Dr Hook

• A Little Bit More.wav
• Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk 1982.wav
• Makin’ It Natural.wav
• Roland The Roadie And Gertrude The Groupie.wav
• Sexy Eyes.wav
• Sharing The Night Together.wav
• Sylvia’s Mother.wav
• The Millionaire.wav
• When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman.wav

• Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show is a pop-country rock band formed in Union City, New Jersey in 1968. The original lineup consisted Ray Sawyer, Dennis Locorriere, Bill Francis, Jay David, and George Cummings, but their lineup changed quite a bit over the years. Other members include Jance Garfat, Rik Elswit, and Jon Wolters, Bob “Willard” Henke, and Rod Smarr. Sawyer was particularly noticeable due to his trademark cowboy hat and the eyepatch he wore due to a car accident in 1967. When told by a club owner that they needed a name to put out on the marquee, George made up a sign saying “Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show – Tonic for the soul.” The band name was a reference to Captain Hook from Peter Pan, but the Captain was missing a hand rather than an eye. Nevertheless, the name stuck.The band hooked up with songwriter Shel Silverstein, and manager, Ron Haffkine, who was in charge of doing the music for the movie Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? Silverstein was writing songs for the film, and he and Haffkine hired the band to record, “The Last Morning,” which was the theme song for the movie. Haffkine also became their manager and got the band a record deal. He would also be their producer and song publisher; a combination fraught with peril, as the band later found out. Silverstein composed all of the songs on their first three albums.”Sylvia’s Mother,” a ballad from their first album, became a big hit, and “Cover of the Rolling Stone” from the follow up album, “Sloppy Seconds” attracted the attention of those who would like their silly stage show and its monologues done as fictional characters. It also got the band on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, although as a caricature rather than a photograph. Another big hit of theirs (1976) was the classic “A Little Bit More” from the album with the same name. Other hit singles included “Only 16,” “Sharing the Night Together,” “When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman,” and “Sexy Eyes.”

  The band toured constantly but never managed to turn their success with singles into album sales, and when the smoke cleared after 15 years on the road, their managers had become millionaires, and the band owed them money. They had shortened the band’s name to “Dr. Hook” after going bankrupt and getting released from their contract with CBS Records, and their fourth album, this one on Capitol Records, was aptly titled “Bankrupt”.

  Sawyer left in 1983, and the band continued to tour for two more years before completely splitting up in 1985. In the 1990s, Sawyer went back on the road as “Dr. Hook featuring Ray Sawyer” after doing a few country records under his own name. Locorriere spent several years working as a songwriter in Nashville, and in 1989 performed a one-man show at Lincoln Center, “The Devil and Billy Markham”, written by Shel Silverstein. He currently lives in England, has recorded several solo albums, and tours, promoting himself as “the voice of Dr. Hook.”