Three Dog Night coming to Sky City

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

PUEBLO OF ACOMA — Legendary 1960s and 70s rock group Three Dog Night will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday at Sky City Casino Hotel.

Songs such as "Joy to the World," "Black and White" and "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)," all number one hits, are sure to be performed.

Three Dog Night's number of songs that hit the Billboard's Top 40, Top 20 and Top 10 lists is nothing less than impressive.

The group had 21 consecutive Top 40 hits, 19 straight Top 20 hits, 11 Top 10 hits and three number one records in the country. The band also made seven records that sold a million or more as singles and had 12 straight certified gold albums, according to the group's website: "threedognight.com."

Founding band member and lead vocalist Danny Hutton, speaking to the Independent while traveling Thursday afternoon, said the group is currently working on a new album.

"I've done three things, Cory (Wells) has done two. We are fiddling around and going to see what happens," Hutton said. "The songs have to be right before we can do them, and the real point is so many great musicians and singers are only as good as the song is."

Tight harmonies
The band's distinctive sound includes tight harmonies. There is a reason why those songs stand out from the rest of the pack.

"We have three lead vocalists. We put the three lead vocalists together, with a couple of them as backup singers, then bring up the backup singers as loud as the lead vocalist," Hutton said. "You have three guys at the top of the song all the time."

"Even the Motown groups only had one lead singer and two or three backup singers, but stayed with just the one singer up front," he said. "We consider our vocals as our horn section, with everybody as loud as the lead singer. That gives us a big sound."

'Joy to the World'
"Joy to the World," the number one hit was a fluke, Hutton said.

"Hoyt Axton wrote that song, and he had this big baritone voice and was a good entertainer, more than a great singer," Hutton said. "He had written this song as part of a kids' Saturday afternoon or evening show that he presented to the networks and they passed on it. He brought it to us and we listened and I said 'that's a nice song.' It didn't thrill me. But, we agreed to put it on an album we were working on, I can't even remember which album. It was not the first release on the album. But then the public started calling DJs all over the country and then the DJs started playing it and called us."

"We were as shocked as anyone," he said.

Hutton said the group never gets tired of performing "Joy to the World," because of the reaction of audience members.

"They get really big smiles on their faces, and leave with those smiles," he said.

Bio
Three Dog Night band members are Hutton and Wells, founding members; Jimmy Greenspoon, keyboards; Michael Allsup, guitarist; Paul Kingery, bass and vocals; and Pat Bautz, drums.

In 1968 and Hutton and Wells met and formed the band. Hutton was recording as a solo artist after working for Disney, and Wells was touring with Sonny and Cher, according to information provided by Three Dog Night. The name Three Dog Night stems from a story about Australian aborigines who sleep with their dogs for warmth on the outback. The coldest nights are known as "three dog nights."

The band's records continue to sell worldwide, and according to information provided to the Independent by the group's management agency, tens of millions of records have been sold in the United States, Japan, Canada, Holland, England, Spain, Germany and elsewhere.

Song from some of the best songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s were recorded by the band: Randy Newman, Elton John, Paul Williams and Laura Nyro among others.

In 1975 the group essentially stopped touring because of the grind of being on the road. Six years later, the performing bug bit them again, and the group reunited and have been going strong since.

The band performs 80 to 90 times a year now and works on albums. The band members "have lives" other than music, Hutton said.

Fans may buy their music on iTunes, as well as at traditional record or music store, and with a presence on MySpace.com, they have received more than 200,000 plays in less than 10 months, according to the band's website.

The band's Top 40 hits are:

* Mama Told Me (Not to Come), No. 1
* Joy To The World, No. 1
* Shambala, No. 3
* Easy To Be Hard, No. 4
* An Old Fashioned Love Song, No. 4
* The Show Must Go On, No. 4
* One, No. 5
* Never Been to Spain, No. 5
* Liar, No. 7
* Eli's Coming, No. 10
* The Family Of Man, No. 12
* Celebrate, No. 15
* Out In The Country, No. 15
* Sure As I'm Sittin' Here, No. 16
* Let Me Serenade You, No. 17
* One Man Band, No. 19
* Pieces Of April, No. 19
* Try A Little Tenderness, No. 299
* Til The World Ends, No. 32
* Play Something Sweet (Backyard Blues), No. 33

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or fax; (505) 287-2581.