| "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byDr. Hook & the Medicine Show | ||||
| from the albumSloppy Seconds | ||||
| B-side | "Queen of the Silver Dollar" | |||
| Released | October 26, 1972[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1972 | |||
| Genre | Skiffle,pop rock,country rock,[2]comedy | |||
| Length | 2:53 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter | Shel Silverstein | |||
| Producer | Ron Haffkine | |||
| Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" is a song written byShel Silverstein and first recorded by American rock groupDr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Produced byRon Haffkine and released in 1972, it was the band's third single and peaked at No. 6 on the U.S.pop chart for two weeks on March 17–24, 1973. The song satirically laments that the band had not appeared on the cover of theRolling Stone, a magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. The song's success led to the band appearing on the cover of the March 1973 issue ofRolling Stone, albeit incaricature.
The song satirizes success in the music business; the narrator laments that his band, despite having the superficial attributes of successful rock stars (including drug use, "teenagegroupies, who'll do anything we say," and a frenetic guitar solo) has been unable to "get our picture on the cover of theRolling Stone."
As the song was riding high on the charts, the magazine finally acquiesced to Dr. Hook's request — after a fashion: the March 29, 1973, cover ofRolling Stone did indeed feature the band, but in caricature form rather than a photograph (and with only three of the band's seven members). Also, the group's name was not used; instead the caption read simply, "What's-Their-Names Make the Cover".[3]
BBC Radio refused to play the song, as it contained the name of a commercial publication (Rolling Stone) and could therefore be considered advertising. An urban legend states that the song was re-recorded by the band as "The Cover of theRadio Times", the weekly television and radio guide published by the BBC. However, this is disputed byDennis Locorriere, Dr. Hook's co-lead singer, who said: "What actually happened was that a bunch of BBC disc jockeys went into a studio and shouted 'RADIO TIMES' over our original chorus." He noted that it was the same recording as originally released, but with the additional layer of voices. The new version was rush-released in the UK but did not reach the charts.[4] However, the band's UK publicists took advantage of the BBC's attitude by advertising the single in the UK music press as "the first banned single of 1973".
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[13] | Platinum | 30,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[14] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
The song has been covered by various artists, includingR. Stevie Moore on his 1987 albumTeenage Spectacular;Poison on their 2000 albumCrack a Smile... and More!;Sammy Kershaw on his 2010 albumBetter Than I Used to Be, with his version featuringJamey Johnson;Black Francis on the albumTwistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein in 2010; andJackyl on their 2012 albumBest in Show. Canadian singerCorb Lund featured the song on his 2019 EPCover Your Tracks in a duet withHayes Carll.
Buck Owens and the Buckaroos parodied the song as "On the Cover of the Music City News" on the 1974 albumIt's A Monster's Holiday and the 1976 albumBest of Buck Owens, Volume 6.
German comedianMike Krüger covered and translated the song with small lyrical changes for his 1978 albumStau mal wieder, changing the title to "Auf der Hülle mit den Rolling Stones" ("On the Cover with the Rolling Stones"), lyrics implying he would like to have his photograph as an album cover forthe Rolling Stones.
In 1987, Dutch band Bertus Staigerpaip released a parody: "De veurplaat van d'n Donald Duck" ("The cover of theDonald Duck Weekblad" – a Dutch comic magazine).
Phish covered the song at the Great Western Forum inInglewood, California on February 14, 2003.[15] The performance foreshadowed their actual appearance on the cover ofRolling Stone’s March 3, 2003 issue.[16][17]
In 1999 and 2000 Radio Talk Show host Mike Church recorded 2 parody versions of the song, both titled "See A Right Winger Get Stoned". The song was played on terrestrial radio stationWVNN 770 in Huntsville, Alabama, before Church made his way to Sirius Satellite and then SiriusXM Satellite Radio where Church played the song for 15 years. Church included both versions of his recording on his 2013 greatest hits album called"The Mike Church Show Band's Anthology".
The song was sung by characters in the 2000 filmAlmost Famous.[18]
Phish was also capable of moving re-creations of old songs, from a version early Friday of "Cover of the Rolling Stone" (originally by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show) and an emotional, near-perfect take on the Rolling Stones' "Loving Cup," which closed the concert.
