US band Dr Hook (and the Medicine Show)’s lead singer Dennis Locorriere – not the one with the eye-patch – died last week.

Their output was at best soft rock but their hits tended to stick in the mind.

The band’s first UK hit was Sylvia’s Mother (no 2 in 1972) but they had a no 1 in 1979 with When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman.

This is a live version of the earlier song apparently recorded on the houseboat of the song’s writer Shel Silverstein.

Dr Hook & The Medicine Show: Sylvia’s Mother

Dennis Michael Locorriere: 13/6/1949 – 16/5/2026. So it goes.

This song was the only one of Tzuke’s to trouble the top twenty (no 16 in 1979.)

Here’s a live performance.

Judie Tzuke: Stay With Me Till Dawn

Until I checked I would have said that this was Joan Osborne’s only UK hit (no 6 in 1995) but it seems she also had a no 33 the next year with a song called St Teresa.

I must confess I don’t remember that heavily accented little introduction (about the heavenly airplane [sic]) she gives in this video.

The song itself is lyrically interesting.

Joan Osborne: One of Us

One from South African singer songwriter John Kongos. It was a no 4 in 1971.

Kongos’s other hit He’s Gonna Step On You Again was famously covered by The Happy Mondays as Step On. They also covered this one but didn’t release it as a single.

John Kongos: Tokoloshe Man

Edited to add: I meant to say a Tokoloshe is a malevolent spirit in Bantu folklore.

Nedra Talley of the Ronettes has gone.

This is unseasonal I know but I’ve already featured the group’s two biggest UK hits, here and here. Taken from Phil Spector’s Christmas Album  – actually named A Christmas Gift to You from Philles Records and the less said about Spector the better – it’s also one of The Ronettes better known songs and was their third biggest, no 15 in 1963.

The Ronettes: Sleigh Ride

Nedra Yvonne Talley (Ross): 27/1/1946 – 26/4/2026. So it goes.

Dave Mason, co-founder of the band Traffic, has died.

His career with Traffic was by no means smooth (and he later went on to play with various luminaries) but he wrote and sang their biggest UK hit, a No 2 in 1967.

Traffic: Hole in my Shoe

Mason’s song Feelin’ Alright became something of a standard with many other artists covering it. 

Traffic: Feelin’ Alright

David Thomas Mason: 10/5/1946 – 19/4/2026. So it goes.

The haunting voice of Clannad’s Moya Brennan has been stilled.

The band’s first hit was the theme from the TV Series Harry’s Game, set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song was doubly notable to be the first song sung in Irish to reach the UK top ten.

Clannad: Theme From Harry’s Game

Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin (Moya Brennan): 4/8/1952 – 13/4/2026

In terms of chart position this was the second biggest of Del Amitri’s hits. No 13 in 1992.

Del Amitri: Always the Last to Know

I saw in the Guardian on Wednesday that Chip Taylor has died.

Though he was a performer in his own right he is better known as a songwriter; perhaps best remembered for Wild Thing, a song The Troggs had a huge hit with and was then taken up by Jimi Hendrix.  The Troggs later recorded Taylor’s very different Any Way That You Want Me but in the meantime Taylor composed Angel of the Morning,  brought to prominence by Merrilee Rush and later a hit in the UK for P P Arnold.

I must confess that until I read Taylor’s wiki page  I hadn’t realised that he was a brother of actor Jon Voight (and therefore uncle to Angelina Jolie) nor that he had co-written I Can’t Let Go, a UK no. 2 for The Hollies in 1966.

The Hollies: I Can’t Let Go

James Wesley Voight (Chip Taylor): 21/3/1940 – 23/3/2026. So it goes.

The Alan Price Set was the band Price formed after he left The Animals. This wasn’t their first hit – that was the Randy Newman song Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear* – but it was the first which Price wrote.

The Alan Price Set: The House That Jack Built

*Edited to add: I just remembered The Alan Price Set released I Put a Spell on You and Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo which were both hits before Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear.