{"id":525990,"date":"2026-03-16T01:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T01:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/525990\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T01:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T01:26:10","slug":"on-this-day-in-1975-the-doobie-brothers-hit-no-1-for-the-first-time-with-a-song-later-covered-by-garth-brooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/525990\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1975, the Doobie Brothers Hit No. 1 for the First Time With a Song Later Covered by Garth Brooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrating 50 years<\/a> 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\u2019s flawless vocal harmonies and seamless blend of folk, country, rock and R&B music shone on tracks like \u201cBlack Water\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n

How A Virginia Radio Station Helped Lift the Doobie Brothers to Their First No. 1<\/p>\n

Released Nov. 15, 1974, the Doobie Brothers initially intended<\/a> \u201cBlack Water\u201d as a B-side of the single \u201cAnother Park, Another Sunday.\u201d However, in a true sign of the times, two radio stations helped propel it to the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoanoke, 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,\u201d founding guitarist Tom Johnston told Songfacts<\/a> in 2009. \u201cAnd it ended up becoming our first No. 1 single.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt Was a Difficult Time\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack Water\u201d was lead vocalist Patrick Simmons\u2019 first single with the band. He came up with the riff during recording sessions for the Doobie Brothers\u2019 1973 album The Captain and Me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn between takes for something else, I started playing it,\u201d Simmons later recalled<\/a> to Guitar Player. \u201cThe mic was still live, and our producer,\u00a0Ted Templeman, heard it. He pressed the talkback and asked, \u2018What is that?\u2019 I said, \u2018It\u2019s just a riff I have.\u2019 He goes, \u2018You should write a song with that. It\u2019s catchy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Behind the Band Name: The Doobie Brothers]<\/a><\/p>\n

The song\u2019s lyrics unfolded on a New Orleans streetcar ride. \u201cIt was a sunny day, but when I got on the trolley, it started to rain. And yet it was still sunny,\u201d Simmons recalled. \u201cAnd I\u2019m thinking, I gotta write this down: \u2018If it rains I don\u2019t care \/ Makes no difference to me \/ Just take that streetcar that\u2019s going uptown.\u2019 That became the second verse of the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the band loved the song, no one predicted its success. That success came at \u201ca difficult time,\u201d Simmons reflected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were taking every gig, every offer to play, that we could\u2026 So when \u2018Black Water\u2019 hit, the album took on a new life,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have guessed it would happen like that. But I love that it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Terry Schmitt\/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrating 50 years in 2021, the Doobie Brothers have sold more than 40 million records worldwide and racked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,2617,88,216,141418],"class_list":["post-525990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1970s","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-the-doobie-brothers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}