THREE DOG NIGHT
by RICH ARITHMETIC
Ed. Note: This lightly-edited post originally appeared on June 4, 2024, in the 1980’s Cassette Culture Blog
Yes, yes. I know. I know. You’ve heard the damn song a million times. “Jeremiah was a bullfrog.” And you might be as sick of it as I am, particularly because that piece of fluff makes it easy to ignore what a really good band Three Dog Night was, featuring three soulful lead singers whose gospel-influenced harmonies sometimes made you think they were “singing in the Heavy Church,” as one their album cuts put it. And, damn, the band itself was a powerhouse section themselves, creating heavy arrangements that always gave substance to the songs the band was covering, which were written by a virtual Who’s Who of the emerging rock songwriter class of the late Sixties — Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Laura Nyro, Clint Ballard, and even Otis Redding.
And here’s sonic evidence of how tight the band was when allowed to stretch out a bit on their own without the vocals — a piece of acid-tinged heaviness with a touch of proto-funk and a middle-eight that suggests an early flirtation with prog.