The first decent #1 song of 1979. Decent, not great. Fortunately, some great #1’s are just around the corner. I agree with Dawg above. I was a Doobie Brothers fan, and much preferred the Tom Johnson Doobies as opposed to the Michael McDonald Doobies. But, there is no question that it was a successful move by the band. In terms of record sales, my guess is that the McDonald Doobies sold more records than the Johnson Doobies. Fun fact: This is one of two 1979 #1 songs to feature Doobie Brothers guitar wiz Skunk Baxter. I wonder what that other song that could be?
You owe it to yourself to listen to their most recent best-of comp. There's a LOT of good stuff from all three eras of the Doobies. I say three eras because they came back in 1989.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've been doing this with some 70s/80s acts and I put them on my list. This is the compilation you're talking about, right?
I remember when "The Doctor" hit the top ten, a columnist in Billboard observed that it was their fifth top ten hit, and followed that with "You thought they had more than that, didn't you?" I certainly did!
It's out there - I see somebody posted it. Saw that when it was first aired and laughed myself silly. They nailed it! Pretty sure I had a single of this one, but it might have been an oldie by the time I picked it up. I seem to recall owning "Minute by Minute" as well, which might have been the flipside of the oldie...
I prefer the Doobies before Michael McDonald, but this is a pretty good piece of pop craft. It sounded really good on the radio back in the spring of 1979. One of those songs where on first listen you knew it was going to be a big hit. But, after hearing it a few too many times it loses it's pop mojo and never regains it, no matter how much time goes by.
Yeah, I prefer the earlier Doobies, too, though What a Fool Believes, which hit No. 1 my senior year in high school, is a good song.
If you create such a thread, please notify us. Would be highly interesting. Agree on your choices on 2 separate bands. Chicago in particular.
Wanted to post this earlier, but have been out of town on business and for pleasure. Substitute, as recorded by Clout, is a great song. I only learned Substitute scored this well internationally (but not so much in the U.S.) just minutes ago: "....In 1978, South African band Clout reached #2 in the UK, #1 in Germany and the top 3 in many other European countries with a remake of 'Substitute' by The Righteous Brothers. It only went to #67 in the US...." I heard it (briefly) on a major Top 40 FM station in my area and loved it. Those stations often played new songs, even if they hadn't cracked the Top 40. Today, most commercial FMs won't touch songs until they're in the Top 10 or so, and even if a song hit No. 7 or so, like You Better You Bet did by Pete Townsend, some won't play it (or only played it a little, as happened at another major Top 40 FM back then). This began in the early 80s, it seems.
Are you thinking of "Let My Love Open the Door", which hit #9? "You Better You Bet" was credited to The Who and didn't make the top ten.
And he was wild about the studio version of ' Coming Up '. He was pissed that the record company released a live version of it. Sorry about jumping the gun in mentioning ' Coming Up '
You're probably thinking of Pete Frame, a UK writer whose family trees have been featured in books as well as boxed set liner notes, etc. I seem to remember he once did a tree that contained a member of one of the latter day lineups of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, so he tongue in cheek said the guy came from Bluesbreakers Lineup #496 or something. "What A Fool Believes" brings back good memories of when I was 7 years old in 1979. It was one of those "right song at the right time" songs. A year or two later it would've been too dated.
The Eric Clapton tree (not sure where I saw it) is one I remember as being particularly long. The early part of his career has branches leading to Led Zeppelin, Traffic, the aforementioned Bluesbreakers. It even was like that in his solo years because he kept changing his band every few years.
Yeah, I know. I hear enough commercial FM radio in stores, restaurants, doctor's offices, hair cut places, etc. 15 commercials in one break? No thanks. Amazing with all the frequencies, commercial FM (or AM) can't find room to program music for those over 50 years of age. Perfect example: KOMA-FM in Oklahoma City. The FM oldies station a decade or so ago gave-up on 60s oldies. Now, it's nothing before 1975. Their 50kw AM signal, KOKC-AM, goes all over the Midwest at night. A wasted signal which could program 60s-70s oldies, appealing to its longtime listeners (who were use to listening to the AM mono signal at night), instead programs dull as a doughnut talk radio. The same syndicated programs aired in every single other market. What a waste.
