On February 27th, 1980, The Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes” won both Song of the Year and Record of the Year honors at the Grammy Awards. It was also a Number 1 hit. It took a writing session with Kenny Loggins to turn a cool piano riff and lyrics written on a napkin into a hit song. Former Doobie Brothers singer and keyboardist Michael McDonald says that “What a Fool Believes” was “nothing more than a piano riff for the first year of its life.” He recalls how the events unfolded to get it from there to a completed song.
“I kept playing this piano groove for Ted Templeman, and he kept saying, ‘God, you’ve got to finish that song. I tell you, that’s a hit!’ I kept saying, ‘Well, I just can’t think of anything else to do with it.’ And then on an airplane ride, I came up with some lyrics, and wrote them on a napkin. But I didn’t really write the song until I got together with Kenny Loggins. We were going to get together for the first time to co-write, and he was outside my door, and I was playing that riff thinking, ‘Well, maybe I’ll play him this. Maybe he’ll help me make a song out of this.’ And the doorbell rang, and when I answered it, he didn’t even say hello or anything. He goes, ‘Whatever you were just playing, let’s work on that!'”
