{"id":1098,"date":"2019-09-23T22:31:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T02:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2019-10-29T20:15:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T00:15:07","slug":"its-still-easy-to-celebrate-celebrate-dance-to-the-music-with-three-dog-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/its-still-easy-to-celebrate-celebrate-dance-to-the-music-with-three-dog-night\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s still easy to celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music with Three Dog Night"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Danny<\/a>

Danny Hutton, left, co-founding member of Three Dog Night, belts out one of the band’s classic hits Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, at American Music Theatre in Lancaster, PA, while bandmate David Morgan looks on.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

When I was a teenager in the mid-1970s, there were three songs I played over and over: \u201cSister Golden Hair\u201d by America, \u201cChina Grove\u201d by the Doobie Brothers, and \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song\u201d by Three Dog Night.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, those three bands have always been \u2014 and remain to this day \u2014 among my favorite bands. I still turn those songs up when they come on the radio.<\/p>\n

And although I\u2019ve seen America and the Doobie Brothers live several times, I\u2019d never seen Three Dog Night in person, until this past weekend.<\/p>\n

After 52 years \u2014 Three Dog Night formed in 1967 with founding members Cory Wells, Chuck Negron and Danny Hutton on lead vocals; Jimmy Greenspoon on keyboards; Joe Schermie on bass; Michael Allsup on guitar; and Floyd Sneed on drums \u2014 time has taken it toll. Wells, Greenspoon and Schermie have died; Sneed has retired from public performing; and Negron has been a solo act since 1986 and has appeared in recent years on the Happy Together tour.<\/p>\n

That leaves Hutton and Allsup to carry on the legacy of Three Dog Night. And admittedly, I had wondered if those two founding members, along with the band members they added to form the current version of Three Dog Night, could pull it off and take me back to those teenage years with those wonderful songs.<\/p>\n

It seemed to me that it was possible that today\u2019s Three Dog Night could be a few dogs short.<\/p>\n

I am happy to report that is not the case. Three Dog Night sounds just like it did on all those great records they made from 1968 to 1976. The \u201cnew\u201d guys \u2014 David Morgan on vocals, Paul Kingery on bass and vocals; Pat Bautz on drums; and Howard Laravea on drums \u2014 complement Hutton and Allsup quite nicely.<\/p>\n

I was interested to see what lead vocals Hutton would take on. He had sung lead on \u201cLiar,\u201d a No. 7 hit in 1971; and \u201cBlack and White,\u201d which was No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart in 1972.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Sept. 22, at the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, PA, Hutton stayed in his familiar lane, although he did pick up the lead on \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song,\u201d one on which he had originally been targeted to share lead vocals with Negron. But it didn\u2019t work out that way.<\/p>\n

According to interviews that I did with Hutton for The Vinyl Dialogues, by the middle of 1971, things were really crazy for Three Dog Night. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/a>

Michael Allsup, original guitarist for Three Dog Night, leans into his guitar at Sunday night’s show.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

The two studio albums the band released in 1970 had done well. “It Ain\u2019t Easy,\u201d <\/i>which would make to to No. 8 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, featured two Top 20 hits, \u201cMama Told Me Not to Come,\u201d a cover of a Randy Newman song he had originally written for Eric Burdon\u2019s (vocalist for the Animals) first solo album in 1966, with Wells on lead vocals, that got to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart; and \u201cOut in the Country,\u201d written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and No. 15 on the Hot 100 singles chart. <\/span><\/p>\n

And “Naturally”<\/i> would continue the string of hit albums, making it to No. 14 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on the strength of another No. 1 single, \u201cJoy to the World,\u201d written by Hoyt Axton; \u201cLiar,\u201d written by Russ Ballard, which made it to No. 7 on the Hot 100 singles chart; and \u201cOne Man Band,\u201d written by Billy Fox, Tommy Kaye and January Tyme, which checked in at No. 19 on the Hot 100 singles chart.<\/p>\n

And now it was time to get back into the studio and work on the next album, titled \u201cHarmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust when we started \u2018Harmony<\/i>,\u2019 out of nowhere, \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 took off like a rocket,\u201d said Hutton. \u201cIt was six weeks at No. 1. It was crazy. We thought it was some fluke the first week and then it just stayed there forever. And before that song went back down the charts, then \u2018Liar\u2019 became a hit. All of a sudden it was a crazy period.\u201d<\/p>\n

In mid-1971, between \u201cNaturally\u201d<\/i> and \u201cHarmony,\u201d<\/i> the band released the album \u201cGolden Bisquits<\/i>,\u201d a compilation of hits from the band\u2019s first four studio albums.<\/p>\n

But the groundwork laid with \u201cNaturally\u201d<\/i> provided a fertile environment for the band to kick it up a notch in the creativity department for \u201cHarmony<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talked about doing the [Harmony<\/i>] album, we talked about that. It was time to kind of expand and just really get into way more intricate tracks, not just be limited by being a four-piece band so we could do everything live. We said let\u2019s just get crazy and creative,\u201d said Hutton.<\/p>\n

So that was the plan for “Harmony”<\/i> when it came to production and arrangements \u2014 crazy and creative.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarmony<\/i>,\u201d released in late December 1971, featured two songs that cracked the Top 10, \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song,\u201d another Paul Williams-penned tune with Negron on lead vocals, which charted at No. 4; and \u201cNever Been to Spain,\u201d another Hoyt Axton-written song, which charted at No. 5, with Wells on lead. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The two remaining original members of Three Dog Night, Michael Allsup, left, and Danny Hutton.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

On the strength of those two songs \u2014 and \u201cThe Family of Man,\u201d written by Williams and Jack Conrad, which just missed being a third Top 10 hit, checking in at No. 12 \u2014 the album itself reached No. 8 on the charts.<\/p>\n

The band members had a feeling that \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song\u201d was going to be a hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you well know, there is my version, somebody else\u2019s version, and then the truth,\u201d said Hutton. \u201cWhat I remember about that song is that we\u2019d have these listening sessions with a bunch of demos. And that was one we heard and all went, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutton recalls that he had to leave town at one point during the recording sessions for \u201cHarmony<\/i>,\u201d and when he returned, Negron had finished recording the lead vocals for \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally what I remember was that Chuck and I were going to take turns singing leads on verses. But I came back and Chuck had done all the verses. He said, \u2018Oops, you weren\u2019t here, man. I think it works better with just me.\u2019 But we didn\u2019t have the outtro for that song. So I arranged that part,\u201d said Hutton.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a surprise to Hutton that \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song\u201d hit big. Songwriter Williams had been on a roll in the early 1970s, having written hit singles for the Carpenters \u2014 \u201cWe\u2019ve Only Just Begun\u201d in 1970 and \u201cRainy Days and Mondays\u201d in 1971.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul Williams at the time was so hot with the Carpenters, so that didn\u2019t hurt when the deejays looked at the album and saw his name on the song, they went, \u2018Whoa, let\u2019s check this out,\u2019\u201d said Hutton. \u201cWe wanted to be a rock band. But once in a while you do something like that and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my God.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Negron\u2019s version of the story isn\u2019t much different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard \u2018An Old Fashioned Love Song,\u2019 the publishers weren\u2019t really that hot on it because they had Paul Williams writing with different people and he was very successful,\u201d said Negron. \u201cThis was the first time he had written by himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I said, \u2018Play it for me, I want to hear it.\u2019 I heard it and I said, \u2018Hey, this is a good song.\u2019 And I recorded the lead vocals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearing Hutton finally get the lead on \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song\u201d some 48 years after it was recorded didn\u2019t diminish one of my favorite songs at all. And as a shoutout to the current version of the group, the members did an a cappella version of a new song during the encore called \u201cPrayer of the Children\u201d that was absolutely incredible. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the time we got to the last song of the evening \u2014 \u201cJoy to the World\u201d \u2014 I had made my way down to the stage. Even after all these years and a different lineup, it was still quite easy to celebrate, celebrate . . . dance to the music.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>

From left to right, David Morgan, Michael Allsup and Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a teenager in the mid-1970s, there were three songs I played over and over: \u201cSister Golden Hair\u201d by America, \u201cChina Grove\u201d by the Doobie Brothers, and \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song\u201d by Three Dog Night. Not surprisingly, those three bands have always been \u2014 and remain to this day \u2014 among my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":1156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23,285],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-american-music-theatre","tag-three-dog-night"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}