Doobie Brothers

The Doobie Brothers rolled out of San Jose in 1970, and on Toulouse Street and The Captain and Me they sounded like a band built for open windows and long stretches of blacktop. Tom Johnston sang lead and drove the guitars, Patrick Simmons worked the other flank, and the harmonies stacked up high enough to make "Listen to the Music", "Rockin' Down the Highway" and "China Grove" sound effortless: mainstream rock with a folkie's ear, a streak of country and a backbeat lifted straight off an R&B record.

Then the ground moved. With Johnston battling health problems in 1975, the band drafted Michael McDonald on keyboards and vocals, and his love of soul pulled them somewhere else entirely. Takin' It to the Streets, the one album where Johnston, Simmons, bassist Tiran Porter and McDonald all shared the lead mic, catches the handoff mid-stride. By 1977 Johnston was gone, and Minute by Minute put McDonald's smoky blue-eyed soul front and center; "What a Fool Believes", which he wrote with Kenny Loggins, carried off Grammys for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

The lineup kept churning, and in 1982 the whole thing folded, with Simmons the lone player who had been on every record. Five years later they were back with Johnston restored, McDonald came home for good in 2019, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened the door the following year. Along the way Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummers John Hartman, Michael Hossack and Keith Knudsen all put in long, sweaty shifts.

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