Celebrating 50 years in 2021, the Doobie Brothers have sold more than 40 million records worldwide and racked up 16 Top 40 hits. The San Jose, California-based group’s flawless vocal harmonies and seamless blend of folk, country, rock and R&B music shone on tracks like “Black Water”, which topped the U.S. singles chart on this day (March 15) in 1975 and was remade by Garth Brooks in 2013. However, the song that gave the Doobie Brothers their first-ever chart-topper was never supposed to be a single at all.
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How A Virginia Radio Station Helped Lift the Doobie Brothers to Their First No. 1
Released Nov. 15, 1974, the Doobie Brothers initially intended “Black Water” as a B-side of the single “Another Park, Another Sunday.” However, in a true sign of the times, two radio stations helped propel it to the top.
“Roanoke, Virginia picked that tune up and started playing it in heavy rotation, and somebody in Minneapolis who I guess knew somebody in Roanoke heard the song and decided to follow suit,” founding guitarist Tom Johnston told Songfacts in 2009. “And it ended up becoming our first No. 1 single.”
“It Was a Difficult Time”
“Black Water” was lead vocalist Patrick Simmons’ first single with the band. He came up with the riff during recording sessions for the Doobie Brothers’ 1973 album The Captain and Me.
“In between takes for something else, I started playing it,” Simmons later recalled to Guitar Player. “The mic was still live, and our producer, Ted Templeman, heard it. He pressed the talkback and asked, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘It’s just a riff I have.’ He goes, ‘You should write a song with that. It’s catchy.’”
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The song’s lyrics unfolded on a New Orleans streetcar ride. “It was a sunny day, but when I got on the trolley, it started to rain. And yet it was still sunny,” Simmons recalled. “And I’m thinking, I gotta write this down: ‘If it rains I don’t care / Makes no difference to me / Just take that streetcar that’s going uptown.’ That became the second verse of the song.”
While the band loved the song, no one predicted its success. That success came at “a difficult time,” Simmons reflected.
“We were taking every gig, every offer to play, that we could… So when ‘Black Water’ hit, the album took on a new life,” he said. “I wouldn’t have guessed it would happen like that. But I love that it did.”
Featured image by Terry Schmitt/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
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