There are so many artists and bands whose names define the \u201960s and \u201970s in terms of what you heard on the radio. Surprisingly, many of them still have not found their way onto the pages of this site\u2014including today\u2019s subject, the three-lead-vocalist attack of Three Dog Night.<\/p>\n
Just saying their name should cause a flood of memories in the minds of anyone over the age of 50. \u201cEasy To Be Hard.\u201d \u201cCelebrate.\u201d \u201cJoy To The World.\u201d And, of course, \u201cOne\u201d\u2014their first big hit that was culled from their 1968 self-titled release (which would later be re-named to the hit song).<\/p>\n
Yet listening to this particular album, one is struck by the feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu\u2014like the song we are listening to is the same one we just heard, only written by a different artist. It\u2019s not unpleasant, but it\u2019s also nothing that would make someone sit up and say these guys were going to be superstars in their day.<\/p>\n
This was a band blessed with three powerful vocalists\u2014Chuck Negron, Danny Hutton and Cory Wells. However, while it is Wells who serves as lead vocalist for eight of the disc\u2019s 11 songs, more often than not it\u2019s Negron\u2019s voice that seems to cut through the backing instrumentation the loudest. And, while Negron sometimes would be seen as the face of Three Dog Night, it does the other two members a disservice.<\/p>\n
After all, it’s Wells\u2019s vocals that try to mimic Otis Redding\u2019s on the disc\u2019s closer \u201cTry A Little Tenderness\u201d (even if this version isn\u2019t nearly as funky as Redding\u2019s). Hutton\u2019s sole lead on a cover of Neil Young\u2019s \u201cThe Loner\u201d isn\u2019t bad, but also isn\u2019t quite as strong. Even the hit single, which Negron begged the label to release, is not Three Dog Night\u2019s best work. One could even argue that leading the album off with this song leaves the remainder of the album at a disadvantage; for those who only know that song, they might expect the remainder of the disc to crackle in the same way. Alas, this is not the case.<\/p>\n
If anything, the tracks tend to flow into each other, with precious little to distinguish one from another. From their cover of Robbie Robertson\u2019s \u201cChest Fever\u201d to their take on Lennon and McCartney\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s For You\u201d\u2014surprisingly the strongest effort here, also the shortest\u2014it\u2019s hard to find anything that makes the listener sit up and declare Three Dog Night to be the second coming.<\/p>\n
The thing is, Three Dog Night<\/i> is not a bad<\/i> album… but it\u2019s also not a good<\/i> one. It simply seems to be the initial calling card for the group (who just happen to have a solid musical accompaniment behind them) with the promise of better things to come. Whether they would deliver on that or not… well, that\u2019s to be determined. They certainly would not hurt for action on the singles charts during their heyday. But to call this one required listening is a stretch; if anything, it\u2019s worth checking out just to hear the birth cries of the band. Just don\u2019t expect lots of fireworks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[11103],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-47218","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-three-dog-night","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47218"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}