At 21, Ron was a musician and composer in Greenwich Village who met and became good friends with 28 year old Shel Silverstein, an American poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children's books.
Haffkine became the musical director for free for the Herb Gardner movie Who is Harry Kellerman[7] in which Dustin Hoffman, the star of The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy and Little Big Man, played a songwriter.
With the help of producer Haffkine the group recorded two songs for the film: Locorriere sang the lead on both "The Last Morning", the movie's theme song, later re-recorded for their second album, Sloppy Seconds, and "Bunky and Lucille", which the band can be seen performing in the film.
[10] Drummer David used a wastepaper basket to keep the beat, and while Sawyer, Locorriere and Cummings played and sang a few songs, Francis hopped up and danced on the mogul's desk.
He produced the soundtrack of the 1970 film featuring Silverstein songs performed by Waylon Jennings,[15] and Kris Kristofferson.
Silverstein wrote all the songs for their self-titled debut album, released in 1971, Doctor Hook[17] featured lead vocals, guitar, bass and harmonica by Locorriere, guitarist Cummings, singer Sawyer, drummer David, singer/guitarist, and keyboard player Billy Francis.
[18] "Sylvia's Mother", a subtle parody of teen-heartbreak weepers, flopped on first release, but with some more promotional muscle became the band's first million-seller and hit the Top Five in the summer of 1972.
[26] CBS Records responded by setting up a phone line that would play the song to anyone willing to dial in, which helped build the buzz.
The group had a difficult time meeting the high expectations created by Sloppy Seconds, and the result was Belly Up, which Huey noted "was unfortunately prophetic."
Belly Up included "Acapulco Goldie", "Penicillin Penny", "Life Ain't Easy", "When Lily Was Queen", "Monterey Jack", "You Ain't Got the Right", "Put a Little Bit On Me", "Ballad Of....", "Roland the Roadie Gertrude the Groupie", "Come On In", and "The Wonderful Soup Stone".
Dr. Hook was just as famed for their crazed stage antics, which ranged from surreal banter to impersonating their own opening acts, but it was the group's nonchalance about business matters that led to bankruptcy.
[31] From 1973 to 1974 Haffkine, Ray Sawyer and Dennis Locorriere of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show composed "You Ain't Got the Right" for Olivia Newton-John on her Crystal Lady and If You Love Me, Let Me Know albums.
At the time, in Nashville, Kyle Lehning, now famous for his body of work with Randy Travis was producing Waylon Jennings and wanted to meet Ron's engineer, Roy Halee.
The hit from the project was a reworked version of Sam Cooke's "Only Sixteen", revitalizing their career and charted in the top ten in 1976.
When Haffkine found a little tune called A Little Bit More, written and originally performed by Bobby Gosh, on a vinyl record, released on his 1973 album Sitting in the Quiet[32] at a flea market for 35 cents in San Francisco, things exploded for Dr. Hook.
[34] Together Haffkine and Silverstein produced a collection of scatological renaissance style poetry and satire onto vinyl, six years after its predecessor, Freakin' at the Freakers Ball (1972).
The record's adult content aptly demonstrated one of Silverstein's most distinguishing lyrical motifs when dealing with controversial material.
The album titles tackle a myriad of social taboos, including homosexual incest ("Father of a Boy Named Sue"), prolific marijuana ("The Smoke Off") and cocaine ("They Held Me Down") use, and even an interspecies love song ("The Cat and the Rat").
"Sexy Eyes" written by Chris Waters, Bob Mather and Keith Stegall, was recorded and released as a single by Dr. Hook in early 1980.
Keith co-wrote his first hit, Dr. Hooks' 1980 smash "Sexy Eyes" and the flood gates opened to him as a songwriter and eventually a producer.
[38] In 1983 Haffkine produced Lou Rawls on the first version of Wind Beneath My Wings, a song made famous by Bette Midler.
Here are some songs that they released between 1984 and 1985; A Light In The Attic, Almost Perfect, Anteater, Ations, Backward Bill, Bear In There, Captain Blackbeard Did What, Clarence, Crowded Tub, Eight Balloons, Eighteen Flavors, Enter This Deserted House, Examination, Fancy Dive, For Sale, Forgotten Language, Friendship, God's Wheel, Hitting, Homework Machine, How Not To Have To Dry The Dishes, Hug O' War, Hula Eel, Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too, Invitation, Jimmy Jet And His TV Set, Kidnapped, Ladies First, Listen To The Mustn'ts, Little Abigail And The Beautiful Pony, Melinda Mae, Me-Stew, Monsters I've Met, My Beard, My Hobby, No Difference, Nobody, Outside Or Underneath, Peckin', Picture Puzzle Piece, Prehistoric, Quick Trip, Ridiculous Rose, Rock And Roll Band, Sick, Signals, Smart, Squishy Touch, Stone Telling, The Dragon Of Grindly Grun, The Farmer And The Queen, The Flying Festoon, The Generals, The Little Boy And The Old Man, The One Who Stayed, The Silver Fish, The Sitter, The Toad And The Kangaroo, The Worst, The Yipiyuk, Thumbs, Tryin' On Clothes, Twistable, Turnable Man, Warning, Whatif, Wild Boar, With His Mouth Full Of Food, Zebra Question.
Haffkine found Daniel driving a beer truck in Nashville, TN and produced his debut album.
People magazine named it the Best Album of the Year, Top 15 in all classes of music and that it delivered a masterpiece cover of the Elvis song, ‘Love me'.