Two For Tuesday: #2 (tie) – Three Dog Night (High School Days)

I’ve written about Three Dog Night a lot here. They were the subject of a whole series here, them and the songwriters that wrote their biggest hits, last summer. They had eight top ten songs, including three #1’s, and spent a total of 47 weeks in the top ten, tying them with Elton John for #2 on the list.

Two of their three hits were featured in my earlier post; the third was “Joy To The World,” which spent eleven weeks in the top ten and reached #1 in April 1971.

“Shambala” was released in 1973. It entered the top ten on June 30 and spent six weeks there, peaking at #3 on July 28.

Three Dog Night, your Two for Tuesday, August 22, 2017.

Monday’s Music Moves Me: Three Dog Night Songs By The Original Composers

Last week’s featured artist on Two for Tuesday was Three Dog Night. As I mentioned then, they weren’t known for their songwriting abilities, but for their interpretations of the work of other composers. I thought it might be interesting to feature those composers doing their own songs, and link to 3DN’s version so you can compare. This will be a sort of theme for the next several weeks on 2FT, so sit back and enjoy!

Eli’s Coming – Laura Nyro

Chest Fever – The Band

Out In The Country – Paul Williams

Joy To The World – Hoyt Axton

Shambala – Daniel Moore

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 13, 2016. Be sure to join me starting this Tuesday for the Composers of Three Dog Night’s Hits!

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by X-Mas Dolly, Callie, Stacy, and Naila Moon, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.

Two For Tuesday: Three Dog Night

I got my first stereo in 1970, and went on a buying spree to get myself more albums. One of the albums I bought was Captured Live At The Forum by Three Dog Night. I liked the album so much I recommended it to a friend, and it became his favorite album as well. Not many years later, I was at a user conference where the social event was a “Sock Hop,” with music provided by, you guessed it, Three Dog Night. By that time they had dropped off the Top 40 and were striving to find relevance in a world that had moved on. They were one of the best vocal groups of the late Sixties and early Seventies, and have split up and reunited a couple of times. The only original singer is Danny Hutton (Cory Wells died last year, and Chuck Negron left in the early Eighties), and the backup band has lost keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon in the last year. In all, they have earned twelve Gold albums and 21 Gold singles, primarily covers of songs written by songwriters such as Hoyt Axton, Laura Nyro, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and Leo Sayer. Eleven of those singles reached the Top Ten, with three reaching #1.

Their first #1 single was “Mama Told Me Not To Come,” a Randy Newman composition that also reached #2 in Canada and #3 in the UK in 1970. It was on the album It Ain’t Easy, and it was one of the first singles I bought.

Their last #1 hit was 1972’s “Black And White,” a 1954 composition by David Arkin and Earl Robinson inspired by the Brown v. Board of Education court decision. It had been done previously by Pete Seeger and Sammy Davis Jr. It was from their album Seven Separate Fools and also reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and in Canada, and #8 in Australia.