Michael ‘Tunes’ Antunes of John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band Dead at 85

Michael “Tunes” Antunes, whose powerful saxophone playing since the early ’70s with John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band graced hits including the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 smash “On the Dark Side,” died Aug. 19, nine days after his 85th birthday.

In a post about Antunes’ passing on his official Instagram account, Cafferty shared a video of the saxophonist playing his heartaching solo from “Tender Years,” a longtime staple of Beaver Brown’s bar shows, which reached No. 31 on the Hot 100 in 1985 after Eddie and the Cruisers was released on HBO.

“Our hearts are filled with so many emotions,” wrote Cafferty. “Love, gratitude, respect, joy for our precious time together and sadness for our gentle fond farewell. It will always be one of life’s true gifts to have traveled the world over these many years within Tunes’ inner circle of love and magic on this amazing musical journey we’ve been blessed with.”

For more than five decades, Antunes — who was always known as “Tunes” to his bandmates and fans — was an exuberant and soulful onstage presence with the journeyman group, which rose from the East Coast bar scene to Platinum-selling success.

Beaver Brown, as the band was first known, gained acclaim in the 1970s in East Coast rock clubs, from Narragansett, in Cafferty’s native Rhode Island, to New Haven, Conn., where they were a mainstay at the famed Toad’s Place, to the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., where kindred spirit Bruce Springsteen jammed with them often.

The group, including Antunes, brought bar-band authenticity to the fictional group portrayed in the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers. Cafferty’s songs, including “On the Dark Side,” were beloved by fans in the bars for years in the 1970s before record-buyers learned of those tracks via the film soundtrack. “On the Dark Side” reached No. 7 on the Hot 100, No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Radio and has been streamed more than 47 million times, according to Luminate. In 1995, the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack was certified triple Platinum.

Antunes also performed on the joyous and reflective Sound of Waves, Beaver Brown’s first album of all-new songs in 37 years, which Cafferty and the group showcased in New York City at the Cutting Room on April 10. After that show, veteran music industry executive Steve Leeds posted ‘“Rock n Roll Never Forgets!’ The Beaver Brown Band kicked major ass at the Cutting Room to celebrate [their] first new CD in years. And they still have it!”

Antunes was born Aug. 10, 1940, the son of Peter and Mary Antunes. A native of New Bedford, Mass., Antunes took great pride in his Cape Verdean heritage. According to a 2015 profile in New Bedford’s newspaper, the Standard Times, his grandfather Joaquim Antunes was a Cape Verdean immigrant who played guitar and violin in the New Bedford region in the 1920s and 1930s, which his father Peter Antunes played upright bass, guitar and Hammond organ in performances throughout New England.

Antunes’ first show came at age 13 with the stage band of Dartmouth High School and most of his early shows were playing Cape Verdean music with his guitarist brother David and his cousin Joe Silva in a band called Second Generation, according to the Standard Times profile.

After Eddie and the Cruisers gave Cafferty, Antunes and their bandmates entrée into the world of film work. Sylvester Stallone came calling and used “Voice of America’s Songs,” from the album Tough All Over, as the theme song for the 1986 adventure flick Cobra.

Antunes’ first recorded credits with Beaver Brown, according to Discogs, was the band’s 1980 self-released single “Wild Summer Nights.” In addition to the soundtrack of Eddie and the Cruisers and its sequel, he played on the Beaver Brown albums Tough All Over in 1985 and Roadhouse in 1988. With Beaver Brown, he also played on a cover of “E Street Shuffle,” which Beaver Brown recorded for the 2003 album Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen, released to benefit The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which fights sarcoma cancer.

While complete family survivor information is not available, an announcement of services for Antunes states that he was the brother of siblings Jackie, David and Anthony; the father of Deborah, Michael, Juanita, Juan, Kevin, Derek, Michael, Dina and Wendle; the grandfather of 20; great-grandfather of 29 and the great-grandfather of two.

A funeral service is planned Thursday, Aug. 28, from the Saunders-Dwyer Funeral Home in New Bedford, Mass.