Minute by Minute by Doobie Brothers

Minute by Minute, the Doobie Brothers' eighth studio album, hit the shops on Warner Bros. on December 1, 1978, with Ted Templeman producing, and by now the San Jose rock band had been thoroughly remade in Michael McDonald's image. McDonald, who had come aboard in 1975 with a love of soul music, brings the keyboards and that smoky, pleading voice to the front, and drummer Keith Knudsen and company follow him into sleek, jazzy, blue-eyed soul.

"What a Fool Believes" is the jewel, and it went all the way to the top of the Hot 100 in April 1979 and became their biggest hit ever, with the title track and "Depending on You" also reaching the top 30. The album hung on the Billboard 200 for 87 weeks and won a Grammy for best pop vocal group performance, while the single took Song and Record of the Year. It was the last Doobies record with Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, and John Hartman's last until Cycles.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.