Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, shortened in 1975 to Dr. Hook, was an American rock band, formed around Union City, New Jersey. They enjoyed considerable commercial success in the 1970s with hit singles including Sylvias Mother, The Cover of Rolling Stone, Sharing the Night Together, A Little Bit More and When Youre in Love with a Beautiful Woman. In addition to their own material, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show performed songs written by the poet Shel Silverstein. The band had eight years of regular chart hits, in both the U.S. and the UK, and greatest success with their later gentler material, as Dr. Hook. The founding core of the band consisted of three Southerners who had worked together in a band called The Chocolate Papers, George Cummings, Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis. They had played the South, up and down the East Coast, and into the Midwest, before breaking up. Cummings, who moved to New Jersey with the plan of forming a new band, brought back Sawyer to rejoin him. They then took on future primary vocalist, Jersey native Dennis Locorriere, at first as a bass player. Francis, who had returned South after the Chocolate Papers broke up, returned to be the new bands keyboardist. When told by a club owner that they needed a name to put on a poster in the window of his establishment, Cummings made a sign: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul. The Hook name was inspired by Sawyers eyepatch and a reference to Captain Hook of the Peter Pan fairy tale, though, humorously, because Captain Hook was neither a doctor nor wore an eyepatch. The medicine show and doctor (referring to the shows common in the 19th century) were intended as tongue-in-cheek support for drug use. Ray Sawyer lost an eye in a near-fatal car crash in Oregon in 1967, and has worn an eyepatch ever since. To this day, Sawyer is mistakenly considered Dr. Hook because of the eyepatch he wears. The Medicine Shows lineup changed a few more times over the years. When David left the group in 1973, he was replaced by John Wolters. The next to depart was founding band member Cummings, who left in 1975 due to personal and musical differences. The band did not initially replace him. When Elswit was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years later, the band added Bob Willard Henke (formerly of Goose Creek Symphony). Elswit recovered and returned to the lineup, but they kept Henke on as well for a while. When Henke left in 1980, they added Rod Smarr. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) https://youtube/watch?v=7iYpboTjtoQ
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:51:21 +0000
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