I went back and forth on whether to go through with my plans to post What A Fool Believes in the wake of the Bourbon Street terrorist attack. Once it became clear that the terrorist acted alone, I felt a mild sense of relief and decided to go for it. Besides, it’s a perky song and we all could use some perking up right about now.
The featured image is of The Doobie Brothers on the ABC sitcom What’s Happening in 1978. Befitting a band with a new sound, they were reaching out to a new audience, hence the appearance on a show aimed at Black folks. I’ll post the episodes as part of tomorrow’s third act. It’s a fitting place to do so as What A Fool Believes was the Saturday Odds & Sods theme song on 11/11/23.
Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald wrote What A Fool Believes in 1978. Loggins recorded it first but it’s the Doobie Brothers version that became a monster hit and Grammy winner.
We begin with the co-writer:
You couldn’t go anywhere after the Minute By Minute album was released without hearing this tune:
Aretha Franklin. Say no more.
It’s supergroup time. The Dukes of September consisted of Boz Scaggs, Donald Fagen, and the co-writer of this week’s tune, Mike McDonald.
Dionne Warwick with a 21st Century version of the Loggins-McDonald classic:
Finally, the songwriters live:
What would the Friday Cocktail Hour be without instrumental versions of the week’s tune? This time, the Earl Reeves Quartet followed by Spyro Gyra.
That’s it for this week. Let’s drink to the survivors of the New Orleans attack. It’s what Danny Barker, Dr. John, and Pete Fountain would want. Never argue with them.
