HAPPY BIRTHDAY to George Cummings (July 28, 1938 in Meridian, Mississippi) is a guitarist and songwriter based in Bayonne, New Jersey and, in recent years, Nashville, Tennessee. Cummings found fame with Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, the group he named and founded in Union City, New Jersey in 1968. He invited former Chocolate Papers bandmates Ray Sawyer, Billy Francis, and Popeye Phillips to join his new band (Phillips left to join The Flying Burrito Brothers before the band achieved success, and Francis rejoined Cummings shortly after Locorriere joined)). Cummings brought the nineteen-year-old Dennis Locorriere into the band as a bass player. While playing the Bandbox club in Union City, The owner asked George what the name of his band was, and on the spur of the moment, he wrote down Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, Straight from the South, serving up Soul Music. They recorded their debut album for CBS/Columbia in 1970, and sold a million copies of their single, Sylvias Mother, when it was re-released in July, 1972. The group was caricatured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Cummings sang the bass-register lead vocal on the second verse of The Cover of the Rolling Stone, as well as playing the comical lead guitar on the instrumental break in concerts (Locorriere actually played it on the recording). He also sang Makin It Natural, Penicillin Penny (both written by Shel Silverstein), and I Got Stoned and I Missed It (co-written by Cummings with Silverstein).
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 04:13:10 +0000
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