“Listen to the Music” by Doobie Brothers

"Listen to the Music" was the song that finally got the Doobie Brothers through the door, the first big hit of their career, off their second album, Toulouse Street, in 1972. Tom Johnston wrote it, and by his telling the chords just felt hopeful, so the words followed suit: a hippie daydream in which the world's leaders gather on a grassy hill, get stoned or simply sit and listen to some music, and forget all the rest of the nonsense. He later admitted the whole idea was hopelessly utopian.

The record chugs along on bright, rolling guitars, with a banjo tucked into the mix and a swirling flanger that washes over everything from the bridge to the fade. Warner Bros. put it out as a single and it reached 11 on the Hot 100 in November 1972, and a 1994 remix by Motiv8 even got to 37 in the UK.

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