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 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