George Cummings Obit

George H. Cummings Jr.

 

He was not on the list.

George H. Cummings, Jr., 86, of Toms River passed away peacefully on Saturday, December 14, 2024, at home. George was born and raised in Meridian, Mississippi and graduated from Meridian High School. Later on, he graduated from Livingston State with a bachelor's degree. George was a proud Veteran who served in the United States Marine Corps. George was a founding member of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.

George was a musician at heart. He also was featured in the Sports Illustrated having played for one of the toughest coaches. Most importantly, his 3 grandsons were his pride and joy.

Darryl Vincent and the Flares was formed in Meridian, Mississippi in 1956, and Cummings joined the group in 1959.

In the 1960s, Cummings was a member of the Chocolate Papers, along with Ray Sawyer, Bill Francis, Bobby Dominguez, Popeye Phillips, and Jimmy "Wolf Cub" Allen. The Chocolate Papers toured clubs in Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, before settling in Biloxi as the house band at the popular 800-seat Gus Stevens Restaurant, the first Gulf Coast supper club to offer upscale entertainment with such headliners as Elvis Presley, Andy Griffith, Mel Tormé, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van Doren. The Chocolate Papers moved to Chicago, but Cummings soon decided to form his own band in the New York area

Cummings found fame with Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, the group he named and founded in Union City, New Jersey in 1968. He invited former Chocolate Papers bandmates Ray Sawyer, Billy Francis, and Popeye Phillips to join his new band (Phillips left to join The Flying Burrito Brothers before the band achieved success, and Francis rejoined Cummings shortly after Locorriere joined.) Cummings brought the nineteen-year-old Dennis Locorriere into the band as a bass player. While playing the Bandbox club in Union City, the owner asked George what the name of his band was, and on the spur of the moment, he wrote down "Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, Straight from the South, serving up Soul Music".

In 1978, at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, he collaborated with the legendary Delta bluesman Big Joe Williams on one of the singer's last albums, The Final Years: Big Joe Williams. Co-produced by Cummings, Joe B. Stewart, and Ken Hatley, this album was released in 1993 by Gitanes Jazz/Verve.

In 2003, Cummings worked with Ken Hatley on the soundtrack for Florida City, a film drama about advance knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack.

In the spring of 2004, the Flares were reborn in Lebanon, Tennessee when Cummings joined original members Jim Pasquale (guitar) and Norman "Knobby" Lowell (drums), along with Nashville singer-songwriters Scotty Cothran, Harold Hutchcraft, Jack Bond, and Forest Borders, to cut the comeback album, It Is What It Is.

In September 2005, Cummings began recording a solo CD, working with Pasquale and Hutchcraft.

They recorded their debut album for CBS/Columbia in 1970, and sold a million copies of their single, "Sylvia's Mother," when it was re-released in July, 1972.

He is predeceased by his parents, and sister, Barbara.

George is survived by his wife of 51 years, Patricia Cummings; sons, Justin and Brad; his cherished daughter-in-laws, Alysse and Beth; beloved grandsons, Tyler, Drew, and Cooper, and nieces, Wendy and Babette.

A service will be announced at a later date.