Whether billed as Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, or later with the shortened moniker of just Dr. Hook, the band released a total of 12 chronologically issued "long playing" (LP) vinyl albums of mostly new material, from 1972 through 1984. This does not include Ray Sawyer's 1978 solo album, of which many songs were also later offered as Dr. Hook tracks on other albums and/or as 45 rpm single releases. The first ten Dr Hook albums were offered in the U.S. and abroad, with the last two (The Rest of Dr. Hook, and Let Me Drink From Your Well) never having been released in the States at all. During those same 12 years there was one Live album, several foreign and domestic compilations, as well as foreign versions of their U.S. albums. In the time since then, there have been an almost limitless quantity of renamed variations or other compilation packages, especially since CDs came of age. The amount of available Dr. Hook albums has been growing exponentially since the mid 90's, and there are now well over 100 Dr Hook CDs to be found around the world, yet several of their albums still have not been released to CD!

As Dr. Hook moved among the three record labels they recorded on, there were greatest hits packages issued by each previous record company they had left. Thus, though there were technically only about a dozen records of new material up through the band's "one and only final tour" in 1985, there were actually dozens of albums available worldwide by then. This includes foreign issued, renamed, or compiled albums, such as The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan and Sylvia's Mother (both issued in the UK and each containing tracks from the first three Dr. Hook albums), which sometimes confuse collectors and fans, as to exactly what is out there to be found. Add to that the different covers used for same albums, or same names on different records, and it becomes quite confusing indeed. Most every Dr. Hook fan has been frustrated at some time, in trying to find tracks they don't already have, and ending up with some of those same old 30-50 songs that have been issued and reissued time and again.

Eventually we will endeavor to break down every single album, showing where in the world it was released, date, label, tracks, etc. For the time being, I will simply add PHOTOS of different records, as time and opportunity permits. This website is an ongoing proposition and I expect that it will take until at least 2006 to get it near completion! Please keep checking back, and also forward any suggestions, I can't promise to use them, but I'll read 'em! If you own something NOT shown here, please do email me, we may be able to use an image of that item.

In the early days everything issued was in the form of either an LPs, 45 rpm 7" single, 8-Track, or later (micro) cassette tapes. CDs having appeared around the early 80's, they've since become by far the most common media for Dr. Hook albums. One of Hook's last albums, 1982's Players In The Dark was the first Dr Hook album ever released on CD (In Europe, but not in the U.S., as CDs really hadn't hit here yet). There were probably a thousand or more 45 releases worldwide, but rather than bothering to document every little label and track variant 45, I will attempt to show only all of the 45 "picture sleeves" that I can. These picture sleeves are quite interesting to see, and thus make for a more dynamic viewing experience. The archive has approximately One Hundred 7" 45 rpm picture sleeve single images at this time, more than half of which we own actual copies of the records, but there are MANY that we do not own and don't have scans of. Please let me know if you have one or more images not shown here, that you can share with others by way of this site. Cassette tapes, having been about the least expensive way for small guys to be in the record biz, lead to certain albums being released on tape as many as a dozen or more times, and often with quite different tweaks of the cover art. Again, I can not and will not even try to show every slight little label variant, but if it looks different or unusual, I will probably share the images. I believe tapes to number in the 200 different range, and the archives owns about 100 of them, we would love to see scans of ones not already shown. I know for a fact there is a Rising variation with yellow and orange artwork, which we do not have a scan of.