I can't believe this is an 80s music video

The Doobie Brothers were one of the most famous rock bands of the 20th century, but almost all of their hits were in the 1970s. Yet here is one of their music videos, so that requires some explanation.

Tom Johnston formed the Doobies with Patrick Simmons and others in 1970. A year later, they added a second drummer and hit the charts with “Listen to the Music”. After a few years of broad success, Johnston developed health problems that led to emergency hospitalization for a bleeding ulcer in early 1975. Michael McDonald stepped in to complete a tour, then finish the next album, and then influence the direction of the band.

Under McDonald’s leadership, the Doobies produced the Grammy-winning, number one album Minute by Minute in 1978. But McDonald’s more soulful influence left other members complaining that they were just just his backup band, and by the end of 1981, there were no original Doobies left. The group disbanded.

In 1987, a benefit concert brought together many of the early-70s members of the band, including Johnston and Simmons. Demand for tickets was so strong that they turned the concert into a 12-city tour and turned the band into a new, permanent version that returned to that early-70s sound.

From the 1989 album Cycles, here is the Doobies’ last song to hit the Billboard Hot 100, and it only reached 45. But the video’s whip-around, fast-cutting clips of multiple concerts give us a great time capsule of a bunch of guys who once had it all and were happy getting it back together again.