387 Goodbye Dr Hook - Girls Can Get It

Chart  entered :  22  November  1980

Chart  peak : 40

As  we  get  to  the  tail  end  of  the  year  we  suddenly  have  a  flurry  of  farewells.  Although  this  just  got  into  the  Top  40  I  missed  it  at  the time  because  this  was  the  season  Match  of  the  Day  had  to  switch  to  Sunday  teatime  and  it  overlapped  with  the  first  half  hour  of  the  chart  rundown  on  Radio  One. I  think  it  was  the  last  Top  40  hit  I  missed  until  The  Style  Council's  Come  To  Milton   Keynes  four and  a  half  years  later.    

Dr  Hook  had  struggled  to  follow  up  "Sylvia's  Mother" with  a  long  string  of  flops  most  famously  their  big  US  hit  "The  Cover  of  Rolling  Stone"  which  the  BBC  banned  for  advertising  even  though  the  magazine  was  not  generally  available  in  the  UK . Finally  they  came  back  big  with  the  limpid  ballad  "A Little  Bit  More"  , the  5th  best  selling  single  of  1976  in  the  UK  despite  not  quite  reaching  the  top. Thereafter  they  had  more  regular  hits  with  "When  You're  In  Love  With  A  Beautiful  Woman"  making  number  one  in  1979  although  it  was  always  with  more  MOR  material  than  the  Shel  Silverstein  songs  that  originally  made  their  name.  They'd  had  a  few  personnel  changes  along  the way  with  drummer  John  David  quitting  in  1973  to    be  replaced  by  John  Wolters   and  guitarist  George  Cummings  leaving  in  1975  to  be  replaced  by  Bob  Henke  who  himself  quit  in  1980  and  was   replaced  by   experienced  session  guitarist   Rod  Smarr. Guitarist  Rik  Elswit  took  some  time  out  for  cancer  treatment  in  1976  but  returned  to  the  line up  when  it  finished.

  This  was  their  fifth  hit  single  in  1980 , a  year  when  they  were  given  their  own  TV  special  with  guest  Kate  Bush   in  April  and  their  "Greatest  Hits"  set  reached  number  2 in  the  album  charts  so  no  one  was  expecting  them  to  disappear  any  time  soon."Girls  Can  Get  It"  as  the  title  implies  is  a   song  bemoaning  the  fact  that  girls  can  have  sex any  time  they  like  while  guys  have  to  chase  it.  Except  that  it  was  written  by  a  woman  , the  moderately  successful  American  songwriter  Leslie  Pearl  so  I  guess  if  she  was  writing  it  for  herself  originally,  the  song  started  out  as  a  mocking  boast.  Anyhow  the  guys  give  it  a  pop  soul  treatment   with  Dennis  Locorriere's  light  voice  boosted  by  a  female  backing  trio  which  give  it  a  bit  more  kick  than  the  last  few  hits  they  had. They  were  never  really  my  cup  of  tea  but  this  is  a  decent  way  to  close  their  account. Their  new  record  company  Mercury   didn't  do  them  any  favours  by  impatiently  releasing  this  while  their   last  single  for  Capitol, "Sharing  The  Night  Together "  was  still  in  the  charts  causing  both  to  stiff  in  the  forties.

The  single  was  the lead  single  from  their  new  album  "Rising"  which  struggled  to  number  44 in  the  album  charts. They'd  always  struggled  to  convert  their  success  in  the  singles  chart  to  significant  album  sales.  The  follow-up  single  in  February  1981  was  "S.O.S. For  Love"  ,  an  accomplished  AOR  ballad  with  some  nice  keyboard  work  from  Billy  Francis  but  perhaps  just  a  little  too  smooth  to  do  the  trick. Nevertheless  I  would  have  expected  it  to  scratch  the  bottom  end  of  the  charts.

Capitol  then  got  in  the  way  by  re-releasing  a  flop  from  1978  , the  Shel  Silverstein  number  "I  Don't Want  To  Be  Alone  Tonight"  and  the  US  hit  "That  Didn't  Hurt  Too  Bad"  didn't  get  released  over  here.

In  October  1981   they  came  back  with  Dennis's  song  "Hearts  Like  Yours  And  Mine"  a  lightly  funky  soft  rock  number   with  some  nice  flute  work  that  again  sounds  pretty  chart-worthy  but  got  ignored  by  Radio  One.

In  February  1982  they  released  "Baby  Makes  Her  Blue  Jeans  Talk "  which  gave  their  sound  a   synth  rock  makeover.  It  was  a  sizeable  hit  in  the  US  reaching  number  25  and  actually  went  to  number  one  in  South  Africa  but  it  no  ice  over  here. The   band  swung  back  to  their  usual  sound  with  the  ultra  bland   "Loveline"  which  gave  them  their  last  US  hit  (number  60 ). These  last  three  singles  featured  on  the  album  "Players  in  the  Dark"  which  bombed  completely  here  and  failed  to  reach  the  Top  100  in  the  US.

Their  last  new  single  was  the  African  -influenced  "Rings"  in  October  1982  which  is  quite  appealing  but  the  album  it  was  promoting , "Let  Me  Drink  From  Your  Well"  was  a  resounding  flop  and  they  were  dropped.  With  the  band  no  longer  having  a  recording  contract  percussionist  and  co-frontman  Ray  Sawyer quit ; he may  have  been  a  peripheral  figure on  the  albums  but  was  a  big  part of  their  stage  act.  Having  made  the  unwelcome  but  all  too  familiar  discovery  that  they  weren't  nearly  as  wealthy  as  they  expected  they  had  to  persevere  as  a  live  act  without  him  for  a  couple  of  years  and  then  dispersed  after a  farewell  tour  in  1985. Four  compilation  LPs  have  charted in  the  UK  since  the  band's  demise;  1992's  "Completely  Hooked"  reached  number  three  and  "A  Little  Bit  More"  and  "When  You're  In  Love  With  A  Beautiful  Woman"  were   minor  hits  on reissue  that  year.

Ray  had  cut  a  few  solo  singles  during  the  group's  lifetime  and  made  some  noises  about  a solo  career  but  he  had  few  takers  and  it  boiled  down to  one  single  on  the  UK's  tiny  Premier label  in  1985. "I'm  Ready  ( To  Fall  In  Love  Again )"  is  a  bland  country  rock  ballad . Ray has  a  serviceable  voice not  unlike  Long  John  Baldry's  but  is  horribly  let  down  by  the  cheap  and  nasty  eighties  production. By  1988  he  was  fronting "Dr  Hook  featuring  Ray  Sawyer"  ( paying  Dennis  a  licensing  fee  )  and  does  so  to  this  day  , occasionally  putting  out   a  CD  of  re-recordings  of  hits  plus  one  album  of  new  material  "Captain"  in  2010  a  retro  rock  and  soul  collection  which is  alright  if  you  like  that  sort  of  thing.  He  toured  the  UK  earlier  this  year.

Most  of  the  members  have  had  a  very  low  profile  since  the  group  split. Billy  occasionally  joined  Ray's  band  on  stage  in  the  early  noughties  but   health  issues  mostly   kept  him   out  of  the  public  eye  until  his  death  in  2010. Four  years  earlier  bassist  Jance  Garfat  died  in  a  motorcycle accident  on  his  way  to  work. John  W.  died  of  liver  cancer  in  1997. Bob  went  on  to  play  with  Jeff  Dayton  and  Glen Campbell  ( as  a  bassist )   and  other  country  stars  and  in  2010  sold  his  guitar  on  eBay  to  one  of  the  UK  Subs !  Rick  relocated  to  San  Francisco  and  for  the  past  25  years  has  worked  in  a  music  store  as  their  guitar  expert. He  has  fought  off  cancer   a  couple  more  times.  He  also  does  guitar  tuition, writes  articles  for  music  journals   and  plays  in  a  part-time  band  Gayle  Lynn  and  the  Hired  Hands.  John  D  turned  up  in  the  pub  rock  band  Eggs  Over  Easy  and  played  on  their  1976 single  the  irresponsible   boogie  tune  "Bar  In  My  Car".  By  the  time  their  second  LP  came  out  in  1981  he  was  no  longer  part  of  the  line  up  and  nothing  was  heard  of  him  until  as  "Jay  David "  he  released  a  CD  "Didn't  It  Rain".   On  the  one  track  I've  heard -  "That  Lucky  Old  Son" -  he  sounds  like  a  creaky  old  busker  who  can  barely  lift  a  drumstick. George  moved  to  Nashville  and  became  a  respected  producer  and  songwriter  on  the  country  scene  penning  the  reactionary  "Where's  The  Dress"  ( about  Boy  George ) for  Moe  Bandy  and  Joe  Stampley  in  1986.  Rod  returned  to  session  work.  He  died  of  pancreatic  cancer  in  2012.

As  the  main  singer  in  the  group  it  was  always  likely  that  Dennis  would  be  the  one  to  sustain  a  recording  career  and  in  a  limited  way,  so  it  proved. After  sixteen  years  of  touring  Dennis  took  it  easy  for  a  few  years. Like  George  he  moved  to  Nashville  and  wrote  some  songs , did  backing  vocals  for  others  such  as  Randy  Travis  and  dabbled  in  acting.  He  returned  to  performing  in  Oxford  in  1992 and  soon  made  his  home  in  the  UK.

In  1996  Dennis  made  an  album  called  "Running  With  Scissors "  on  which  Rod  heavily featured  in  the  only  instance  of  two  band  members  recording  together  since  the  split. For  some  reason  it  was  only  released  in  Norway  so  Dennis  re-issued  it  in  2000  under  the  title  "Out  Of  The Dark"  and  has  released  two  more  since  then  "One Of  the  Lucky  Ones"  ( 2004 )  and  "Post  Cool" ( 2011 )  as  well  as  some  live  CDs. Dennis  has  resisted  the  temptation  to  do  too  many  re-works  of  Dr  Hook  songs  and   while  his  stuff  is  a  bit  bland  for  my  tastes  he's  still  in  good  voice  and   tours  regularly.