1973 Novelty Rock Hit Was Written by an Award-Winning Children's Author
In 1972, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show had a surprise hit with the song "The Cover of Rolling Stone." The novelty hit, which appeared on the New Jersey-based band's second album, Sloppy Seconds, peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard pop charts in March 1973 and became the pop-country rockers' signature song.
"The Cover of Rolling Stone" offered a cheeky look at the "thrill" that a rock band gets when they land on the cover of the music magazine Rolling Stone. The lyrics weren't written by Dr. Hook band mates Ray Sawyer, George Cummings, Billy Francise, Dennis Locorriere, Jay David, Jance Garfat or Rik Elswit. Instead, the witty lines, such as "wanna see my picture on the cover/ wanna buy five copies for my mother," were penned by Shel Silverstein, the renowned artist, poet, and author of the children's classics The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and more.
Shel Silverstein wrote other songs for the band
Silverstein wrote dozens of songs for artists such as Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, and Judy Collins, according to American Songwriter. He also wrote the hit "A Boy Named Sue" for Johnny Cash, per his official website. For Dr. Hook, he penned "Sylvia's Mother," "Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball," and more.
In an interview with Songfacts, Silverstein's nephew Mitch Meyers said his uncle was inspired by musicians. "I think that he was already hanging with Dr. Hook when he did it," Meyers shared of "The Cover of Rolling Stone." "He had been around musicians, and he understood what people wanted. And he understood how every musician's dream was to be a star. To be a big star. To be on the cover of a big magazine, and what magazine epitomized music? And Shel lampooned the whole rock and roll lifestyle."
"Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show became such prolific interpreters of Shel's material for some reasons which would completely include their sense of humor," he added.
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Dr. Hook did appear on the cover of ‘Rolling Stone'-sort of
Amid the success of "The Cover of Rolling Stone," Dr. Hook actually made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine on March 29, 1973. But the band didn't pose for a traditional cover shoot. Instead, a caricature of Sawyer, Locorriere, and Francis was featured, with the teaser, "What's-Their-Names Make the Cover."
On the 50th anniversary of the cover, Rolling Stone recalled the accompanying feature article was "a delirious funny chronicle of the band's travels, peppered with profanity-laced song parodies, tales of harmonizing on George Jones songs, encounters with eager young groupies on the concert trail, and the dumping of the mysterious contents of a Holiday Inn envelope just seconds before getting pulled over by a Virginia state trooper on the way to their next gig."
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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 9:06 AM.