In a time when album rock took over the radio airwaves, the Doobie Brothers were a mainstream rock group that were still more of a singles band. I haven't checked, but I'd bet a stack of Franklins that The Best Of The Doobie Brothers is still far and away their best selling album (and that record didn't even include most of the Michael McDonald hits). But being a singles band obscured the fact that in their prime, they had lots of great album cuts with little filler.

What Doobie Bros. aficionados would call "prime" depends on their preference of Tom Johnston or the aforementioned McDonald, but it sure seemed they were a constant hit factory from "Jesus Is Just Alright" up through "Takin' It To The Streets." 1973's The Captain & Me is their best release from that prime era, as solid of a MOR rock album as there ever was.

As tempting as it is to gush all over The Captain & Me, it's the only slightly weaker follow-up from the following year that deserves a rare spotlight. What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits is one of those records I became very familiar with growing up and still sounds great more than 32 years later.

This record encapsulates all that many people liked about the pre-McDonald Doobies: an accessible mixture of boogie rock, country, soul, jazz and R&B. Vices is filled with tight, top-notch musicianship and strong, varied songs contributed primarily by either Johnston or fellow guitarist/vocalist Patrick Simmons.

For those not familiar this record, the first question might be, what hits did it spin off? The record label had intended for Johnston's soulful, melancholy "Another Park, Another Sunday" to be it, but deejays around America soon flipped the single over and played Simmons' swampy backwoods ditty "Black Water" instead, becoming the Brothers' unlikely first ever chart topper. Maybe it's because the charm of "Black Water" had long worn off on me due to saturation, but I favor "Sunday" and think it remains one of Johnston's strongest compositions ever. His Stax-style "Eyes Of Silver" with its Memphis Horns was another crack at the pop charts, but fell short. A shame, because it contains some of the DB's distinct ensemble rhythm guitar playing and some fine vocal harmonies.