listen

Sunday Classics: 'Listen to the Music' by The Doobie Brothers

Tune in to this ebullient song as it completes half a century

Are you ready to ‘dance the blues away’?

Listen to the Music is the Doobie Brother’s first mega hit and has gone down in time as one of the greatest additions to the rock genre. This tantalizing track is featured on their second album — Toulouse Street — and was written by Tom Johnston in 1972. The troupe's line up comprised Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons on the guitar and vocals, Michael McDonald on the keyboard and John McFee on the guitar, pedal steel, violin and backing vocals.

As the story goes, the number was written imagining a world where music inspired the world’s leaders to put aside their mundane differences and work towards making the world a better place together — a Utopian concept no doubt, but if anything has the power to make this happen, it's music. Peppy, woody and fleet-footed, the song has a melody that makes for the perfect first song at live concerts and The Doobie Brothers made the most of it, opening every tour de force with their charming chart-buster!

“Don't you feel it growing, day by day
People getting ready for the news
Some are happy, some are sad
Whoa, gotta let the music play.”

^{_{- Lygeia Gomes}}