Tag Archive for: Takin’ It to the Streets

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Doobie Brothers- Takin’ It to the Streets 50th- Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald

The fact that the Doobie Brothers reinvented themselves for their March 1976 album "Takin' It to the Streets"  is quite widely known, but the reasons for the musical shift, and the manner in which they made it work so successfully, is a fascinating back-story worthy of an HBO mini-series.. On the album's 50th anniversary, Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, & Michael McDonald are all here In the Studio to recall how it really went down.
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Doobie Brothers- Minute by Minute- Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald

Even though my guest Tom Johnston sang and wrote their early hits "Listen to the Music" and "Long Train Runnin' ", and guest Michael McDonald did likewise on million-sellers "Takin' It to the Streets","It Keeps You Runnin'", & Grammy winners "What a Fool Believes" and"Minute by Minute", it is  guitarist/singer/songwriter Pat Simmons around whom the 25+ members have always rotated.
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Doobie Brothers- Minute by Minute- Michael McDonald, Pat Simmons, Tom Johnston, John Hartman

Back when the Doobie Brothers' Minute by Minute album was released in December 1978, I wasn't aware of the following Hollywood maxim, but the band's Warner Bros. record label apparently was. A little-known showbiz PR secret to which no one in…