Tuesday marked the 50th anniversary of the release of The Doobie Brothers' single "Long Train Running" from their third album, ‘The Captain and Me’ in 1973.
It went on to become their first Top 10 song, peaking at #8 on the chart. During a recent interview, Randy Bachman talked of a similarity between the Doobies' song and one of his songs from Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
He said, "I can also tell when somebody rips me off. Listen to the intro of 'Long Train Runnin'' by the Doobies. When I wrote 'Let it Ride' it was in the dressing room in New Orleans with The Doobie Brothers and I'm showing Fred [Turner] [SFX] ... well they took the [SFX] and it became 'Long Train Runnin'.' We're sharing. We're franchising the riff."
Doobie Brothers singer-guitarist Tom Johnston once commented on the classic “Long Train Running.” He said, “We played it for a long time before we were signed — we had that song together. We didn’t have the words and I ended up writing the words that are on the record after we cut the tracks for the album. We didn’t even put it on the first and second album, it wasn’t on until the third one. I didn’t think it was worth recording at the time, I just thought it was too simple and so what. And [producer] Teddy [Templeman] thought it was a good song. He says, ‘C’mon, man, it’s a good song, let’s record it.’ And surprisingly enough, everybody really liked it. It’s not that I didn’t like the song, I just didn’t think it was anything outstanding. But what do I know?”
[Source: Classic Hits Today]