The Doobie Brothers

There have been plenty of single-disc Doobie Brothers collections released over the years. There have been two-part vinyl Best of the Doobies, there have been budget-line collections, and there have been OK overviews as well as excellent generous discs with all the big hits. There's even been a comprehensive four-disc box, but what there hasn't been is a double-disc set -- something that falls between the conciseness of 2001's terrific Greatest Hits (the first CD to contain all the big hits on one CD) and 1999's four-disc Long Train Runnin' 1970-2000. That's what 2007's The Very Best of the Doobie Brothers is, a double-disc helping of the Doobies' biggest songs from "Listen to the Music" to "The Doctor." Actually, this Very Best stretches a little further than "The Doctor," which arrives five songs from the end, illustrating the point that for the average listener, this may be just a little too generous at 33 tracks. That's a long running time, providing room for all the hits plus a bunch of album tracks that weren't necessarily on album rock radio, so this may be too much for listeners who just want the hits; they should stick to that 2001 Greatest Hits. But for fans who want a lot of the Doobies' best without investing in either the original albums or the box, this Very Best is welcome. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide