"The Doctor" is a hit single released by

The Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five decades, with their greate ...

on their 1989 studio album, ''

Cycles Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to: Anthropology and social sciences * Cyclic history, a theory of history * Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. * Social cycle, various cycles in ...

''. The song, to date, is the last hit single that the band has released; it reached the number 1 spot on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

mainstream rock chart Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" fo ...

and peaked at number 9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Whitburn, Joel (2004). ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 189. The song was released with a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

that features the band playing to the tune with all of the members present. The video also got significant airplay on the music video channels throughout the US and helped propel the song into the spotlight. Guitarist and founding member Tom Johnston sang the lead vocal, after returning from years of being out of the band after Michael McDonald took over in the mid-1970s. Johnston told Songfacts that he wrote most of the song before the band re-formed when he was in a band called Border Patrol.

Charts

Year-end charts

UK: 73

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doctor, The 1989 singles The Doobie Brothers songs Songs written by Charlie Midnight Songs written by Tom Johnston (musician) Songs written by Eddie Schwartz Song recordings produced by Eddie Schwartz 1989 songs Capitol Records singles Song recordings produced by Rodney Mills