Songfacts®:

• Mötley Crüe bass player Nikki Sixx wrote "Dr. Feelgood" about his various drug dealers, and yes, he had more than one. Every member of the band was into drugs during their rise to fame in the '80s, but Sixx went especially hard. In December 1987 he overdosed and was pronounced clinically dead, but was revived when paramedics were able to bring him back to life.
  
  The band didn't tour at all in 1988 so they could focus on music and sobriety. Instead of writing sappy songs about recovery, Sixx channeled his addictions and his near-death experience into blazing rockers that were the first two singles from their 1989 Dr. Feelgood album: the title track, followed by "Kickstart My Heart."
• Nikki Sixx didn't make up the title: "Dr. Feelgood" was a controversial doctor named Max Jacobson, who was the subject of a 1972 New York Times exposé. Jacobson, who was 72 by then, gave amphetamine injections to many celebrities, including President John F. Kennedy, according to the story. After the story came out, the media dubbed him "Dr. Feelgood."
• Crüe Guitarist Mick Mars came up with the main guitar part and melody line for the chorus, which Sixx put words over. Those two were the primary songwriters in the band.
• Lead singer Vince Neil looked back at this song to Rolling Stone in 2009: "I knew it was a classic from the time I heard that very first 'bomp bomp bomp bomp' - that intro just kind of grabs you. This song has been popular for 20 years. It was funny because I was watching VH1 and they had the Greatest Hard Rock Songs and 'Feelgood' was 15 or something. I was like, 'Wow, of all time.' Then you have Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith and AC/DC and 'Feelgood.' I was like, 'Wow, that's cool.' It's our signature song in some ways."
• The album was produced by Bob Rock, who recorded it with the band in Vancouver, which helped keep them out of trouble. Nikki Sixx had a different set of lyrics for "Dr. Feelgood" when the sessions started, but Rock made him change them.
  
  "It had a whole different theme to it," he told Rolling Stone. "It was called 'Dr. Feelgood,' but a whole different thing lyrically. In the end it was inspired by drug dealers. Is there ever just one? A good drug addict always has more than one dealer."
  
  Sixx says he still has the original lyrics.
• Aretha Franklin released a song called "Dr. Feelgood" in 1967; hers is about how she doesn't need a doctor giving her pills because her man gives her the medicine she needs. There was also a song called "Doctor Feel-Good" in 1962 by Dr. Feelgood & The Interns. That one is about a guy who likes his women 400 pounds.
• The band reached its peak popularity with Dr. Feelgood, which became their only #1 album and stayed on the chart for 109 weeks. It was their fifth album, continuing a steady rise staring with their debut, Too Fast for Love, in 1981.
  
  They were a relatively sober Crüe when Dr. Feelgood was released, but they didn't get along very well. As they made the rounds touring and doing promotions, Vince Neil agitated his bandmates so badly that they fired him in 1992. Drummer Tommy Lee left in 1999, but the classic lineup reunited in 2004.
• "Dr. Feelgood" is the second song on the album, following a 42-second track called "T.n.T. (Terror 'n Tinseltown)" that serves as an intro, with the sounds of sirens and a police dispatch calling in an overdose from a "17-year-old male." In that context, "Dr. Feelgood" is a flashback, explaining how this guy got his drugs and what happened to him. It shows that the band wasn't trying to glamorize drugs but give an honest account of the rush and the consequences.
• Wayne Isham directed the music video, which alternates between shots of seedy drug dealers and the band performing in various locations, always with fire. Isham also directed their video for "Girls, Girls, Girls."