♫ Three Dog Night Week Grand Finale ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

Well, folks … last day of Three Dog Night Week.  I enjoyed it and I hope you did too … though I know our Brit friends are cheering that it’s over.  I really thought I’d find at least one TDN song they liked, but nope … nary a one!  Anyway, as I’ve done with my last few artist weeks, I’m using this last ‘wrap-up’ day to play a few that I didn’t get to.  Just a short background blurb about each and no lyrics.  So, let’s start off with this one requested by Larry of “just drive will you?”

Never Been To Spain

I had no idea that this was written and initially recorded by Hoyt Axton!  It was originally released on his 1971 LP Joy to the World and later that year performed by Three Dog Night, with Cory Wells on lead vocal.  The lyrics consist of the narrator ruminating about overseas locales that he has never visited, but about which he feels he has some proxy experience, primarily via the music but also due to other presumed highlights found there. He loosely compares his own actual travels to these more worldly spots.

In the final verse, he observes that while he has “never been to heaven”, he has “been to Oklahoma”, where he was told he was born, thus implying a kinship between the two places. Hoyt Axton, who was born in Oklahoma, explained that he originally wrote, “…in Oklahoma, born in a coma….” However, it was considered inappropriate; thus, the lyrics were changed to “not Arizona”.  This one charted at #3 in Canada and #5 in the U.S.

Pieces Of April

Next up is one that was suggested by Keith (musingsofanoldfart).  This one was written and first recorded by Dave Loggins, Kenny Loggins’ second cousin, in 1972 and recorded by Three Dog Night later that year.  Here’s what Loggins (Dave, not Kenny) had to say about the song …

I wrote it at a very special time of my life. Special, because I met the ‘love of my life’ and had recently lost her. By chance, we were together for three consecutive Aprils and then she left me for good. Today, I don’t know where she is or how her life turned out. May is symbolic of the present, April was, and still remains a sweet yesterday. I have never really gotten over ‘April’ and the ‘pieces’ still remain. Those sweet Aprils… It’s my favorite song, too.

An Old Fashioned Love Song

This was written by Paul Williams, an actor in the movies Smokey And The Bandit and The Doors. He was a frequent guest star on TV shows like The Love Boat (he wrote the theme song for that show) and The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. In the first season of The Muppet Show in 1977, Williams was a guest star, and he performed this song.

Says Williams of the song’s inspiration …

I had a date one night with a young lady named Patti Dahlstrom,” he said. “She was a songwriter. We were going to go out and have dinner. And right before I left for the date I had gotten a phone call that I had a gold record. And I walked into her house, and I said, ‘Well, got a gold record for such-and-such, it just went gold. Kid did it again with another old fashioned love song.’ It just came out of me.  I went, ‘Wait a minute.’ I went over to her piano and I sat down, and it’s the quickest I ever had a song come out of me. And it sounds like it. It’s a really simple song, I wrote it in like 20 minutes. And it was a big hit.

This one charted at #2 in Canada, #4 in the U.S., and also did well in Australia and New Zealand, but still no luck in the UK.

Easy To Be Hard

And this is one of my own favourites by Three Dog Night.  It was written in 1967 by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni for the rock musical Hair, and was covered by Three Dog Night on their 1969 album Suitable for Framing.  I love both the music and the lyrics which reflect on the seemingly heartless and cruel nature of people. It questions how individuals can be indifferent towards the suffering of others and highlights how it is easy for them to be cold and callous.

This one, like the last one, charted at #2 in Canada and #4 in the U.S.

And that officially concludes Three Dog Night Week … I’m sure you guys across the pond are breathing a sigh of relief, but I hope the rest of you enjoyed it!

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25 thoughts on “♫ Three Dog Night Week Grand Finale ♫”

  3. Good choices, Jill. I’d honestly also considered suggesting “Celebration” but decided to limit myself. Surprised you don’t like it, but then, we all have songs that turn us off for one reason or another. A friend dispises any song by Rush because she can’t stand the lead singer’s voice. Hugs ‘n cheers

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    • I’m glad you liked the selection. Perhaps if I listened to “Celebration” a few more times it would begin to grow on my, but I only listened once … and it just did nothing for me. As you say, no rhyme nor reason sometimes for what we like or don’t like. Hugs ‘n cheers, dear friend

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  6. Pingback: ♫ Three Dog Night Week Grand Finale ♫ | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  7. Great choice to end the week — Easy to be Hard by Three Dog Night was just one of four songs from the musical Hair that became big Billboard hits, including Aquarius/ Let the Sun Shine in (The Fifth Dimension), Good Morning Starshine (Oliver), and, of course, Hair (The Cowsills).
    As an aside, in your info about Paul Williams, you totally missed probably his most famous production. He wrote the score for and starred in the now “cult classic” movie Phantom of the Paradise which myself and other Winnipegers saved from obscurity in the winter of 1975 and which now has yearly showings all over the world. Phantompalooza is held in Winnipeg every year in honour of Wiinipeg fans, who saw the greatness in the film and refused to let it die. Paul Williams was nominated for an Oscar for Original Film Score for Phantom of the Paradise.
    And finally, Jill, I was hoping you would play Celebrate in your finale menu. I know I added it to your comments early in Three Dog Night Week, but not everyone reads the Comments section. But alas, it was not meant to be. 😒🤥🤥

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