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Pop, Rock, Blue-eyed-soul

The Doobie Brothers

The Doobie Brothers had two distinct phases during their 1970s peak, evolving from boogie rockers with a penchant for mellow good vibes into a smooth blue-eyed soul outfit. Subsequent reunions and decades as a successful live attraction blurred the divide between the rambling "Black Water" and funky "What a Fool Believes," the band's two number one hits on Billboard. The Doobies racked up numerous other hits in both incarnations, songs that wound up as classic rock perennials. "Listen to the Music," "Long Train Runnin'," and "China Grove" were early-'70s hits all written and sung by Tom Johnston, the guitarist who was slowly replaced as frontman by Michael McDonald, a husky-voiced keyboardist who wrote and sang "Takin' It to the Streets," "It Keeps You Runnin'," and "Minute by Minute," along with "What a Fool Believes." McDonald was drafted into the Doobies to help support the ailing Johnston and he wound up steering the band toward slick, soulful soft rock -- the kind of music that would retroactively be dubbed "yacht rock." McDonald's hits with the Doobie Brothers propelled him into solo stardom and he'd re-enter the band's orbit after the group reunited with Johnston as the frontman in 1989. They would continue to tour with a rotating lineup into the 2020s, with the core trio of Johnston, John McFee, and Patrick Simmons -- the guitarist who wrote and sang "Black Water," the one constant member in the band's history -- recording the occasional album of new material, such as 2021's Liberte. The roots of the Doobie Brothers lie in Pud, a short-lived California country-rock band in the vein of Moby Grape featuring guitarist/vocalist Tom Johnston and drummer John Hartman. After Pud collapsed in 1969, the pair began jamming with bassist Dave Shogren and guitarist Patrick Simmons. Eventually, the quartet decided to form a group, naming themselves the Doobie Brothers after a slang term for marijuana. Soon, the Doobies earned a strong following throughout Southern California, especially among Hell's Angels, and they were signed to Warner Bros. in 1970. The band's eponymous debut was ignored upon its 1971 release. Afterword, Shogren was replaced by Tiran Porter and the group added a second drummer, Michael Hossack, for 1972's Toulouse Street. Driven by the singles "Listen to the Music" and "Jesus Is Just Alright," Toulouse Street became the group's breakthrough. The Captain and Me (1973) was even more successful, spawning the Top Ten hits "Long Train Runnin'" and "China Grove."