Publisher's Synopsis
Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, shortened from 1975 onwards to Dr. Hook, are a blue-eyed soul, rock band, formed in Union City, New Jersey, US. They had great success during the 1970s with hit singles including "Sylvia's Mother", "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" (both 1972), "Only Sixteen" (1975), "A Little Bit More" (1976), "Sharing the Night Together" (1978), "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" (1979), Better Love Next Time(1979), and Sexy Eyes. As well as their own material, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show performed songs written by the poet Shel Silverstein. The group had 8 years of regular chart hits, in both the US, where their music was played on top-40, easy listening, and country music outlets, and elsewhere in the English-speaking world, including the UK, Canada and South Africa. Their music spanned several genres, with many novelty songs and acoustic ballads in their early years but their greatest success came with their later material, mostly comprising disco-influenced soft rock. Dr Hook announced that they'd be embarking upon on the Dr. Hook 50th Anniversary World Tour from 2019 - 2020. The founding core of the band comprised the 3 Southerners, George Cummings and Ray Sawyer from Alabama, with Billy Francis, who'd worked together in a group called The Chocolate Papers, having played the South, up and down the East Coast, and into the Midwest before breaking up. Cummings, who moved to New Jersey planning to form a new band, brought back Sawyer to join him, the pair having then taken on future lead vocalist, New Jersey native Dennis Locorriere, at first as a bass player. Francis, who'd gone back down south after the Chocolate Papers broke up, returned to be the new group's keyboardist.
