Dennis Locorriere obituary

Lead vocalist of Dr Hook, the group that had a US and UK Top 10 hit with Sylvia’s Mother in 1972

Although Ray Sawyer, with his eye-patch and cowboy hat, was the most instantly recognisable member of Dr Hook, it was Dennis Locorriere, who has died aged 76 after suffering from kidney disease, who sang lead vocals on most of their best-known songs.

It was he who sang their breakthrough hit Sylvia’s Mother (1972), which reached No 5 in the US and No 2 in Britain and topped the charts in several other countries, and he was the singer of the 1979 British chart-topper When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman (which also reached No 6 in the US). Only Sixteen, A Little Bit More, Better Love Next Time, and Sexy Eyes were all showcases for Locorriere’s smooth vocal skills, though Sawyer and Locorriere joined forces to sing the 1978 easy-listening hit Sharing the Night Together. It was Locorriere, too, who sang The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, which was not a hit for Dr Hook but climbed charts around the world when it was memorably covered by Marianne Faithfull in 1979.

Dr Hook’s ascent to stardom began in 1970, when the group’s demo tapes were heard by Ron Haffkine, the music director on the film Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (directed by Ulu Grosbard and starring Dustin Hoffman). This resulted in them appearing in the film, performing the songs The Last Morning and Bunky and Lucille, vital exposure that led to a deal with CBS records in 1971, with Haffkine becoming their producer and manager. Their debut album, Doctor Hook, was released the following year.

It reached No 45 on the US album chart, but, more significantly, spun off the hit single Sylvia’s Mother. Like most of the album, it had been written by the versatile author, cartoonist and songwriter Shel Silverstein, who based its teen-angst narrative on an experience with a former girlfriend.

A follow-up album, Sloppy Seconds, appeared later that year, with its 11 songs all written by Silverstein. They struck gold again with one of them, The Cover of “Rolling Stone”, a satirical ode to pop stardom (sung by Sawyer) that gave them a Top 10 hit in the States. It also proved to be a self-fulfilling prophecy when the band did indeed appear on the cover of the renowned publication in March 1973, albeit in caricatured form (the caption read “What’s-Their-Names Make the Cover”).

Dr Hook enjoyed sustained success into the early 1980s, scoring their last US Top 30 hit with Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk (1982), sung by Locorriere and Sawyer. While their albums never climbed higher than the mid-40s on the US chart, both their debut album and Pleasure and Pain (1978) sold more than a million copies. Sawyer quit the band in 1983, while the others soldiered on before calling it a day with their One and Only Farewell Tour in 1985.

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Dennis was the son of teenage parents, Ruth (nee Mantovani) amd Lenny Locorriere, both of Italian descent. As Dennis wrote later: “Unfortunately they didn’t have the knowledge or maturity to keep it together, and, as a result, they never lived as man and wife and the three of us didn’t stand a chance of becoming a family.” Thus he was chiefly brought up by his maternal grandparents, Ralph and Angelina Mantovani, in Union City, New Jersey.

He began learning guitar, and gained his first musical experiences in local bars. “I would go to bars at night and play until three in the morning, playing and having fun with my friends,” he recalled. One night in 1968 he encountered a pair of older musicians, Sawyer and guitarist George Cummings and, along with keyboard player Billy Francis and drummer Joseph Olivier, they would form the original line-up of the band they initially called Dr Hook & the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul (it would be abbreviated to plain old Dr Hook in 1975). Cummings devised the name, inspired by Captain Hook in the Peter Pan fairytale and by Sawyer’s eyepatch (he had lost an eye in a car crash in 1967). Locorriere was initially the bass player and primary vocalist.

Following the break-up of Dr Hook, Locorriere released three solo albums, Out of the Dark (2000), One of the Lucky Ones (2005) and Post Cool (2010), as well as several live albums. He continued his connection with Silverstein, performing in his one-act play The Devil and Billy Markham at the Lincoln Center, New York, in 1989 and narrating the audiobook edition of Silverstein’s 2005 poetry book for children, Runny Babbit.

The song A Couple More Years, which Locorriere wrote with Silverstein for Dr Hook’s album A Little Bit More (1976), was subsequently covered by Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. He also had compositions recorded by Crystal Gayle, Southside Johnny, Olivia Newton-John and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Having retained the rights to the group’s name, in 2007 Locorriere went on the road with the Dennis Locorriere Celebrates Dr Hook Hits and History tour. The following year he joined Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings for a UK tour. Meanwhile, Sawyer toured regularly as Dr Hook with Ray Sawyer, under licence from Locorriere. Sawyer died in 2018.

Locorriere’s first two marriages ended in divorce. For the past two decades he lived in Worthing, West Sussex with his third wife, Claire Anne, who is British. She survives him, as do his son, Jessejames, and daughter, Lily.

• Dennis Michael Locorriere, singer, musician and songwriter, born 13 June 1949; died 16 May 2026