Ray Sawyer: Eye patch-wearing Dr Hook singer and percussionist

His resemblance to Captain Hook in ‘Peter Pan’ inspired the name of the soft-rock band that gave us ‘Sylvia’s Mother’, ‘When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman’ and ‘Sexy Eyes’

A 1979 promotional portrait of Dr Hook – (from left) Bill Francis, Ray Sawyer, Rik Elswit, Dennis Locorriere, Jance Garfat and John Walters. The picture is autographed by Locorriere and reads ‘Dennis Says Hello!’ (Getty)

Misfortunes bookended the career of Ray Sawyer, who was effectively the face of American soft-rock band Dr Hook and the Medicine Show even though he provided mainly backing vocals to Dennis Locorriere on a succession of songs that became global hits during the 1970s.

Alabama-born Sawyer, who has died in Florida aged 81 after a brief illness, co-founded Dr Hook (to which they abbreviated the name in 1975) in Union City, New Jersey in 1968. A year before he and Locorriere assembled the original five-piece he had decided to abandon hopes of becoming a musician and drove to Oregon to work in a log mill. On the way he was involved in a car crash in which he lost his right eye. While recovering he resolved to try again to make it in music.

The accident necessitated Sawyer wearing an eye patch. What he regarded as his resemblance to Captain Hook, the piratical Peter Pan villain, inspired the name under which the band played, initially on the New Jersey bar circuit. They specialised in dope-oriented material such as “I Got Stoned and I Missed It”, veering between humour and pathos, but had struggled to make a breakthrough until lyricist Shel Silverstein decided they were the ideal vehicle for the songs he had written for the soundtrack for the 1971 comedy-drama Who Is Harry Kellerman…?

Dr Hook recorded all the music for the film, which starred Dustin Hoffman. Silverstein then wrote their entire, eponymous debut album. The single “Sylvia’s Mother”, on which Sawyer harmonised with Locorriere, shot to No 2 in the British charts and No 5 in America. In 1972 Sawyer took the lead vocal on “The Cover of Rolling Stone”, a No 6 hit in the US which followed The Byrds’ “So You Want To Be a Rock’n’Roll Star” and The Raspberries’ “Overnight Sensation” in chronicling the rock business with tongue firmly in cheek.

Rolling Stone did feature Dr Hook on its cover, in caricature form, in 1973. The front of what was then a countercultural magazine tended to be the domain of artists such as Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Sawyer claimed, but his “little old band” had cheekily said “put us on the cover – and it worked”.

Dr Hook, which at one point expanded to seven members, enjoyed an intermittent romance with the charts. Their biggest British sales were for “A Little Bit More” (No 2 in 1976) and “When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman” (No 1 in 1979). However, the hits dried up in 1980 after six top 10 singles on either side of the Atlantic.

Sawyer, who also played congas and maracas, became frustrated by the disco-lite direction Dr Hook had taken and by a failure to break the album market. He went solo in 1983, two years before Locorriere disbanded the group while retaining ownership of the name. The latter allowed his one-time foil to tour as Dr Hook featuring Ray Sawyer, which he did relentlessly.

In 2015, while on his way to perform in Torquay, Sawyer tripped on a kerb and fell at a motorway service station near Swindon. He suffered a badly broken arm which required surgery. That year, declining health prompted his retirement. He is survived by his wife, Linda, and their son Cayse, who went on the road as his drummer.

Ray Sawyer, singer and percussionist, born 1 February 1937, died 28 December 2018