I'm Retired! Now what?

June 20, 2026

I just learned that Dr. Hook’s singer Dennis Locorriere left us last month (May 16^th) at the age of 76.  When we think of the band Dr. Hook the image of the cowboy hat, eyepatch wearing Ray Sawyer comes to mind, but Dennis sang most of the band’s hits.  Sawyer left us back in 2018, and some might say that he was the wild one in the band, but if you ever watch a Dr. Hook concert from the early to mid-1970’s you’ll see that the whole band was pretty freaking crazy! I once met a Swedish girl that saw the band in her country back in the 1970’s, and she thought they were pretty lude and crude!  Yea, but wasn’t that just rock & roll of the seventies?  The guys were probably as high as a kite while on stage back in those days, but they did crank out some cool tunes and if nothing else, they were pretty entertaining.  I just wish I could have seen them live back in those days.

The first time I had ever heard of Dr. Hook was when Locorrier sang the very radio friendly song, ONLY SIXTEEN.  However, I have to wonder how radio friendly such a song would be today.  Perhaps they’d have to change the words to ONLY EIGHTEEN.  Let’s keep her legal guys.  Or even better, ONLY TWENTY-ONE.  There was also that song A LITTLE BIT MORE.  My mom thought the song’s lyrics were disgusting, but in my mind the words, “When you think I’ve loved you all I can, I’m gonna love you a little bit more” would make a great song for a Viagra commercial.  Of course those songs like SHARING THE NIGHT TOGETHER and SEXY EYES were a couple of tunes we all sang along with on the radio and maybe even danced to back in the day.  By that point in their career, the band looked somewhat respectable and suitable to play a high school prom.

A few years later I ran across a cassette of the album DR. HOOK REVISITED, and that album gave me a whole different look at the band.  Although I had heard their song COVER OF THE ROLLING STONE well enough to memorize the guitar chords, I had never heard such Dr. Hook classics as ACAPULCO GOLDIE, ROLAND THE ROADIE AND GERTRUDE THE GROUPIE, FREAKIN’ AT THE FREAKERS BALL, and one of my favorites, PENICILLIN PENNY.  These were songs that we wouldn’t be hearing on the radio and hopefully not at any high school prom.  Dr. Hook was certainly a band in its own class, and whether Locorriere looked like he was off to the disco or off to Woodstock he always looked like he was having a total blast while cranking out the tunes.  R.I.P. Dennis Locorriere