ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Doobie Brothers, best known for the 1970s and '80s hits “Listen to the Music,” “Long Train Runnin’,” “Black Water” and “What a Fool Believes,” will return to the Lehigh Valley, it has been announced.
The group, with four classic-lineup members, including its two singers, will perform at 8 p.m. Sept. 28 at Allentown’s PPL Center.
Tickets, at $39.50 to $520, will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 24, at the PPL Center website and at 610-347-TIXX.
But a special presale will begin Wednesday.
The Doobie Brothers will perform with singers Tom Johnson and Michael McDonald, and guitarists Pat Simmons and John McFee at the center.PPL Center website
The Doobie Brothers were scheduled to play at PPL Center for the group’s 50th anniversary tour in June 2020, but the show was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Doobies will perform with singers Tom Johnson and Michael McDonald, and guitarists Pat Simmons and John McFee at the center.
That lineup reunited in 2021 after nearly 25 years apart — and never before then had both Johnson and McDonald shared the stage.
'Listen to the Music' to 'What a Fool Believes'
The Doobie Brothers in the 1970s had more than a dozen Top 40 hits and sold 20 million albums.
The group released its self-titled debut album in 1971, but had its first hit with its sophomore album, 1972’s “Toulouse Street,” which went platinum and produced the hits “Listen to the Music,” “Jesus Is Just Alright” and “Rockin’ Down the Highway.”
It followed with two double-platinum discs, 1973’s “The Captain and Me” and 1974’s “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits.” Those discs, which both went Top 5, had the hits “Long Train Runnin’,” “Black Water” and “China Grove.”
The group’s lead singer, Tom Johnson, left in 1977 and was replaced with Michael McDonald, with whom the band found new success and its best-selling studio album.Doobie Brothers history
The group’s lead singer, Johnson, left in 1977 and was replaced with McDonald, with whom the band found new success and its best-selling studio album — the triple-platinum, No. 1 “Minute By Minute” in 1978.
That disc had hits with the title track and the No. 1 “What a Fool Believes.” That song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, beating out “Minute By Minute,” which also was nominated.
The album won for Pop Vocal Performance by a Group and was nominated for Album of the Year.
A history in the Lehigh Valley
In all, the band has had 11 albums that sold gold or platinum. Its 1976 “Best of the Doobies” went 10 times platinum.
McDonald left for a successful solo career and the group disbanded 1982-87, but reformed with Johnson in 1987. It had its last Top 10 hit, “The Doctor,” in 1989.
Its last charting album was “Southbound,” which hit Top 20 in 2014. Its most recent album, 2021's "Liberté," which failed to chart. It also released six live albums and eight compilations.
The Doobie Brothers have made the Lehigh Valley a frequent stopping point on its tours.
The band headlined Sands Bethlehem Event Center, now Wind Creek Event Center, on its 45th anniversary tour in 2016, and on a co-bill with Peter Frampton in 2014.
It also played the main stage of Bethlehem’s Musikfest festival in 2010, Easton’s State Theatre in 2009 and 2001, Allentown Fairgrounds (in non-fair show) in 1989 and ’82 and the fair in 1980 and Muhlenberg College in 1978.
