Clay Patrick McBride; Rob Arthur
Clay Patrick McBride; Rob ArthurThe Doobie Brothers have teamed up with Peter Frampton, remotely, for a new cover of the classic 1970 Eric Clapton song “Let It Rain,” and the veteran rockers also have created a socially distanced video for the tune.
The new version of the song features Doobie Brothers singer/guitarists Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons, and Frampton each singing a verse. Johnston, Frampton, Simmons and Doobies multi-instrumentalist John McFee also all take turns delivering guitar solos.
Johnston explained to Rolling Stone how the collaboration came about.
“A couple of months ago, Peter and I were going over various tunes after deciding to do a song or video together,” Tom said. “I tossed out ‘Let It Rain’ by Eric Clapton and he loved the idea. He’s a phenomenal guitarist and a fan of Clapton’s, as am I, so it seemed a great idea to take to the rest of the guys.”
Tom added, “Peter, Pat, and I took verses and solos and John played some cool pedal steel and helped us put that together with Bill Payne on piano, John Cowan on bass, and Ed Toth on drums. Also Rob Arthur who did all the video work played B3. It was a team effort! We really enjoyed working together on this with Peter.”
Meanwhile, Frampton said of the collaboration, “It was so much fun playing with my friends the Doobie Brothers even virtually! I look forward to a time when we can, hopefully, play together in person.”
The “Let It Rain” video features footage of Frampton and the various Doobie Borthers members playing their parts separately. You can watch the clip at The Doobies’ official YouTube channel.
Clapton co-wrote “Let It Rain,” which originally appeared on his self-titled 1970 debut solo album, with singer Bonnie Bramlett.
By Matt Friedlander
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