The trio auditioned several candidates for a second guitarist, and soon added Walter Lure to the lineup. Lure, who had previously played with a glam-punk band called the Demons, played his first show with the Heartbreakers on July 4, 1975 at CBGB.