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!