35 Years Of
Howling Out The Hits…
THREE DOG NIGHT
by Ernie Thomas
Whether an
early break-through tune like 1969’s “Easy To Be Hard” from the
hippie-era “Hair” stage play; a mid-period AM radio staple like
1971’s “Old Fashioned Love Song”, or a later number like 1975’s
“‘Til The World Ends” –– the Three Dog Night song catalog is rife
with songs that trigger memories for a lot of people.
“We crossed
musical boundaries. We had hits that were rock, pop, easy listening and
country,” exclaimed group co-founder Danny Hutton, one of the
three co-lead vocalists –– along with Cory Wells and Chuck
Negron –– who pushed 21 consecutive hits into the national Top 40
and the American consciousness between 1968 and 1975, selling sold over
50 million records worldwide in the process.
“We were
‘cross over’ before the term ‘cross over’ even existed,” Hutton. Three
Dog Night were also the first commercially successful rock band to
utilize multiple lead singers, beating out Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
by a full year.
Still
recording and touring, Three Dog Night hit Chicago’s House Of Blues on
March 6 to support their newest album, The 35th Anniversary Hits
Collection, recorded at England’s Abbey Road Studios with the
London Symphony Orchestra.
“It’s the
one thing we had never done that we had always talked about one day
doing,” explained Hutton of why they chose to re-record their hits with
the LSO.
The new
album is rounded out by a handful of live tracks culled from the group’s
brand new 80-minute companion concert DVD, “Live With The
Tennessee Symphony Orchestra.”
Today’s
incarnation of Three Dog Night consists of Hutton and Wells, along with
original band members guitarist Michael Allsup and keyboardist
Jimmy Greenspoon. “Chuck [Negron] has not been with the band for
over twenty years,” reminded Hutton, sidestepping any of the negative
vibes that caused the group to first disband in the late 1970s and again
in the early 1980s after a brief reunion.
“Never say
never,” said Hutton, when asked if he and Wells would ever consider
reuniting with the now clean and sober Negron. “We’ve been doing this
[incarnation of the] band for a long time now. We’re doing well and very
happy with things as they are, but we would never rule anything out.”
Three Dog
Night formed in 1967 after Hutton and Wells, both aspiring solo pop
artists, met while on a Sonny & Cher tour. Negron, ultimately was
brought on board as the third voice of the group, but was not their
first choice.
“We were
trying to get Billy Joe Royal, who I’d never met, but who had that great
high voice,” continued Hutton. Danny Whitten (later of Crazy Horse) was
another they had unsuccessfully tried to woo. “Things happen for a
reason. Who knows how things would have turned out if we’d not taken
the path we had. I’m happy things ended up the way they did.”
Hutton said
Three Dog Night has a debt to the Chicago. “We used to play all those
little dances that used to happen all over the city and in the suburbs
in the late ‘60s...those ‘Wild Goose’ shows (produced by
legendary Chicago DJ Dex Card) really got us going nationally.”
Three Dog
Night in turn, were responsible for helping to expose some of the
brightest young songwriters of their era, by tapping the songbooks of
such then unknown talents as Randy Newman (“Mama Told Me Not To
Come”), Laura Nyro (“Eli’s Coming”), Paul Williams
(“Old Fashioned Love Song”), Leo Sayer (“The Show Must Go On”),
John Haitt (“Sure As I’m Sitting Here”), and Russ Ballard
(“Liar”).
The person
most indebted to Three Dog Night for kick starting his career was the
late country artist, Hoyt Axton, whose composition, “Joy To The
World,” went on to become the consummate wedding reception song.
Axton had
originally penned “Joy To The World” for a never screened
children’s television show and was reluctant to have the rock group
record the song. That silly ditty about “Jeremiah the bull frog...”,
ultimately became the best-selling single of 1971 and the biggest hit of
the Three Dog Night’s career.
That
career, now well into its fourth decade, finds Three Dog Night, still
howling out their hits to audiences world wide who clamor to have their
youthful memories rekindled by such AM radio staples as –– “Pieces of
April,” “The Family Of Man,” “One”, “Black And White”, “Never
Been To Spain”, and others.
Hutton is
keenly aware that fans flock to shows to hear the old hits, but he sees
Three Dog Night as more than just a six-man juke box band, so they
continue to record and perform new material as well.
The
35th Anniversary hits Collection features two brand new
numbers, which are included in the live show, including the one Hutton
sings lead on, “Sault Ste. Marie,” which is an earthy
Americana-flavored song that stands well against the group’s impressive
catalog songs.
Hutton’s pipes are
still strong and the ban definitely still has their musical chops,
notably Allsup, whose guitar riff in that particular new tune is aking
to that of a Spaghetti Western
“If you
record new songs, you need to play them when you perform so that people
hear them or what’s the point,” noted Hutton, who feels the two new
songs are every bit as good their catalog material.
“I don’t
ever want to stop doing this,” concluded Hutton, eager to leave behind
the heavy rains and mud slides of Southern California. “I still love
performing as much as I ever did.”
THREE DOG NIGHT
perform their intimate “An Evening With…”
show at Chicago’s House of Blues on Sunday, March 6 at 9pm
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