Just like a baby’s head, I have a soft spot for Three Dog Night. And just like babies, Three Dog Night records are everywhere. They make you smile, but you sure as shit don’t want to take one home or be next to one on a plane.
The reason I have a guilty pleasure relationship with the ’70s L.A. band is due to the fact that one of their albums — 1974’s Hard Labor — was seemingly orphaned in my childhood home. I have no idea whose record it was — one of my brothers or maybe my sister. I believe it was one which my father brought home from a work trip to Toronto — and nobody wanted it. The thing just kind of floated around and wound up with me. Incidentally, this was common practice in my home. Whenever Dad would go to Toronto on a work trip, he’d ask what record we wanted. If he didn’t get a request from you specifically, he’d just grab one of the new-release albums on display.
Pretty sure that’s where Hard Labor came from, which is weird because — to quote Spinal Tap — it has a rather lurid cover: A woman with a puppet face and chicken feet giving birth to a record. Our copy is the censored version with a big Band-Aid covering the newborn record being held with forceps amidst the woman’s spread chicken legs. Yeah, the ’70s. Lots to look at there, if you’re a kid. I’m surprised Dad bought it.
There’s even more inside the record sleeve, which had a cool insert containing the album’s liner notes — a medical file folder. I read it all, studied it and listened to the record over and over. I knew the band had three lead vocalists and that’s why they were called Three Dog Night. I didn’t learn until years later that the name is derived from the supposed practice of Aboriginal Australians of using dingoes to keep warm at night. Good story, anyway.
I digress. I remember trying to figure out which of the three men sang the songs. Their voices are quite easy to differentiate. My favourite is Cory Wells, whose voice has the most character. That’s him on Mama Told Me Not To Come, Shambala and Never Been To Spain. On Hard Labor, he signs Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues) and Sure As I’m Sittin’ Here. I always loved his squishy voice. Wells died in 2015, in his sleep, after being diagnosed with blood cancer. Though a huge star of the ’70s, he didn’t live a lavish lifestyle and neither drank nor did drugs.
Co-founding lead vocalist Danny Hutton met Wells when he latter was fronting The Enemys, the house band at the Whiskey A Go Go. They met while The Enemys were opening for Sonny & Cher. Hutton couch-surfed at Wells’ place and convinced him to start a band with three lead vocalists. They met future partner Chuck Negron at a Hollywood party and called themselves Redwood. They cut some demos with Brian Wilson (including songs which would eventually wind up done by The Beach Boys), until Mike Love and co. demanded an end to the sessions so Brian could focus on writing hits for his own band.
Negron’s best-known songs include Joy To The World, An Old Fashioned Love Song and One. Hutton didn’t have as many big hits as lead vocalist, but I suppose One Man Band is pretty well-known — it’s quite good. His best-known hit was Black And White.
Anyway, the trio put together Three Dog Night, dominated by members of Wells’ band The Enemys, including Canadian drummer Floyd Sneed, who died in January 2023. It was actually a pretty hot band, but here’s the problem: The only way you’d know that is to actually listen to the albums.
Because I have that childhood attachment to Hard Labor, I automatically forgive its many cringey, dated tracks. I suspect few others would do the same. I don’t claim for a second that it’s a great album — just one I happen to love. I can, however, direct you with confidence to a few of the tracks I’ll stand behind as excellent songs. Most Three Dog Night albums have some — the classic 1969-1975 era ones certainly do.
Three Dog Night are one of those bands with absolutely no albums worth buying — not even their greatest hits. But that doesn’t mean they suck. I contend the weight of their great songs outweighs that of their awful ones, but maybe just barely. You have to go hunting. Like picking raspberries, the good ones are hanging there just out of sight, but you’re gonna get pricked finding them. Oh, and they don’t keep terribly well.
So I made you a playlist to listen to once and delete. Here’s the track list, along with the lead vocalist(s):
Mama Told Me Not To Come (Wells 1970)
Sure As I’m Sittin’ Here (Wells 1974)
Fire Eater (Wells, Hutton, Negron 1970)
Shambala (Wells 1973)
The Show Must Go On (Negron 1974)
Nobody (Wells 1968)
One Man Band (Hutton 1970)
Sitting In Limbo (Hutton 1974)
Woman (Wells 1970)
Chained (Wells, Hutton, Negron 1972)
Jam (Instrumental 1971)
I’ll Be Creeping (Wells 1970)
One (Negron 1968)
It Ain’t Easy (Wells 1970)
Happy Song (Negron 1973)
Chest Fever (Wells 1968)
Joy To The World (Negron 1970)
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
