Who Sang On The Cover of The Rolling Stone? (Thanks Shel Silverstein!)

By Drew Reid

Dr. Hook personified the high living, highflying fun aspects of the 70’s, and Shel [Silverstein] provided the soundtrack. Shel himself says, “We worked that rock star thing pretty hard, and loved every minute of it.”

The band went on to a long and lucrative career, morphing, oddly enough into a smooth sounding outfit known for romantic hits like “Sexy Eyes,” “Sharing The Night Together” and “When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman.”

But their heyday of notoriety was in the early and mid 70s when Shel’s material was the mainstay. Ron Haffkine [friend and producer] picks up the story, “I was in my apartment in New York one day, when I get a call from Shel. He says, ‘How would you like to see your band on the cover of Rolling Stone?’ and starts playing me this song…when we released it, (over the objections of CBS due to some of the lyrics) Rolling Stone sold more copies in the next two weeks than in any two week period of their history.” To no one’s surprise, the next issue featured Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, as “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone” went #1.

Shel Silverstein was an enigmatic artist who meant many things to many people around the world during his long and unbelievably productive career. Mothers cherish the time spent reading The Giving Tree or Where the Sidewalk Ends to their babies, and those children grew up remembering “Uncle Shelby” from their formative years. Men recognize the shaven pate and bushy bearded poet/cartoonist from their adolescent passages through the pages of Playboy. Country music fans celebrate the writer of “A Boy Named Sue,” which won a Grammy for Johnny Cash, and “Put Another Log On The Fire” appearing on Wanted! The Outlaws, country’s very first platinum selling album.

The Cover Of The Rolling Stone Lyrics

(Words and Music by Shel Silverstein)

(Hey Ray, hey sugar, tell them who we are)

Well, we’re big rock singers, we got golden fingers and we’re
loved everywhere we go (That sounds like us)
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth at ten thousand
dollars a show (Right)
We take all kinds of pills, that give us all kind of thrills but
the thrill we’ve never known
Is the thrill that’ll get you when you get your picture on the
cover of The Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone, wanna see my picture on the cover
Wanna buy five copies for my mother (Yeah!)
Wanna see my smilin’ face, on the cover of The Rolling Stone

(That’s a very very good idea)

I got a freaky old lady name o’ Cocaine Kitty who embroiders on my jeans
I got my poor ol’ grey haired daddy, drivin’ my limousine
Now it’s all designed to blow our minds but our minds won’t
really be blown
Like the blow that’ll getcha when you get your picture on the
cover of The Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone, wanna see my picture on the cover
Wanna buy five copies for my mother (Yeah!)
Wanna see my smilin’ face, on the cover of The Rolling Stone

(Hey, I know how…)
(ROCK AND ROLL!)

(Aww, dats beautiful)

We got a lot of little teenage blue eyed groupies who’ll do
anything we say
We got a genuine Indian guru, who’s teachin’ us a better way
We got all the friends, that money can buy, so we’ll never have
to be alone
And we keep gettin’ richer but we can’t get our picture on the
cover of The Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone, wanna see my picture on the cover
Wanna buy five copies for my mother (I want one!)
Wanna see my smilin’ face, on the cover The Rolling Stone

On the cover of the
Rolling Stone, wanna see my picture on the cover (I don’t know
why we ain’t on the cover, baby)
Gonna buy five copies for my mother (We’re beautiful fellows)
Wanna see my smiling face (I ain’t kidding ya)
On the cover of The Rolling Stone

(The first shot, right up front man, I can see it now)
(We would be on the front smilin’ man)
(Aahhhhh beautiful)

The VERY FIRST Cover of the Rolling Stone

“ROLLING STONE is not just about music, but also about the things and attitudes that the music embraces. We’ve been working quite hard on it and we hope you can dig it. To describe it any further would be difficult without sounding like bullshit, and bullshit is like gathering moss.” —Jann Wenner

Tina Turner was the first woman to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone (November, 1967, their second issue ever). Rest in peace to a legend and an icon.

Tina Turner Queen of Rock n’ Roll Dies at 83