The Intro

From the cover of Rolling Stone to UK number 1, New Jersey country rock band Dr Hook enjoyed three weeks at the top with this disco-flecked look at the perils of punching above your weight.

Before

Dr Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul formed in 1968. Guitarist George Cummings had left the band Chocolate Papers and moved to Union City, New Jersey to start a new group. He brought with him their vocalist Ray Sawyer and keyboardist Billy Francis. Sawyer had lost his right eye in a motorcycle accident in 1967 and he’d worn an eyepatch ever since. Cummings came up with the new name as a reference to Sawyer resembling a pirate, despite Captain Hook not wearing a patch. They hired Dennis Locorriere as their bassist, and soon after former Chocolate Papers drummer Popeye Phillips also joined their ranks.

Phillips didn’t hang around long, and neither did his replacement, Joseph Olivier, but session drummer John ‘Jay’ David did. After two years of performing locally, fortune smiled on the five-piece. Their demo tapes were heard by Ron Haffkine, the musical director on the film Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?. He liked their sound and hired them to perform two songs, both sung by Locorriere. Though the film was only a modest success upon its release in 1971, it did get Dr Hook and the Medicine Show a recording contract with CBS Records. Haffkine became their producer and manager.

Their first album, Doctor Hook, spawned Sylvia’s Mother, a cheeky dig at teen-heartbreak ballads. This became a huge hit, reaching two in the UK and five in the US, but number 1 in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. Follow-up album Sloppy Seconds featured The Cover of Rolling Stone, which poked fun at the idea of having made it if they were to appear on the front of the music magazine. When Jann Wenner, one of Rolling Stone‘s founders, heard about the song, he sent Cameron Crowe, then 16, to interview the band. They made it to the cover – but in cartoon form, and the song peaked at six in the US.

Meanwhile, the song couldn’t even get played on most UK radio stations. The BBC considered it wasn’t on to in effect advertise a publication on the air. A few of their DJs got together and edited the song to sing ‘Radio Times‘ instead, but it still failed to chart.

As the occasionally tortured voice of Locorriere began to feature more and more over Sawyer’s vocals, they hired Jance Garfat to play bass and Rick Elswit became second guitarist, both in 1972. But things began to go downhill for Dr Hook and the Medicine Show over the next few years. They earned a reputation for partying hard and quirky live performances, where they’d sometimes impersonate their support acts. But they overindulged, the 1973 album Belly Up! was a flop and David then left, to be replaced by John Wolters. In 1974 they filed for bankruptcy and their LP Fried Face didn’t even get a release.

Realising they needed to get their act together, they shortened their name to Dr Hook, signed with Capitol Records and penned their own material for a new album. The aptly named Bankrupt saw them return to the US singles chart, at six with a cover of Sam Cooke’s Only Sixteen. Elswit was briefly out of action due to cancer, so Bob ‘Willard’ Henk was brought in to help in 1976. He remained even once Elswit had recuperated and returned.

Also in 1976, Haffkine had bought the song A Little Bit More by Bobby Gosh for 35 cents at a flea market. He loved it and thought his band could make it a hit, and this romantic, but slightly rapey ballad was a smash, particularly in the UK, where it stormed to number two. The album it came from, with the same name, also featured If Not You, which peaked at five and More Like the Movies, number 14 in 1978.

In 1978 came their eighth album, Pleasure and Pain, which featured When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman. Songwriter Even Stevens (great name) pitched the song to Haffkine in the studio bathroom of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama.

Review

Dr Hook’s brand of novelty country rock in general does little for me, and this isn’t up there with some of 1979’s many classic, innovative chart-toppers. However, whether this disco shuffle was a cynical attempt to get on the disco bandwagon or not, I’ve a soft spot for it. The rhythm really is irresistible, and brings to mind one of my favourite examples of the genre – George McCrae’s Rock Your Baby. The lyrics haven’t aged well – they’re a bit on the condescending side, assuming that because this woman is beautiful, she’s not to be trusted. Take the tune out of the equation and the lyrics sound like the man in the relationship is paranoid to the point of psychosis. He’s ‘been fooled before/By fair-weathered friends and faint-hearted lovers’ and it’s clearly left its mark. Big round of applause for the innuendo of the first line though, especially when the backing singers join in.

The video is more in keeping with the music, with Dr Hook having a lot of fun, beaming away in the studio. Locorriere pokes fun at the lyrics, going all starey and wild-eyed at ‘You watch your friends’, glancing edgily at Sawyer, then grinning at the camera so we know he’s just kidding. But then – oh no! Sawyer drives off at the end with not one but two beautiful women! Locorriere cannot believe it! What larks.

After

When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman was so successful, Dr Hook also included it on their next LP, Sometimes You Win. Their final Capitol album also featured Better Love Next Time, which peaked at eight, and Sexy Eyes, another decent disco/soft rock hybrid and number four smash in 1980. Henke left that year and was replaced by Rod Smarr. Going further down the disco route, they signed with Casablanca Records, but their time in the charts was up.

Sawyer reportedly was unhappy with Dr Hook’s songs, and perhaps felt sidelined now Locorriere was considered their frontman. He was by now the equivalent of Bez in Happy Mondays, or Davy Jones in The Monkees, mostly just shaking maracas. He decided to leave in 1983 and two years later, Dr Hook split up.

The Outro

Locorriere retained ownership of the band’s name but from 1988 to 2015 Sawyer toured as ‘Dr Hook featuring Ray Sawyer’. In 2018 Sawyer died, aged 81. Few classic era Dr Hook band members remain – Wolters died in 1997, Graft in 2006, Francis in 2010 and Smarr in 2012. Locorriere still tours under the band’s name.

The Info

Written by

Even Stevens

Producer

Ron Haffkine

Weeks at number 1

3 (17 November-7 December)

Trivia

Births

22 November: 5ive singer Scott Robinson
29 November: Comedian Simon Anstell
1 December: Field hockey player Lisa Wooding
3 December: Singer-songwriter Daniel Bedingfield

Deaths

23 November: Actress Merle Oberon
30 November: Comedian Joyce Grenfell

Meanwhile…

23 November: IRA member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.

4 December: When three boys are killed in the Hastie Fire in Hull, the hunt begins for Bruce George Peter Lee, one of the UK’s most prolific killers.

7 December: Lord Soames was appointed as the transitional governor of Rhodesia in order to oversee its move to independence.