Showing posts with label Three Dog Night. Show all posts

Saturday, April 17, 1971

Three Dog Night “Joy to the World” hit #1

Joy to the World

Three Dog Night

Writer(s): Hoyt Axton (see lyrics here)

Released: February 1971

First Charted: March 5, 1971

Peak: 1⁶ BB, 1⁶ CB, 1⁶ GR, 1⁵ HR, 1 CL, 24 UK, 1⁶ CN, 8 AU 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 5.0 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 3.36 video, 137.0 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Three Dog Night was an usual group in that it featured not one, but three different vocalists. Cory Wells and Danny Hutton first came together and then recruited their friend and fellow singer Chuck Negron. They formed the group in Los Angeles in 1967 with guitarist Michael Allsup, keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon, bassist Joe Schemie, and drummer Floyd Sneed. Their name came from an Australian saying that if it’s cold in the outback, you sleep with one dog to keep you warm. If “the mercury dips so low that your blood turns to ice that’s a three dog night.” ^FB

Their chart hits relied on outside songwriters. Their first top-40 hit in 1969 was a cover of Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness,” followed by top-10 hits by Harry Nilsson, Laura Nyro, and the song “Easy to Be Hard” from the musical Hair. They first reached #1 in 1970 with Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come.”

Their next #1 song came courtesy country singer Harry Axton. He originally wrote “Joy to the World” for a children’s animated television special called The Happy Song. When it didn’t go into production he shopped the songs independently. ^FB He was opening for Three Dog Night at the time and showed up to their recording studio one day and played them “Joy to the World.” Cory Wells didn’t like the song, but the rest of the group loved it.

They recorded it with Chuck Negron on lead vocals, but didn’t originally intend it to be a single. The lead single was “One Man Band,” which reached #19. The a DJ out of Seattle named Lary Bergman plucked the song off the group’s Naturally album and started playing it. Within a few weeks it went to #1 in Seattle. ^SF After reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, it became their record company’s best-selling song of all time. ^FB

It also gave Hoyt the distinction of being the first songwriter to hit #1 whose mother had also accomplished the distinction. ^FB In 1956, Mae Axton was a co-writer on Elvis Presley’s first chart-topper, “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Resources:

DMDB encyclopedia entry for Three Dog Night
^FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 291.
^SF Songfacts

First posted 9/14/2023.

Saturday, July 4, 1970

American Top 40 Debuts: July 4, 1970

Originally posted July 4, 2011.

July 4, 1970: the internationally-syndicated radio countdown show American Top 40 launched. The show counted down the biggest hits in the U.S., starting with #40 and working its way to #1. The Billboard Hot 100 charts, widely considered the industry standard, were the original source material. In the early ‘90s, they based the list off the Hot 100 Airplay chart and later the Top 40 Mainstream chart. When Kasem returned in 1998, AT40 switched to Radio and Records. In 2000, Mediabase began providing the data. Those charts are currently published on Tuesdays in USA Today.

Casey Kasem was the show’s original DJ and a co-creator. He is most associated with the show, having hosted it from its inception through 1988. Shadoe Stevens hosted from 1988-1995 and then the show went on hiatus for three years. Kasem returned in 1998, hosting until 2004. Ryan Seacrest has hosted it since then.

Casey Kasem

AT40 started as a three-hour show, expanding to four hours in 1978. By the early ‘80s, the show was available in 520 stations in the United States and in 50 countries around the world.

The inaugural show aired on seven radio stations. Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come” was the first #1. Both Elvis Presley and The Beatles were in the top 10.

Kasem put his stamp on the show in several ways, most notably through long distance dedications. Listeners wrote letters with emotional personal stories and requested a song. Kasem read the letter on-air and then played the song. He was also well known for his signature closing motto: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”

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Resources:

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