The Doobie Brothers

With Tom Johnston gone from the lineup because of health problems, this is where the "new" Doobie Brothers really make their debut, with a richly soulful sound throughout and emphasis on horns and Michael McDonald's piano more than on Patrick Simmons' or Jeff Baxter's guitars…

Platinum Collection gathers 16 tracks spanning the Doobie Brothers career and includes chart-toppers like "Listen to the Music," "Minute by Minute," "Black Water," and "What a Fool Believes," mixed with lesser heard album cuts. This isn't a definitive overview by a long shot, but it's a decent sampler featuring the original recordings…

The Doobies team up with the Memphis Horns for an even more Southern-flavored album than usual, although also a more uneven one. By this time, Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons, and company had pretty well inherited the mantle and the core (and then some) of the audience left behind by Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Fogerty, with Johnston songs like "Pursuit on 53rd Street," "Down in the Track," and "Road Angel" recalling pieces like "Travelin' Band," while Simmons' "Black Water" (their first number one hit) evoked the softer side of the "swamp rock" popularized by CCR…

It's a Doobie delight as members of the veteran group's different eras convene for Rockin' Down the Highway, a 20-song concert recorded in '96 mainly in New York…

The Doobie Brothers' third long-player was the charm, their most substantial and consistent album to date, and one that rode the charts for a year. It was also a study in contrasts, Tom Johnston's harder-edged, bolder rocking numbers balanced by Patrick Simmons' more laid-back country-rock ballad style. The leadoff track, Johnston's "Natural Thing," melded the two, opening with interlocking guitars and showcasing the band's exquisite soaring harmonies around a beautiful melody, all wrapped up in a midtempo beat – the result was somewhere midway between Allman Brothers-style virtuosity and Eagles/Crosby & Nash-type lyricism, which defined this period in the Doobies' history and gave them a well-deserved lock on the top of the charts. Next up was the punchy, catchy "Long Train Runnin'," a piece they'd been playing for years as an instrumental – a reluctant Johnston was persuaded by producer Ted Templeman to write lyrics to it and record the song, and the resulting track became the group's next hit.

Extended Versions culls ten live tracks from the Doobie Brothers 1996 reunion show Rockin' Down the Highway: The Wildlife Concert. A similar distillation of the live show appeared on 1999's Best of the Doobie Brothers Live, a 14-track version of Rockin' Down the Highway. Hardcore fans will opt for the original, while casual listeners will most likely gravitate to one of the myriad studio collections, rendering both budget-priced renderings more or less obsolete.