The Doobie Brothers - Best Of The Doobies/Best Of The Doobies Volume II (2LP)

Some greatest hits sets feel like a shrug. Best of the Doobies and Best of the Doobies Volume II feel like a roadmap. Together they trace how a bar-band boogie outfit from San Jose grew into smooth, chart-topping craftsmen without losing the grit that made people crank the stereo in the first place. The first volume landed in 1976 on Warner Bros., when the band’s dual-drummer engine was humming and the Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons guitar blend ruled FM radio. The second followed in 1981, catching the Michael McDonald era at full sail and filling in a couple of earlier omissions. Spin them back to back and it plays like a time-lapse of 70s American rock, from denim and flannel to satin jackets and late-night city lights.

Volume I is the block party. China Grove and Long Train Runnin’ do exactly what they’re supposed to do, built on chugging riffs, handclaps and those stacked harmonies Ted Templeman loved to push forward as producer. Listen to the Music still sounds like the band’s mission statement, a warm invitation with Tiran Porter’s bass gliding under the guitars. Black Water, a Patrick Simmons tune that became their first US No. 1 in 1975, is the curveball that makes the set feel clever rather than obvious. Its swampy shuffle and a cappella tag show off the group’s arranging smarts, and it breaks up the boogie just when you need a river drift.

Takin’ It to the Streets and It Keeps You Runnin’ mark the hinge. Michael McDonald had joined by then, bringing that husky voice and jazz chords from his Steely Dan stint, and the band’s colour palette widened. The groove got sleeker, but John Hartman and Michael Hossack, and later Keith Knudsen on the second kit, kept the pulse human and heavy. Jesus Is Just Alright and Rockin’ Down the Highway nod to the early days when the Doobies sounded like a biker gang with impeccable manners. The sequencing on the first comp is tight. It feels like a gig where every song is a hit and the band never needs to talk between numbers.

Volume II is the night-time half. It focuses on the late 70s run of Minute by Minute and One Step Closer, with Real Love, Minute by Minute, and What a Fool Believes all front and centre. The latter hit No. 1 in the US and took home Grammys for Record and Song of the Year, and you can hear why. It’s feather-light on top, but the rhythm section is spring-loaded and McDonald’s vocal carries a sting. Dependin’ on You, a Simmons and McDonald co-write, has an underrated chorus that sticks around, and Here to Love You and You Belong to Me show the band leaning into R&B without losing their identity. The set also tidies up history by rescuing Another Park, Another Sunday, a Tom Johnston gem that somehow missed the first volume. It sits comfortably among the later material, proof the early songwriter’s melancholy had more range than the riffs alone suggest.

Both compilations pull from sessions Templeman produced, and that continuity matters. Even as the Doobies shifted personnel and mood, the records share a sonic throughline. Guitars have bite but don’t crowd the vocals. Keys and horns slide in without blaring. The dual-drummer thing, a calling card from the start, gives even the slicker tracks a muscular backbone. It’s why these songs survive so many Sunday barbecues and freeway drives. They’re built to last.

On vinyl, these comps shine. The pressings are common enough that crate-diggers in Australia still spot tidy copies, which is handy because this music breathes on an analogue rig. If you’re hunting The Doobie Brothers vinyl, the first Best of the Doobies is almost a rite of passage, the sort of LP a Melbourne record store keeps near the counter because someone asks for it every weekend. Volume II is the one people forget they need until What a Fool Believes hits and the room goes quiet. If you like to buy The Doobie Brothers records online, both are easy pickups, and they sit well alongside other The Doobie Brothers albums on vinyl for a quick primer before you dive into Toulouse Street or Minute by Minute. Collectors who chase Best of the Doobies vinyl often report cleaner cuts of the hits than some later reissues, which is a nice bonus for those of us picky about cymbal sheen and bass bloom.

Greatest hits albums don’t always tell a story. These two do, with hook after hook to make the case. If you’re building a small but mighty stack of vinyl records Australia wide, start here. Then go deeper if you must, and you probably will once that China Grove riff or the satin glide of Minute by Minute does its work.