Dr. Hook Album: “Singles”

I always bypassed the domestic (Capitol) "Greatest Hits" disc because it omitted some of Dr. Hook's hits and I wanted everything on one disc. I finally got this collection and am generally pleased because it not only contains some of their lower charting hits but also a couple from their Casablanca Records period.

One curiosity is that "Cover Of 'Rolling Stone'" features a bit of fake applause in the instrumental break (with the badly played guitar, before someone says "that's beautiful"). I don't recall hearing this song with that fake applause before. The other various artists compilations I have with this song on it do not feature the fake applause.

After being a fan of Dr.Hook and owning several compilations of this great band I believed that there was nothing more to get from these guys. Obviously I was wrong. When I red the track list of this CD I was thrilled that they have included "Daddy`s little girl". This is a great song from Ray Sawyers solo album from 1977, and up to now not available on CD. This CD is also a great collection of Dr.Hooks best singles during their carreer, and it contains songs from all their three labels.

Here you can find songs from their early "hippie" period with "Carrie me carrie", "Roland the roadie" and "Cover of rolling stone". Also you can find their great hits such as "Sylvias mother" and "When you`re in love...". I will end this review by saying that there is a nice overview of all their hit singles and how these singles did on the charts in the different contries. This is illustrated in the "booklet" on the cover.

The disc features all the Dr's US and UK top 40 charted hits and many other "classics" such as "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan". My two minor complaints would be that my all time fave Dr Hook song "A Little Bit More" is presented here in mono and is a slightly different mix than the one usually used and they didn't include "Sleeping Late" another of my fave tracks. Still it's rare for a best of collection to include so many of their hits so I will give it 5 stars.

This is a great collection of Dr. Hook songs. The highlight is "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" - Outstanding!

Dr Hook and the Medicine show (as they were originally named) combined country and rock music with a dash of humor. They began with a major international hit, Sylvia's mother, which was about a man pleading over the telephone to be allowed to speak to Sylvia, hoping that she would come back to him, but her mother wouldn't let him. Other notable songs from their Medicine show period include Cover of the Rolling stone (about the front cover of a magazine) and Ballad of Lucy Jordan (later covered by Marianne Faithfull).

After shortening their name to Dr Hook, they released their strongest album (A little bit more) and had a major international hit with the title track. Other major hits followed including If not you, More like the movies, When you're in love with a beautiful woman, Better love next time and Sexy eyes.

This compilation includes all their British and American hits, which were not always the same songs. If you enjoy seventies pop-country music with a bit of humor, you might enjoy this.