The Top Ten Most Successful “Missing” Number Ones Artists – Number 4: Dr. Hook

(Note: Criteria, Scoring and Rationale for this series may be found here.)

I started thinking about this series about a year ago, but at that time didn’t think I’d have the time or energy to research it properly.

Occasionally in a conversation with other TNOCS members I’d drop a name to see if reviewer Tom Breihan had ever mentioned them. I then tried to determine (without doing the work) who was the biggest snub.

My first suggestion was Jackson Browne (2 Top 10 hits, 4 Top 20, 4 Top 40, 5 Top 100, peaked in 1982 at #7 with “Somebody’s Baby”.) But tnocs.com Contributing Author Link Crawford reminded me he had co-written “Take it Easy”, which Tom discussed under “Best of My Love”. 

Had he qualified, Browne would’ve been #17.

My second suggestion was a favorite of mine when I was younger: Dr. Hook.

For a genre that doesn’t exist, Tom sure spent a lot of time talking about “yacht rock.” In eleven different entries (not including the Bonus Number Ones “Baker Street”, a ’10’ no matter what Tom says), Tom discussed the retroactively categorizing of the soft-rock neo-soul produced by Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross and others.

So…is Dr. Hook “Yacht Rock”?

The podcast “Yacht or Nyacht?” suggests:

I then turned to the Commenting Collective, and someone suggested a much better description: 

Yacht-disco.

But that only describes the second-half of their discography. The first half borders on country rock.

Who in the hell WAS Dr. Hook? 

If you asked Britain’s old music newspaper Melody Maker, Dr. Hook was “possibly the most incompetent group in the history of rock ‘n roll.”

Dr. Hook is stoned and drunk. Lead singer Dennis Locorriere can barely stand, and at one point he throws up, takes a towel, wipes his mouth and tosses it aside. There seems to be no setlist; every song breaks into Sawyer and Locorriere giggling, or other musicians missing their notes.

Some of the songs are about venereal disease, others thinly veiled double entendres for sex.  

I’m not sure who was expected to enjoy the show..

Later, the band transformed itself to match the swinging disco scene, as they trimmed their beards, cut their hair, put on some satin suits and updated their promiscuous lyrics.  

So who was Dr. Hook? After reviewing the evidence, I’d argue:

Dr. Hook is a real-life version of Leisure Suit Larry, a video game character referenced by Tom under Britney Spears’ “Hold it Against Me”.  

After a car wreck in 1967 took the right eye of Ray Sawyer, he, George Cummings and Billy Francis moved to New York City to chase their rock star dreams.

They needed a bass player. Dennis told them he could play and sing.

In an interview, George Cummings gave a different story:

“…I named it (the band) for the weed we overindulged.”

“And the one with the patch who did not want to get out of bed without a big joint to start the day.”

George Cummings

Needless to say, there are some ill feelings among band members even today.

Music director Ron Haffkine found their demo tape and used the band to perform a few Shel Silverstein songs in the movie Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, starring Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Harris. (As an artist, Silverstein never charted, but a live version of his “A Boy Named Sue” was recorded at San Quentin State Prison and became Johnny Cash’s biggest hit. It’s an 8.)

Dennis and a few other Hook members idolized Silverstein, and the band became his main musical outlet. After signing with Clive Davis and CBS, Dr Hook’s first two albums were written entirely by Silverstein, including two Top 10 hits, “Sylvia’s Mother” and “The Cover of Rolling Stone”. 

“Sylvia’s Mother” is an autobiographical song about a relationship Silverstein had in the late 50s. They met in Chicago, but as he grew into his career they became more pen pals than anything. She entered a relationship with a museum curator in Mexico City, and on the day she was packing up to move, Shel called her, only to find her mother denying him one last chance to plead his case.

It was released as a one-off single in 1971, but didn’t do much. A year later it was included on Dr Hook’s self-titled debut and re-released, reaching #5 (it’s a 7).

A documentary was made about the song and subject in 2002. Shel never did reconnect with Sylvia, or her mother.

Sloppy Seconds’ lead single led to the band appearing on and in Rolling Stone magazine, where they were interviewed by a sixteen year-old Cameron Crowe:

Over the next two years the band toured and partied, partied and toured, with one interesting sidenote:

The band left CBS and moved on to Capitol Records, where they recorded the aptly-named Bankrupt and the Sam Cooke song “Only Sixteen”, which hit #6. Locorriere was twenty-six when they recorded the song; Sawyer thirty-eight. It’s a 1. 

Over the next half decade, the band changed its sound, and a few band members (like George Cummings) left.

The hits were penned by other artists; the recordings handled by the Muscle Shoals, Nashville Players or the Shelly Kurland Strings, and Dr. Hook played concerts. By 1978’s Pleasure and Pain, the transformation from hippie country rock to satin yacht disco was complete.

I have a confession to make.

I purchased The Spinners’ “Working My Way Back to You” in 1980, which began my love affair with 45s. Before then, I bought albums: the Cars’ debut, Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, Chic’s C’est Chic…

Two songs reached #6 on the charts, “Sharing the Night Together” (it’s a 6) and “When You’re Love with a Beautiful Woman”, which I used to play over and over again, imagining a world in which I was able to ask out my classmate Pam. 

I eventually did, but when she told me she’d check with her dad, I feared rejection and never followed up. 

Man, elementary school heartache. I’d still give this song an 8:

Dr. Hook’s next album Sometimes You Win generated their second #5 hit, “Sexy Eyes”, the work of singer-songwriters Chris Waters, Keith Stegall and Bob Mather; their biggest hit on the pop charts, though Waters penned four #1s on the country charts. 

The music is inoffensive disco-lite, similar to Bobby Caldwell and Boz Scaggs: without the lyrics, this could be an upbeat Muzak song I’d hear on aisle 11 in the supermarket.

But Dr. Hook wouldn’t be who they were without making me feel like I need to rinse off after one of their songs. The song opens with the singer watching an orgy, but lucky for him there is a single woman. Are they going to dance, moving across the floor?

Hell, no – he’s getting down on her and move with her. He says that he’s fallen in love…at least, until the next set of keys get dropped into the bowl.

The video does the song no favors either:

Spinning disco lights and Locorriere sweating a cocaine sheen. Sawyer is the only band member who retained any link to the country rock days, and I’m not sure I actually hear bongos or his backing vocals in the song. Everyone else is there to watch.

(Sorry again, Link.)

The band had three albums left in them. But with disco dead and Silverstein onto other projects, there wasn’t really much left. One single was about taking a girl’s virginity, another about a woman’s ass, each in the sleezy, sleepy disco style that embodied Dr. Hook’s later years. Locorriere claimed the last albums were supposed to be his solo efforts, but he stayed with the band out of loyalty. 

In 1983 Ray Sawyer quit the band due to “creative differences”, and never spoke to Locorriere again. The band toured two more years before finally breaking apart.

Dr. Hook really hasn’t left much of a cultural imprint, shocking for a band that had 6 Top 10 hits and was relevant for about a decade.

I imagine America must’ve taken its penicillin shot.

GRADE: 2/10

TRIVIA: Snow Patrol hit #5 with 2006’s “Chasing Cars”, but never did much else on the Billboard charts. They were much more successful across the pond – who covered their UK #5 hit “Run”?  * Hint: they had a single #1 in the U.S.; their cover reached #81.

Dave Edmunds was a one-hit wonder, peaking at #4 with 1970s “I Hear You Knocking”. Tom mentioned Edmunds one time for recording “Queen of Hearts”, which Juice Newton took to #2 behind Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie’s “Endless Love”. He didn’t rate Edmund’s version; Tom gave Juice Newton’s version an 8; “Endless Love” a 3.

BONUS BEATS: Jon’Nathon Lawrence is a DJ from that rave hotspot of Winnipeg. He sampled “Sexy Eyes” in his song “Sexy Musique”. He’s never charted.

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