Anyone who listened to music in the 70's knows the name of at least one bullfrog. 'Jeremiah.'
"Jeremiah was a bullfrog" are the first words you hear when playing this 1982 compilation and many casual radio listeners thought that was also the name of the song. Wrong. It's actually 'Joy to the World', one of two songs on this album written by Hoyt Axton. The other is 'Never Been to Spain'.
This 20 track double album has something FOR everyone - written pretty much BY everyone. In fact, some of the songwriters recorded by Three Dog Night basically got their introductions from these recordings. Looking down the track listings is like a who's who of songwriting royalty. In no particular order there's ..
Eli's Coming - Laura Nyro (Vinyl Vault 3 June 2021)
One - Harry Nilsson (Vinyl Vault 7 July 2020)
Mama Told Me Not to Come - Randy Newman
An Old Fashioned Love Song - Paul Williams (Vinyl Vault 31 October 2021)
Easy to be Hard - Hair McDermot/Rado/Ragni (Vinyl Vault 7 June 2020)
Joy to the World / Never Been to Spain - Hoyt Axton
Pieces of April - Dave Loggins
Out of the tracks here, 18 had been released as singles and all of them are standards on any decent rock station. One of my favourites, 'Pieces of April' was written by Dave Loggins, brother of Kenny. Dave also wrote one of the saddest, heart-wrenching songs ever, 'Please Come to Boston.' Oh, brings tears to the eyes just thinking about it. Sadly one of my least favourites is 'One' by one of my most favourite songwriters Harry Nilsson. Go figure.
There's speculation as to where Three Dog Night got their name. There's no dispute that it refers to cold weather and how many dogs you need to sleep against to keep warm. I always thought it was from the Inuits. There seems to be equal argument for it being part of Australian Aboriginal culture, but regardless, the meaning remains the same.
In their heyday of late 60's to mid 70's they were predominately a 7-pce group with vocal duties spread between the three founder members, Danny Hutton, Cory Wells and Chuck Negron. When the three founders first got together they called themselves Redwood and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was going to produce an album for them but after a short period they "didn't meet up to his expectations". After the Brian Wilson fiasco the three primaries gathered up some backing musicians and went from strength to strength.
Danny Hutton is still touring and recording with the band as was Cory Wells until he passed in 2015. Chuck Negron left in 1985 - in fact I think he was asked to jump before being pushed.
This is the golden years of Three Dog Night, familiar songs, no deep and buried album tracks, just well-known singalongs for children of the 70's.
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