John William Oates (born April 7, 1948) is an American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo, Hall & Oates (with Daryl Hall). Although Oates's main role in the duo was guitarist, he also co-wrote many of the top 10 songs that they recorded, including (with Hall): "Sara Smile" (the song refers to Hall's then-girlfriend, Sara Allen), "She's Gone", and "Out of Touch", as well as (with Allen and Hall): "You Make My Dreams", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", "Maneater", and "Adult Education". He also sang lead vocals on several more singles in the Hot 100, such as "How Does It Feel to Be Back", "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (a remake of the 1965 song performed by the Righteous Brothers that was written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil), on which Oates shared lead vocals with Hall, and "Possession Obsession" (with Allen & Hall). Especially in the duo's 1970s output, the songwriting on the albums was usually very evenly divided, with Oates writing many of the tracks on his own along with many co-written songs. And on "Daryl Hall & John Oates" - released in 1975 and the duo's first top-20 album - most of the songs were co-written, along with two songs by Oates and one by Hall, making it the only album where Oates is credited on more songs than Hall. In 1986, Oates contributed the song "(She's the) Shape of Things to Come" on the soundtrack to the 1986 film, About Last Night. Oates also co-wrote and sang backup on the song "Electric Blue", recorded by the Australian band Icehouse, which was a Billboard top 10 hit. He also co-wrote, produced and sang duet with the Canadian group the Parachute Club on the 1987 song "Love is Fire" which was a top 30 hit in Canada. Oates played the character "Dirty D" in episode two of series one of the eponymously named comedy TV series Garfunkel and Oates. Oates was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, and in 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of Hall & Oates. His memoir, Change of Seasons, was published in 2017.

Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show (shortened to Dr. Hook in 1975) was an American rock band, formed in Union City, New Jersey. They enjoyed considerable commercial success in the 1970s with hit singles including "Sylvia's Mother", "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" (both 1972), "Only Sixteen" (1975), "A Little Bit More" (1976), "Sharing the Night Together" (1978), "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" (1979), "Better Love Next Time" (1979), and "Sexy Eyes" (1980). In addition to their own material, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show performed songs written by the poet Shel Silverstein. The band had eight years of regular chart hits in the United States, where their music was played on top-40, easy listening, and country music outlets, and throughout the English-speaking world including the UK, Canada and South Africa. Their music spanned several genres, mostly novelty songs and acoustic ballads in their early years, though their greatest success came with their later material, mostly consisting of disco-influenced soft rock, which the band recorded under the shortened name Dr. Hook. The founding core of the band consisted of three Southerners, George Cummings, Ray Sawyer (from Alabama), and Billy Francis (born William Allen Francis, Jr. in Sacramento, California; January 16, 1942 – May 23, 2010), who had worked together in a band called the Chocolate Papers. They had played the South, up and down the East Coast, and into the Midwest before breaking up. Cummings, who moved to New Jersey with the plan of forming a new band, brought back Sawyer to rejoin him. They then took on future primary vocalist, New Jersey native Dennis Locorriere, at first as a bass player. Francis, who had returned south after the Chocolate Papers broke up, returned to be the new band's keyboardist. When told by a club owner that they needed a name to put on a poster in the window of his establishment, Cummings made a sign: "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul." The "Hook" name was inspired by Sawyer's eyepatch and a reference to Captain Hook of the Peter Pan fairy tale, although, humorously, Captain Hook was neither a doctor nor wore an eyepatch. Ray Sawyer had lost his right eye in a near-fatal car crash in Oregon in 1967, and thereafter always wore an eyepatch. The eyepatch would mistakenly lead some people to believe that Sawyer was 'Dr. Hook'. When anyone asked the band which one of them was 'Dr Hook' they always directed everyone to the bus driver.