We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
There were few more successful bands in the early 70’s than Three Dog Night. The LA based band had 21 Top 40 hits from 1969 to 1975 with three hitting #1.
1971 was a big year for the group that featured three different lead vocalists. Early in the year they released a track from their 1970 LP “Naturally” as a single. “Joy to the World” soared to #1 and became one of the most iconic pop tunes of the decade. They also released a Greatest Hits LP in the spring of 71 called “Golden Bisquits”. And then in September came their latest studio LP titled “Harmony”
It was an interesting record if you dug past the hits. The band’s choice of material was pretty varied and strong. They didn’t write most of their own stuff but relied on some pretty good songwriters for their albums. Harmony features songs from Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Paul Williams & Hoyt Axton (who also wrote “Joy To The World”). They also give new spins to songs that were earlier recorded by Marvin Gaye and the Bay Area hippie band Moby Grape.
Here’s Joni’s original of Night In The City
Here is how the band arranged it
And the hits kept coming….”Never Been to Spain”…”An Old Fashioned Love Song”…and “The Family Of Man” all hit the charts with the first two going Top 10. The album also included a band written song simply called “Jam” which lets the guys kick back a bit.
Cory Wells, Chuck Negron and Danny Hutton shared the lead vocal job. They sang well and harmonized sweetly. The backing band was better than you probably remember. Jimmy Greenspoon on keyboards, Joe Schermie on bass and Floyd Sneed on drums…and Michael Allsup on guitar. Allsup does some fine work on the LP…check out the solo on “My Impersonal Life” and on the Moby Grape cover “Murder In My Heart For The Judge”.
Three Dog Night wasn’t a hip band. But they knew what people wanted to hear on the radio and kept it coming for longer than most
