For those who grew up in the 1970s, radio didn’t let you forget about The Doobie Brothers’ hit “China Grove.” It was all over the airwaves in the summer and fall of 1973, and it quickly became a staple of album-oriented rock stations for years to come. It wasn’t just the ubiquity of “China Grove” that made it memorable. The story sung by Doobies vocalist Tom Johnston is both vivid and bizarre in its details.
It’s easy to imagine that Johnston spent a great deal of time crafting his story about a small, gossip-ridden Texas town with a Samurai-wielding sheriff. It did take him a while to get around to writing lyrics for the song that became “China Grove,” but once he got the inspiration for the story, the images and words came quickly. The process Johnston underwent to get to that point was just as unpredictable as the song’s setting.
Lyrics Inspired by a Piano Riff
Johnston sets up his tale with the opening lines When the sun comes up on a sleepy little town / Down around San Antone. Bordering San Antonio to the east is a sleepy little town called China Grove. However, Johnston’s account is not based on the real China Grove. In fact, he has said in multiple interviews he wasn’t even aware that the town actually existed when he wrote the song.
It would be reasonable to assume that Johnston must have known about China Grove and then constructed a story about a place that is part Texan and part Asian. In actuality, Johnston started with the story and then later added the town name to the song. Even before Johnston constructed the story for “China Grove,” he wrote the chords. Then when The Doobie Brothers started to record the song—still with no lyrics—session keyboardist Billy Payne (of Little Feat) added the piano part that falls right in the middle of the bridge section. According to Payne, producer Ted Templeman repeatedly said he thought the bluesy lick sounded “Chinese.”
Johnston now had a concept for “China Grove’s” story, playing off of Templeman’s comments. As he noted in an interview for Songfacts, Johnston wrote the lyrics “around this whole idea of this wacky little town with a sheriff that had a Samurai sword and all that sort of thing.” However, aside from the refrain, the song doesn’t contain any references specific to China. The lyrics make only general references to “the East” or “the Orient” and, of course, a weapon of Japanese warriors.
Not Entirely a Coincidence
It seems like an incredible coincidence that Johnston would write a song about a specific small town near San Antonio without actually knowing about it. It wasn’t until a Houston cab driver told Johnston about the real China Grove in 1975 that he realized he may have known about the town after all. Upon being informed of the town’s existence, he realized he must have grabbed the song’s title from the deep recesses of his memory. Johnston told Songfacts, “In 1972 we were touring in Winnebagos, and we were driving into San Antonio. And there is a China Grove, Texas, right outside of San Antonio. I must have seen the sign and forgotten about it.”
The Impact of “China Grove”
“China Grove” was the second single to be released from The Doobie Brothers’ third album The Captain and Me, following on the heels of their first Top-10 single “Long Train Runnin’.” It didn’t quite match its predecessor’s success, peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. With more than 150 million streams, it is one of five Doobie Brothers songs that have been played more than 100 million times on Spotify.
Though “China Grove” is undeniably part of the classic rock canon, it has some country crossover appeal as well. Dolly Parton performed a cover of the song on an episode of her mid-’70s variety show Dolly.
Four months after The Captain and Me was released, it became the first Doobie Brothers album to receive Gold certification. It was certified Platinum and Double Platinum in 1986. The Captain and Me reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200, becoming The Doobie Brothers’ first Top-10 album. Its 102-week stay on the chart made it one of only two Doobie Brothers albums (along with Toulouse Street) to spend at least 100 weeks on the Billboard 200.
Perhaps it’s just as well that Johnston didn’t know more about the real China Grove. The Texas town was apparently named after a grove of chinaberry trees, and that would have made for a very different story. The Doobies’ “China Grove” has just the right blend of riffy rock and roll and lyrical intrigue to make it one of the biggest songs from one of the ‘70s most reliable hitmakers.
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