Livin' on the Fault Line is the seventh studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by the American rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band The Doobie Brothers

The Doobie Brothers

The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...

, released in 1977. It is one of the few Doobie Brothers albums which did not produce a hit (although "You Belong to Me" was a hit as recorded by co-author Carly Simon). Still, the album received modest critical acclaim. Tom Johnston (guitar, vocals) left the band early in the sessions. He is listed as part of the band (appearing in the inside group photo) but appears on little or none of the actual album. Much of this consistently mellow album has a jazz tinge, and the influences of R&B are palpable throughout. The track "Little Darling (I Need You)" is a remake of a Marvin Gaye hit.

Track listing

1. "You're Made That Way" (McDonald, Baxter, Knudsen) – 3:30
2. "Echoes of Love" (Simmons, Patrick Mitchell, Earl Randle) – 2:57
3. "Little Darling (I Need You)" (Holland-Dozier-Holland
   Holland-Dozier-Holland
   Holland–Dozier–Holland is a songwriting and production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr. They are considered to be one of the greatest songwriting teams in popular music...
   
   ) – 3:24
4. "You Belong to Me
   You Belong to Me (The Doobie Brothers song)
   "You Belong to Me" is a song written by American singer-songwriters Carly Simon and Michael McDonald. Originally recorded by the American rock group The Doobie Brothers for their seventh studio album, Livin' on the Fault Line , the song was made famous by Simon herself when recorded for her seventh...
   
   " (Carly Simon
   Carly Simon
   Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
   
   , McDonald) – 3:04
5. "Livin' on the Fault Line" (Simmons) – 4:42
6. "Nothin' But a Heartache" (McDonald) – 3:05
7. "Chinatown" (Simmons) – 4:55
8. "There's a Light" (McDonald) – 4:12
9. "Need a Lady" (Porter) – 3:21
10. "Larry the Logger Two-Step" (Simmons) – 1:16

Personnel

The Doobie Brothers:

• Patrick Simmons
  Patrick Simmons
  Patrick Simmons is an American musician best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the rock band The Doobie Brothers. His fingerstyle guitar playing complements the strumming style of Tom Johnston. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he has been the band's only consistent member throughout their tenure...
  
   - guitar, vocals
• Jeff Baxter
  Jeff Baxter
  Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s...
  
   - guitar, steel guitar
  Steel guitar
  Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
  
  
• Michael McDonald
  Michael McDonald (singer)
  Michael McDonald is a five-time Grammy Award winning American singer and songwriter. McDonald is known for a soulful baritone singing style and a multi-octave range. He began his career singing back-up vocals with Steely Dan...
  
   - keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , vocals
• Tiran Porter
  Tiran Porter
  Tiran Porter is a American bass and guitar player, vocalist and composer. Born September 26, 1948, he graduated from Leuzinger High School in Hawthorne, CA in 1966...
  
   - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , vocals
• Keith Knudsen
  Keith Knudsen
  Keith Knudsen was an American rock drummer, vocalist and songwriter.-Career:Knudsen was born in Le Mars, Iowa. He began drumming while attending Princeton High School in Princeton, Illinois, where he graduated from in 1966...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  
• John Hartman
  John Hartman
  John Hartman is a U.S. drummer who was a co-founder and original drummer of the Doobie Brothers. At the band's inception, Hartman was the sole drummer. However, in late 1971, the group added second drummer Michael Hossack, and the dual-drummers formation has persisted ever since...
  
   - drums

Additional Players:

• Bobby LaKind
  Bobby LaKind
  Bobby LaKind was a conga player, vocalist, songwriter and occasional live backup drummer with The Doobie Brothers. He was originally a lighting roadie for the band...
  
   - congas, vocals
• Dan Armstrong - electric sitar
  Electric sitar
  An electric sitar is a kind of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the traditional sitar...
  
   solo on "Need A Lady"
• Norton Buffalo
  Norton Buffalo
  Norton Buffalo was a singer-songwriter, country and blues harmonica player, record producer, bandleader and recording artist best known as a versatile exponent of the harmonica, including chromatic and diatonic....
  
   - harmonica
  Harmonica
  The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
  
   on "There's A Light"
• Victor Feldman
  Victor Feldman
  Victor Stanley Feldman was a British jazz musician, best known as a pianist.-Early history:...
  
   - vibes
  Vibraphone
  The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
  
   on "Livin' On The Fault Line"
• Rosemary Butler
  Rosemary Butler
  Rosemary Butler began her career playing bass and singing in an all-girl band named the Ladybirds. The band appeared on several LA area television shows before opening for the Rolling Stones in 1964. She then joined all-female hard rock band Birtha who released two albums for Dunhill Records...
  
   - backup vocals on "Little Darling (I Need You)", "You Belong To Me", and "There's A Light"
• Maureen McDonald - backup vocals on "You're Made That Way"
• Ted Templeman
  Ted Templeman
  Ted Templeman is an American record producer.-Career:He began his career in the mid 1960s in the Santa Cruz area as a drummer in a band called The Tikis. At the suggestion of Lenny Waronker, the group decided to change their name. Harpers Bizarre was born in 1966, with Templeman switching to...
  
   - percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  

Production

• Producer: Ted Templeman
• Engineer: Donn Landee
• Art direction: Bruce Steinberg
• Photography: Bruce Steinberg
• Cover design: Bruce Steinberg
• Conductor: Bobby LaKind
• String arrangements: David Paich
  David Paich
  David Frank Paich is a session musician, keyboard player, recording producer, arranger, vocalist and main composer of the Los Angeles-based rock/pop band Toto. David is the son of the late jazz composer, musician, and arranger Marty Paich...
  
  
• Horn arrangements: David Paich

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1977	Pop Albums	10

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1977	"Echoes of Love"	Pop Singles	66
1977	"Little Darling (I Need You)"	Pop Singles	48