“Doctor’s Orders” is a song written by Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway and Geoff Stephenswhich, in 1974, was a hit in the UK for Sunny of Sue and Sunny; in the US the song was a hit for Carol Douglas.

The American version of “Doctor’s Orders” was recorded for Midland International who ran an ad in Showbiz magazine specifically to recruit a singer to cover Sunny’s UK hit for the US market: the successful applicant, Carol Douglas, was a veteran performer who had remained an unknown recording artist.

Douglas recalled when she first auditioned she was told “I sounded great, but too black. [The track’s] producers wanted to capture my more melodic pop/commercial tones which undeniably made me sound white on the radio.”^[5] Although Douglas admitted to reservations about the song itself – (quote) “I really [would have] wanted a more soulful song” – she’d also recall “I felt the minute I heard the music that it was going to be something, and after hearing my voice on the track it was even more amazing…[It] did throw me off when they played me the [Sunny] version. So I had to approach [singing the song] in my own way.”^[6]

Douglas’ version, recorded at Groove Sound Studio in New York City, was produced by Meco Monardo but because of contractual complications the production credit was assigned to Midland International vice-president Ed O’Loughlin.^[7] One of the players on the session was guitarist Jerry Friedman who, according to Monardo, invented the “bubble guitar” effect of “playing on a single muffled note” which became a trademark of disco music, as did the “gallop” effect provided by Carlos Martin pounding the conga with his fists. Wiki