Three Dog Night
Suitable for Framing

Zero original songs among the eleven on Three Dog Night’s first, self-titled album. Only two (out of ten) on this second one, released in 1969, with the three frontmen appearing alone on the cover, without their four backing instrumentalists. The first on the left is Danny Hutton, of Irish descent, with a slightly hoarse and very powerful vocal tone. The one below is Cory Wells, the most exuberant and tenor-sounding of the trio, historically the most favored as the lead singer. The last one on the right with the mustache is Chuck Negron, my favorite, a wonderful tone and the right amount of irony in his style.

“Feeling Allright” opens the album, sung alternately by each, it’s the Dave Mason song from Traffic, covered a bit later also by Joe Cocker and Grand Funk Railroad… Uhm, I still prefer the wild Grand Funk version to all the others. “Lady Samantha” that follows had just been the first attempt at success by the then twenty-two-year-old and completely unknown Elton John; Negron handles the lead vocals, but the artistic “nose” is shared by all of them, wisely betting on a thoroughbred who would soon break out of the paddock and launch an irresistible, fantastic career.

“Dreaming Isn’t Good for You” is the first non-cover original by the band, written and sung by Hutton—neither good nor bad. The slow rhythm & blues “A Change Is Gonna Come” features Cory Wells tackling the difficult role of Sam Cooke, the author and great interpreter, four years earlier. It acts as a prelude to the highlight of the whole album, a stunning rendition of Laura Nyro’s “Eli’s Coming”: this time the play between the three voices is nothing short of sparkling, unstoppable, unforgettable, and ultimately irreplaceable in their concerts.

The record has now really taken off and keeps the momentum with the well-known ballad “Easy to Be Hard”, the original coming from the soundtrack of the musical “Hair”, sung by co-star Sheila; the Three Dog Night lead for the occasion is Chuck Negron. “Aint That a Lotta Love” by Memphis soul musician Homer Banks is a blazing rhythm & blues a’la Wilson Pickett, brilliantly screamed at the top of his lungs by Cory Wells. This little gem will also be covered by Sam & Dave, Flying Burrito Brothers and, by the late eighties, even Simply Red.

“King Solomon’s Mines” is again an original song, but it’s simply a timpani + percussion showcase, plus some background vocal wails; in fact, it’s credited solely to drummer Floyd Sneed, a handsome black man. Right after, Danny Hutton—particularly prominent on this album—returns as lead on the next-to-last, easily skippable “Circle for a Landing” by Don Preston.

Absolutely not to be skipped, on the other hand, is the grand finale “Celebrate”, again with all three voices taking turns at center stage, one verse each, then weaving plenty of harmonies and counter-harmonies in the sunny chorus that repeats the title several times. It’s one of those songs that, from here on, they’ll perform live at every show, thanks to its positive and infectious energy—and, for once, instead of covering their colleagues… they simply commission the track from songwriters Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon.

As good old Billy Joel once said to the entire, packed Madison Square Garden about twenty years ago, while they were inducting him into the American “Hall of Fame”: “I’m nothing but a derivative writer and performer, but if you excluded all the derivative musicians from this Hall of Fame, there wouldn’t be a single white artist left on the list!”. So imagine Three Dog Night, who don’t even really try, or almost, to recycle the great music invented by Black people and instead prefer to fish directly in their catalogue, or recycle the first “white” derivations, in order to put together a strong collection.

But they do it well, and with splendid, enthusiastic voices that convey a particular sense of joy: Three Dog Night are anything but seminal, but they are ultra enjoyable.