Ray Sawyer, singer with Dr Hook & the Medicine Show, has died aged 81.
The musician's wife Linda revealed that Sawyer died "peacefully in his sleep" and she added that her "heart is broken," according to the BBC.
The band's biggest hits include When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman - a number one hit in the UK in 1979 - and the melodramatic weepie Sylvia's Mother, penned by Shel Silverstein, which probably ranks higher in the memory of Irish pop fans. The song went to number one in this country, to number two in the UK and it made the number five slot in the US Billboard charts.
Born in Chickasaw, Alabama, in 1937, Sawyer became a member of Dr Hook in 1969, two years after he lost an eye in a motor accident. While Sawyer did not sing the above-mentioned songs, he did sing the lead vocal on Cover of the Rolling Stone, an early hit released in 1972.
In the course of the lyrics for the gently acerbic Cover of the Rolling Stone, he sang: "The biggest thrill we've never known is the thrill that'll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone."
Dr Hook appeared in caricature on the cover of the music and current affairs magazine, the following year, 1973.
"Here was this little band from Alabama standing on the corner saying, 'Hey, put us on the cover', and it worked," Sawyer declared, as reported by Ultimate Classic Rock. "It was a dream come true."
