Cover Of The Rolling Stone-Dr.Hook

 Cover Of The Rolling Stone

1972

Dr Hook And The Medicine Show

If the classes of 1969 through about 1979 were polled on their ten favorite songs of the decade, it's a good bet this one would show up repeatedly. Say 'Cover of The Rolling Stone' to anyone who was in school during the early 70s and it's a good bet they'll be able to recite/sing/attempt to sing at least the chorus, and a good bet that they'll know most if not all of the verses. Everyone knows at least a few lines of this classic...it's one of those songs that everyone knew, just about everyone liked, and that just made you feel good. The high energy instrumentals, energetic tempo, and satirical lyrics just seemed to give you a burst of energy, brighten...at least temporarily...the worst of moods, and put a smile on your face.

Dr Hook and The Medicine Show again benefited from the songwriting talents of Shel Silverstein on this one...he also wrote Silvia's Mother. The song was released in the US in late 1972 and peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, but ran into problems in The UK, where BBC policy prohibits the use of actual product and publication names in songs...they considered it an advertisement for Rolling Stone magazine. This was circumvented when CBS Records London office set up special phone lines for listeners to call in and hear the song.

As for Rolling Stone Magazine (Bet all of us have at least a couple of favorite issues stashed away), while it's easy to believe Rolling Stone has been around forever, Rolling Stone Magazine was all of 5 years old when Cover Of The Rolling Stone was released. Needless to say, the song was a HUGE publicity boost for them. And Dr Hook and the Medicine Show did indeed make The cover...in caricature form...on the March 29 1973 issue's cover. That issue was the Rolling Stones biggest seller up to that point, and is still one of the top selling issues in the magazines history. If you've got a copy of it lying around somewhere, it's libel to be worth a little spare change! Onein even good condition would be a rarity...this was in the early 'Newsprint' era of the magazine.

Also, in the Movie Almost Famous (One of the best movies about Music ever made, IMHO) when the fictional band Stillwater found out that they had made the Cover of The Rolling Stone, they broke into a spontaneous rendition of the song. The modern band 'Phish' also covered it at their tour opener at Inglewood, Ca. on Valentines Day 2003. They had just...you guessed it!...made The Cove Of The Rolling Stone.

This one will always be around. It was played constantly during the Seventies, shifted to Oldies Stations in The 80s, and still shows up every one in a while on Oldies stations today.

Enjoy! Cover of The Rolling Stone by Dr Hook, with some classic Rolling Stone covers (Ya sang along with it...ya KNOW ya did!)

Same arrangement as above, just more modern Rolling Stone covers....Enjoy :D