Dr Hook’s former colleague Dennis Locorriere has died aged 76 Music

Dennis Locorriere, guitarist and singer with the rock band Dr Hook, has died aged 76.

A statement from his management company said he died on Saturday “after a long battle with kidney disease…

Locorriere, who shared singing duties with Ray Sawyer, was part of the group throughout its run from 1969 to 1985, scoring hits such as When You’re In Love With a Beautiful Woman, which spent three weeks at UK No 1 in 1979.

Born in New Jersey in 1949, Locorriere was in his early 20s when he joined a group of musicians a decade older than him, with Locorriere on vocals, bass, guitar and harmonica. “I just knew I didn’t want to work full time because I was a hippy at the time,” Locorriere said.

But the group – originally called Dr Hook and the Medicine Show – became a big hit, and were signed to CBS in 1971. They did well from there, with 1972’s Sylvia’s Mother going Top 5 in the US and UK, and The Cover of Rolling Stone reaching the US Top 10 that same year.

The band’s appeal rested on their beautiful multi-vocal interplay, with Locorriere’s childish voice paired with Sawyer’s cowboy hat-wearing country music. A Little Bit More spent five consecutive weeks at No 2 in the UK in the summer of 1976, topped by Elton John and Kiki Dee’s Don’t Break My Heart, while the mellow song Sharing the Night Together – Dr Hook’s most popular song in the pop game – brought them back into the US Top 10.

Locorriere was the lead vocal on their biggest single When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman, an up-tempo disco-pop song about the frustration that comes with having a beautiful girlfriend, with a humorous vocal from Locorriere. As well as topping the UK charts for 17 weeks, it was a global hit and another entry into the US Top 10. Dr Hook added a disco feel to the follow-up to Sexy Eyes, which was another hit in 1980, and another track that led to Locorriere.

Locorriere said that he was frustrated by people who often thought that Sawyer was a singer and a director – “which hurt me a lot” – and Sawyer left in 1983, saying that he would be “something with a patch and a hat”.

Dr Hook went on a farewell tour in 1985 with Locorriere as the frontman. “We found out that Dr Hook had started to work again and we decided to call it a day,” he said. Later, Locorriere went under his own name with the sub-title “the voice of Dr Hook”, releasing only three albums between 2000 and 2010.

Most of Dr Hook’s songs were written by songwriters outside the group, but Locorriere co-wrote some, including A Couple More Years, by Bob Dylan, and You Ain’t The Right, by Olivia Newton-John.

Locorriere was married three times, eventually settling down with his third wife in Sussex, UK.