"Doctor's Orders" is a song written by Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway and Geoff Stephens which, in 1974, was a hit in the UK for Sunny of Sue and Sunny; in the US the song was a hit for Carol Douglas.
"Doctor's Orders" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Sunny | ||||
from the album Doctor's Orders | ||||
B-side | "It's Only When You're Feeling Lonely" | |||
Released | January 1974 | |||
Recorded | November 1973 | |||
Genre | R&B, soul | |||
Length | 2:48 | |||
Label | CBS | |||
Songwriter(s) | Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, Geoff Stephens | |||
Producer(s) | Roger Greenaway | |||
Sunny singles chronology | ||||
|
In 1969, Roger Greenaway along with Sue and Sunny were recruited by Tony Hiller for the group Brotherhood of Man; Greenaway and Roger Cook — who had been writing songs together since 1965 as well as recording as David and Jonathan — were both house writers for Hiller's production company.
By 1973, the Brotherhood of Man's original members had opted out of the group and although Sue and Sunny had generally recorded as a team Sunny recalls that at this time "Sue decided she wanted to spend some time having babies, so I was just left to get on with things by myself. Roger Cook knew that I was going solo and rang me up to say that he had a song for me. Anyway, I went round to see him, heard the song and thought it might do something." [1]
Sunny cut the track in November 1973 with Roger Greenaway producing while Chris Gunning provided the arrangement and conducted.
Shopped to CBS for a January 1974 release, "Doctor's Orders" gained momentum through club play but met resistance from BBC Radio, unsavoury undertones being read into the storyline of a woman consulting a doctor over intimate concerns. "Doctor's Orders" finally broke into the UK Singles Chart dated 30 March 1974 at number 42, to rise to a peak of number 7 on 4 May that year. The single was also a hit in Ireland (number 4) and, in the summer of 1974, in South Africa (number 16). [2]
Doctor's Orders was also the title of Sunny's album released in January 1974 which, besides "Doctor's Orders", featured the Cook/Greenaway/Stephens compositions "Couldn't I Change Your Mind" and "Never Say Never", plus "Oh My Joe" (Cook/Greenaway/Tony Macaulay), "A Warm and Tender Romance" (Greenaway/Macaulay) and "Somebody Warm Like Me" (Macaulay). The album also featured the Brotherhood of Man track "Maybe the Morning", plus Sunny's renditions of the Drifters' hit "Like Sister and Brother" (Cook/Stephens) and White Plains' hit "My Baby Loves Lovin'" (Cook/Greenaway). The other tracks were "It's Only When You're Feeling Lonely" (the B-side of "Doctor's Orders"), "Don't Come Back" (S. Leslie) and "Lean on Me".
"A Warm and Tender Romance" backed with "Don't Come Back" was released as a follow-up single to "Doctor's Orders" but failed to chart.
"Doctor's Orders" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Carol Douglas | ||||
from the album The Carol Douglas Album | ||||
B-side | "Baby Don't Let This Good Love Die" | |||
Released | November 1974 | |||
Genre | R&B, soul, disco | |||
Length | 2:58 (Single Version) 4:30 (Album Version) | |||
Label | Midland International | |||
Songwriter(s) | Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, Geoff Stephens | |||
Producer(s) | Ed O'Loughlin | |||
Carol Douglas singles chronology | ||||
|
The American version of "Doctor's Orders" was recorded for Midland International who ran an ad in Showbiz magazine specifically to recruit a singer to cover Sunny's UK hit for the US market: the successful applicant, Carol Douglas, was a veteran performer who had remained an unknown recording artist.
Douglas recalled when she first auditioned she was told "I sounded great, but too black. [The track's] producers wanted to capture my more melodic pop/commercial tones which undeniably made me sound white on the radio." [5] Although Douglas admitted to reservations about the song itself - (quote) "I really [would have] wanted a more soulful song" - she'd also recall "I felt the minute I heard the music that it was going to be something, and after hearing my voice on the track it was even more amazing...[It] did throw me off when they played me the [Sunny] version. So I had to approach [singing the song] in my own way." [6]
Douglas' version, recorded at Groove Sound Studio in New York City, was produced by Meco Monardo but because of contractual complications the production credit was assigned to Midland International vice-president Ed O'Loughlin. [7] One of the players on the session was guitarist Jerry Friedman who, according to Monardo, invented the "bubble guitar" effect of "playing on a single muffled note" which became a trademark of disco music, as did the "gallop" effect provided by Carlos Martin pounding the conga with his fists.
In late 1974, Midland International issued test pressings of Douglas' "Doctor's Orders" to New York City discos where the positive response led to the track's rush release that November, with 100,000 units being sold the first week — mostly in the New York City area — and sales of 200,000 reported by 30 November 1974, the date of the Billboard Hot 100 chart on which Douglas' single debuted at number 79 to appear on the Top 40 that December, on its way to a number 11 peak (number 9 US Billboard R&B chart) in February 1975.1 "Doctor's Orders" also reached number 2 on the disco chart which Billboard had recently launched. [8] The eventual U.S. sales tally for "Doctor's Orders" was cited as 900,000 units — 300,000 in the New York City area.
Also in February 1975, Douglas' "Doctor's Orders" hit number 1 on Canada's RPM chart and number 4 in France. The UK success of the Sunny original did not preclude a January 1975 UK release of Douglas' version: although this was not a success. Nevertheless, "Doctor's Orders" afforded Douglas a top ten hit in Belgium (number 10 in Flanders), Italy (number 8), New Zealand (number 6) and Spain (number 2), with her version also charting in Australia (number 31) and Germany (number 37). In June 1975, Midland International reported that global sales of the Carol Douglas single "Doctor's Orders" totaled one million units. Bytes of the song were used by CBS during their NBA telecasts.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Boney M. are a R&B, reggae, funk and disco music group founded in 1974, who achieved popularity during the disco era of the second half of the 1970s. The band was created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the band's official line-up were Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett from Jamaica, Maizie Williams from Montserrat, and Bobby Farrell from Aruba. Since the 1980s, various line-ups of the band have performed with different members.
Brotherhood of Man were a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s with three number one hits in the UK. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with "Save Your Kisses for Me".
Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six Top 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: "they have been immortalised on a string of compilation albums, each recounting the string of effervescent hits that established them among Britain's best-loved pop groups of the early 1970s."
"Never Can Say Goodbye" is a song written by Clifton Davis and originally recorded by the Jackson 5. The song was originally written and intended for the Supremes; however, Motown decided it would be better for the Jackson 5. It was the first single released from the group's 1971 album Maybe Tomorrow, and was one of the group's most successful records. It has been covered numerous times, most notably in 1974 by Gloria Gaynor and in 1987 by British pop group the Communards.
Carol Douglas is an American singer whose hit "Doctor's Orders" (1974) was a pioneering track in the disco genre.
Domenico Monardo, known as Meco, was an American record producer and musician, as well as the name of his band or production team. Meco is best known for his 1977 space disco version of the Star Wars theme from his album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk; both the single and album were certified platinum in the US.
"I'm Coming Out" is a song recorded by American singer Diana Ross. It was written and produced by Chic members Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, and released on August 22, 1980, as the second single from Diana’s self-titled eleventh album, Diana (1980).
Gimme Dat Ding is a split album by The Sweet and The Pipkins, released on EMI's budget record label, MFP in 1970. It is named after the 1970 song "Gimme Dat Ding" by the Pipkins. In North America, The Pipkins released a full album of the same name, consisting of the six songs here and an additional four. It charted at No. 27 in Canada and No.132 in the US.
Roger Frederick Cook is an English singer, songwriter and record producer, who has written many hit records for other recording artists. He has also had a successful recording career in his own right.
Roger John Reginald Greenaway is an English singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for his collaborations with Roger Cook and Tony Burrows. His compositions have included "You've Got Your Troubles" and the transatlantic million selling songs "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing " and "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress". They were the first UK songwriting partnership to be granted an Ivor Novello Award as 'Songwriters of the Year' in two successive years.
Geoffrey Stephens was an English songwriter and record producer, most prolific in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a long series of hit records, often in conjunction with other British songwriters including Tony Macaulay, John Carter, Roger Greenaway, Peter Callander, Barry Mason, Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley, Don Black, Mitch Murray, and Les Reed.
White Plains were a British pop music group that existed from 1969 to 1976. They had an ever-changing line-up of musicians and five UK hit singles, all on the Deram Records label, in the early 1970s.
Leslie David Reed was an English songwriter, arranger, musician and light-orchestra leader. His major songwriting partners were Gordon Mills, Barry Mason, and Geoff Stephens, although he wrote songs with many others such as Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, Peter Callander, and Johnny Worth.
"You've Got Your Troubles" was the inaugural composition by the prolific songwriting team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway in 1964. "You've Got Your Troubles" became a number 2 UK hit for the Fortunes in the United Kingdom in August 1965, affording the group international success including a Top Ten ranking in the US. The track was included on the Fortunes' self-titled 1965 debut album release, the group's only album release of the 1960s.
The Best of Cilla Black is a compilation album by Cilla Black. It was first released in 1968 and originally included 14 of her biggest hit singles, a selection of B-sides and album tracks, released between 1963 and 1968. Many of these tracks had not been previously available on an album. It was usual in this period for artists to record songs exclusively for single release only. The album reached number 21 on the UK Albums Chart.
Sue and Sunny were a British vocal duo of session singers operating in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Although sisters, their stage names were Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie. For three years (1969–1972), they were members of British pop group Brotherhood of Man.
The Pearls were an English 1970s girl vocal duo from Liverpool, England, featuring Lyn Cornell and Ann Simmons. They released a total of 12 singles, the most successful being "Guilty", which reached No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1974. Various Pearls singles were released around the world with different catalogue numbers and sometimes different labels. They had releases throughout Europe and in the Far East, USA, Canada, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
Together is a 1974 album by British group The New Seekers. It features the No. 1 single "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me" and the top five follow-up "I Get a Little Sentimental Over You". It was the last album the group released before a much-publicised split.
"Something Tells Me (Something's Gonna Happen Tonight)" is a song by English recording artist Cilla Black, released in 1971.
"Sunny Honey Girl" is a song by the British musical group the Pipkins. It was written by Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, John Goodison and Tony Hiller and was released as a single only in New Zealand in August 1970, charting for one week at number 18 on the New Zealand Listener Pop-O-Meter chart. The song appeared on the Pipkins' 1970 album Gimme Dat Ding.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)