Dr. Hook

Dr. Hook was one of the hairiest, scariest-looking country-pop acts of the '70s, but also one of that decade's best loved, thanks in no small part to vintage last-dance tear-jerkers like "If Not You" and "More Like The Movies", and the infectious disco-shuffler "Sexy Eyes". Principal frontman Dennis Locorriere shared vocal duties with eye-patched, mustachioed, cowboy-hatted Ray Sawyer, who reminded people of Peter Pan's Captain Hook, hence the name. Dr. Hook administers treatment to Sam Cooke, in Next Steps.

Here, the band shows its range, easing from a tender cover of Sam Cooke's "Only Sixteen" to boogie-buster "You Make My Pants Want to Get Up and Dance" and the "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", penned by favoured Dr. Hook songsmith Shel Silverstein and later covered by Marianne Faithfull, whose version you may remember from the soundtrack to Thelma & Louise. Frontman Dennis Locorriere also lays his gorgeous, husky voice on several solo tracks including "Hearts (Like Yours and Mine)".

It takes a certain bold cheek and self-publicising bravado to pen a song called "Cover of the Rolling Stone" with the express intention of appearing thereon, and then achieving exactly that . . . but tongue-in-cheek country-poppers Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show pulled off the stunt in 1973 (and would cleverly release the track as "Cover of the Radio Times" in the U.K.). The band had edged into the spotlight three years earlier, after hooking up with songwriter Shel Silverstein — responsible for the Johnny Cash classic "A Boy Named Sue" — to work on the soundtrack for the Dustin Hoffman movie Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me. While that film may have been lost to the celluloid vaults, the band is still fondly remembered for it's mid-'70s U.K. hits, especially "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman".