Of all the bands who scored Yacht Rock success, Dr. Hook stood out as perhaps the most malleable of them all. They changed their sound, their look, and even their name at one point, all in an effort to stay relevant. Those transformations paid off for the band when they started churning out hits in the latter half of the 70s, a few of which slid effortlessly into the soft-rock pantheon. “Sharing The Night Together”, a Top 10 hit in 1978, offers a prime example.
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On the Hook
The band that would eventually become known as Dr. Hook first formed in 1966 as a trio that included Ray Sawyer, Billy Francis, and George Cummings. That group moved from Alabama to New Jersey. That’s where they met Dennis Locorriere, who would become the new outfit’s lead singer.
In the early days, they went by Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show. They gained a notable collaborator when Shel Silverstein started writing songs for them. Silverstein, who also gained notoriety as an illustrator and an author, brought a unique sensibility to his songs. Dr. Hook benefited from Silverstein originals that stood out from the pack, like “Sylvia’s Mother” and “Cover Of The Rolling Stone”.
The latter song became prophetic, as the band showed up in caricature on the front cover of a 1973 issue of the magazine. For a while, it looked like that would be the peak of their career. Hit singles dried up, sales plummeted, and they watched their funds disappear. Hence, the name of their 1975 album, Bankrupt.
Sleek and Sultry
By the time Bankrupt was released, the band had shortened their name to Dr. Hook. Their ever-changing lineup essentially featured a pair of frontmen in Locorriere and Sawyer, the latter known for his distinctive eye patch. Sensing they needed to adjust to the new reality, the band changed their look considerably. Locorriere, in particular, cut his long hair to cut a more suave figure.
Dr. Hook also began to leave behind the overt country rock touches of their earlier work in favor of slicker, urban-friendly grooves. Although they still occasionally utilized Silverstein as a songwriter, they started to look elsewhere for material. A cover of the Sam Cooke classic “Only Sixteen” put them back in the US Top 10 in 1975.
On their 1978 album, Pleasure And Pain, the band covered a song written by Ava Aldridge and Eddie Struzick that had already been taken on by a few other artists. With Locorriere singing lead and Sawyer providing a bit of an island feel with his bongos, “Sharing The Night Together” turned into a monster hit for Dr. Hook. It soared to no. 6 in 1978.
Behind the Lyrics of “Sharing The Night Together”
“Sharing The Night Together” advertises its meaning pretty accurately in the title. The narrator politely asks his paramour if they’d like to cohabitate for the evening. He establishes in the first verse that they’re both feeling a little bit isolated. “I say these things ‘cause I’d like to know / If you’re as lonely as I am,” he explains.
As the song progresses, he gets a little bolder. “We could bring in the morning, girl,” he claims. “If you want to go that far.”
By the final verse, he’s not really putting up any pretense about his hopes: “Like to get to know you better / Is there a place where we can go.”
There was more where that came from for Dr. Hook, as they scored a few more sultry hit singles at the tail end of the 70s. “Sharing The Night Together” showed the resiliency of a band that knew what needed to be altered to keep the hits coming.
Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images
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