232 Hello Dr Hook* - Sylvia's Mother

( *and  the  Medicine  Show )

Chart  entered : 24  June 1972

Chart  peak : 2

Number  of  hits : 10

This  was  an  outlier  hit  - it  would  be  another  four  years  before  the  next  one - and  sadly  it's  the  only  one  I  have  much  time  for. I  suppose  "When  You're  In  Love  With  A  Beautiful  Woman"  is  OK  but  there  was  so  much  better  stuff  in  that  chart  to  be  number  one.

The  band  originated  in  the  mid-sixties  when  George  Cummings, Ray  Sawyer  and  Billy  Francis  were  in  a  band  called  The  Chocolate  Papers. That  broke  up  but  when  George  relocated  to  New  Jersey  and  wanted  to  form  a  new  band  he  invited  the  other  two  to  join  him. Dennis  Locorriere  a  local  singer  and  guitarist  was  recruited  to  play  bass. Their  name  was  the  idea  of   George  who  wanted  a  sly  drug  reference  in  there. Ray  lost  an  eye  in  a  car  crash  in  Oregon  around  this  time. Their  third  drummer  Jay  David  was  the  one  who  stuck  around.

The  band  were  primarily  a  live  concern  with  a  healthy  dose  of  humour  in  their  act  but  were  recording  demos  and  one  came  to  the  attention  of   Ron  Haffkine, musical  director  for  the  Dustin Hoffman  film, Who  Is  Harry  Kellerman  And  Why  Is  He  Saying  Those  Terrible  Things  About  Me  ? He  played  it  to  satirical  songwriter  Shel  Silverstein  who  was  writing  the  songs  for  the  film  and  he  got  the  band  in  to  record  "The  Last  Morning"  and  "Bunky  and  Lucille", the  latter  of  which  the  band  can  be  seen  performing  in  the  film. Dennis , who  sounded  similar  to  Kenny Rogers  with  a  bit  more  passion, was  promoted  to  lead  singer  during  the  sessions.

While  the  film  had  a  mixed  reception ( it's  alright  actually )  it  did  help  the  band  get  signed  to  CBS. Haffkine  became  their  manager  and  regular  producer  and  Silverstein, seeing  the  band  as  an  ideal  vehicle  for  his  songs , wrote  all  but  one  track  for  their  debut  LP  which  was  released  at  the  end  of  1971.

The  opening  track  was  this  one, released  as a  single  shortly  after  the  LP.  Here's  Lena's  interesting  take  Dr Hook   - her  empathy  with  Sylvia  makes  her  sound  quite  callous  at  one  point -with  the  commenter  hardtogethits  spotting  the  full  extent  of  Mrs  Avery's  complicity.