Songfacts®:

• The origin of this song is related in the 1997 biography Down by the Jetty: The Dr. Feelgood Story, by Tony Moon.
  
  It started as a riff by guitarist John Mayo; he played it in a dressing room in Holland to vocalist Lee Brilleaux, then it became an instrumental backing track, then producer Nick Lowe put lyrics to it, although it was produced by Richard Gottehrer.
• Running to around 2 minutes 55 seconds, it is the fourth track on the October 1978 Private Practice album, and was released as a single on the United Artists Records label in January 1979 backed by "Every Kind Of Vice". It is the band's biggest hit, and was inspired by a John Lee Hooker lyric on the same subject; in Hooker's song "It Serves You Right To Suffer," he sings, "Your doctor put you on milk, cream and alcohol." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2