My Seventies Music

Tag: Three Dog Night

  • Harry Nilsson – “Without You”, “One”, “Everybody’s Talkin’” and “I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City”

    Cover of 1971 Harry Nilsson album "Nilsson Schmilsson"

    The Harry Nilsson song that stands out in my mind is his version of the Badfinger song “Without You”, which went to Number 1 across the charts (U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland…) in 1971.

    “Without You”

    For a long time Harry Nilsson, who became close friends with the Beatles (in particular John Lennon, with whom he collaborated to produce the 1974 album Pussy Cats”, and Ringo Starr) was better known as a songwriter than a singer.

    Especially among other artists, and many of his songs are more familiar in other versions, such as the Three Dog Night hit “One”.

    Here is Harry Nilsson’s own version of his song “One”:

    Nilsson, who died in 1994, was not only successful at providing other musicians with songs, he is also known in theatre and as a provider of film music.

    Most well known here is perhaps his singing of “Everybody’s Talkin’” in the 1969 movie “Midnight Cowboy starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman.

    “Everybody’s Talkin’”:

    Here are the opening scenes of “Midnight Cowboy” underscored by “Everybody’s Talkin’”:

    Nilsson had actually written his Top Ten hit “I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City” as a contender for the movie:

    A few years ago (2006) there was a documentary “Who is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)”.

    I guess there is a reason “everybody’s talkin’” about him.

    Paul

  • Three Dog Night – “One”, “Celebrate, “Eli’s Coming”, “Easy To Be Hard”, “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Black And White” and “Joy To The World” (“Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog”)

    Three Dog Night "Golden Bisquits" album cover
    Three Dog Night hardly wrote a song of their own, but they had numerous hits with the songs they covered, such as “One”, “Celebrate, “Eli’s Coming” and “Easy To Be Hard”, “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Black And White” or “Joy To The World” (sometimes called “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog” after the opening line).

    I have a copy of one of their compilation albums, “Golden Bisquits”, from 1971, which includes five of these songs.

    The name apparently refers to an article an associate of the band read about an Australian Aborigine custom of using the body warmth of a native dog (dingo) to keep warm on cold nights. A three dog night was a very cold night…

    Some of the Three Dog Night versions of songs were actually more successful than the originals. Listen to these and you’ll understand why:

    “One”:

    “Celebrate”:

    “Eli’s Coming” in 1970:

    And “Eli’s Coming” in the 21st century:

    “Easy To Be Hard”:

    “Mama Told Me Not To Come”:

    “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”:

    “Black And White”:

    “Joy To The World” (“Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog”):

    I’ll drink to that!

    Paul

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