{"id":844325,"date":"2026-09-11T17:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844325\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:04:10","slug":"on-this-day-in-1974-a-radio-station-put-a-doobie-brothers-b-side-in-heavy-rotation-and-helped-them-score-their-first-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844325\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1974, a Radio Station Put a Doobie Brothers B-Side in Heavy Rotation and Helped Them Score Their First No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day (September 11) in 1974, WROV-AM in Roanoke, Virginia, began playing the Doobie Brothers<\/a>\u2019 \u201cBlack Water\u201d in honor of the Blackwater, a tributary of the Roanoke River. The song became a regional smash hit and soon began to spread. Later, it became the Doobies\u2019 first No. 1 single. Before it grew organically, no one in the band\u2019s camp believed it could be a hit.<\/p>\n

The Doobie Brothers released \u201cAnother Park, Another Sunday\u201d as the lead single from What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits in March 1974. \u201cBlack Water\u201d was the B-side. The A-side peaked at No. 32, and the band kept pushing forward. They released \u201cEyes of Silver\u201d as the album\u2019s next single. Then, they reissued \u201cNobody\u201d from their self-titled album.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

How \u201cBlack Water\u201d Became the Doobie Brothers\u2019 First No. 1<\/p>\n

The top-40 station WROV-AM started playing \u201cBlack Water\u201d on September 11, 1974. It was an immediate hit with locals, who began calling to request it. Before long, nearby WQRK started playing the song, too. It continued to spread from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a story that could have happened back then, but never would ever, ever happen now,\u201d Doobie Brothers frontman Tom Johnston told Songfacts<\/a>. \u201cRoanoke, Virginia, picked that tune up and started playing it in heavy rotation. Somebody in Minneapolis, who I guess knew somebody in Roanoke, heard the song and decided to follow suit,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt ended up being our first No. 1 single.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, news of the track\u2019s regional popularity got to Warner Bros. Records. They issued \u201cBlack Water\u201d as a single, backed with \u201cSong to See You Through,\u201d in October 1974. It reached the top of the Hot 100 in March 1975.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I first heard it was No. 1. We were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and we were just getting ready to go on stage,\u201d Johnston recalled. Their manager, Bruce Cohn, delivered the news. \u201cI think we were already aware of the fact that it was getting airplay, but nobody was really paying a lot of attention. Then, all of a sudden, it became No. 1, and we were paying attention,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: On This Day in 1975, the Doobie Brothers Hit No. 1 for the First Time With a Song Later Covered by Garth Brooks]<\/a><\/p>\n

Guitarist Patrick Simmons wrote and sang lead on \u201cBlack Water.\u201d When the band learned that the song had topped the Hot 100, they rushed to congratulate him. It was their first single on which Simmons sang lead, making the moment even bigger for him.<\/p>\n

Featured Image by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (September 11) in 1974, WROV-AM in Roanoke, Virginia, began playing the Doobie Brothers\u2019 \u201cBlack Water\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,2617,88,216,141418],"class_list":["post-844325","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\/844325","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=844325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}