Glen Burtnik has joined Half/Cubes to record a cover of The American Breed’s “Bend Me, Shape Me.”
Glen Burtnik was enlisted to sing lead on Half/Cubes’ new, high-energy cover of The American Breed’s Top 10 ’60s hit “Bend Me, Shape Me,” which was released today by the Jersey-based JEM label. You can listen to it below.
Burtnik wrote on Facebook: “In 1967 the song ‘Bend Me Shape Me’ by the American Breed was a BIG hit. I remember it being ubiquitous and since I was 12 years old, it filtered its way into my brain. Little could I have imagined way back then I’d appear on the Half/Cubes’ excellent cover almost 60 years later.”
In a different Facebook post, Burtnik wrote that he got to know American Breed frontman Gary Loizzo when Burtnik joined Styx in the ’90s, and Loizzo was working as a sound engineer on one of the band’s tours. Loizzo died in 2016 at the age of 70.
The American Breed was based in Chicago and active from 1967 to 1970. Some of the band members later played in Chaka Khan’s band, Rufus.
Half/Cubes, who are based in Syracuse, is a duo whose members (singer-bassist Gary Frenay and drummer-producer Tommy Allen) represent half of the band The Flashcubes. Their 2024 album Pop Treasures (on Big Stir Records) and its 2025 sequel Found Pearls: Pop Treasures, Vol. 2 (on Jem) include covers of power-pop songs by Marshall Crenshaw, XTC, Jules Shear, The Romantics, The Rembrandts and others.
Burtnik’s band The Weeklings has released six albums on Jem, including last year’s Christmas.
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