Top 10 Chuck Negron Three Dog Night Songs

Ranking the individual vocalists of Three Dog Night is a first-among-equals proposition. But even then, Chuck Negron — who co-founded the troupe, as Redwood, in 1967 and passed away Monday at the age of 83 — makes a strong case for being that first.

A New York City native who went west to play basketball for Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria and then California State University in Los Angeles, Negron certainly had his share of lead vocals on the 18 Top 20 singles Three Dog Night released between 1969-74.

That started with “One,” the first track from the group’s self-titled debut album and includes the chart-topping “Joy to the World” and other gold-certified singles such as “An Old Fashioned Love Song” and “The Show Must Go On.”

Though he had the looks of a gruff rock ‘n’ roller, Negron was versatile enough to belt out “Joy to the World” and also more delicately nuanced tunes such as “Easy To Be Hard” and “Piece of April.” And his tenor was an easy blend with Danny Hutton and Cory Wells.

Negron was with Three Dog Night until it first disbanded in 1976, then came back in 1981, staying through 1985 and singing on the final album, It’s a Jungle, in 1983.

He chronicled his career and drug addiction demons (to that point) in his 1999 memoir Three Dog Nightmare, which he revised in 2008 and 2018.

More than anything, however, he leaves the music — including these 10 best of his recordings with Three Dog Night.

10. “Til the World Ends,” 1975

Negron has the distinction of singing lead on Three Dog Night’s final Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was written by Dave Loggins, the Nashville-based “Please Come to Boston” songsmith who also penned the group’s earlier Negron-sung hit “Pieces of April.” His vocal is solid, but don’t worry if you can’t recall it; neither it nor Coming Down the Way, Three Dog Night’s first album to not go gold or Top 30, has aged particularly well. The group ended after just one more album, American Pastime, in 1976.

 

9. “The Family of Man,” 1972

The Paul Williams-Jack Conrad tune sounds a bit corny 54 years on (it was more suited to the utopian climate of the post-hippie early 70s), but it was a nice vehicle for each of the singers to take lead on a verse each, with Negron covering the second and then the outro fade-out. It hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was, coincidentally, the group’s 12th Top 15 hit.

 

8. “Don’t Make Promises,” 1968

Three Dog Night included the opening track from Tim Hardin’s first album, Tim Hardin 1, for its own debut, with Negron crafting his own kind of dynamic vocal build that brought a little more character and muscle to the tune. One of the better album tracks for a band that mostly lived on its singles.

 

7. “The Show Must Go On,” 1974

Three Dog Night’s rendition of the Leo Sayer song — first released on his 1973 debut album Silverbird — was the band’s last Top 10 hit, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also its last gold single. The misbegotten cover of the Hard Labor album wasn’t bringing more folks to the party at this point, either, though it did go gold (the group’s last to do so).

 

6. “One Man Band,” 1970

One of the nicer vocal arrangements in Three Dog Night’s catalog, the recording finds Negron singing harmony to Hutton during the verses, then taking lead during the end refrain. The combination worked for another Top 20 hit, and the tune was the opening track for the 1973 live album Around the World with Three Dog Night.

 

5. “Easy to Be Hard,” 1969

Three Dog Night plucked this heartbreaker from the musical Hair for its second album, Suitable For Framing, handing the lead vocal to Negron with Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin producer Gabriel Mekler carefully keeping the instrumentation in check to frame his nuanced performance. It followed “One” into the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 and, 36 years later, appeared in an episode of The Simpsons.

 

4. “An Old Fashioned Love Song,” 1971

Composer Paul Williams originally took this to the Carpenters, which had already recorded his “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays.” Richard Carpenter said no but Three Dog Night and producer Richard Podolor were more welcoming. With Negron leading the “three part harmony,” it was the first single from the group’s fifth album, Harmony, and became its first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and first single to be certified gold.

 

3. “Pieces of April,” 1972

Hutton and Wells early departures from the Seven Separate Fools sessions in London left Negron alone to handle the final two tracks for the album, including this Dave Loggins composition. It is, in fact, one of only two Three Dog Night singles that did not feature all three of the singers. It actually appeared on Loggins’ own Personal Belongings album concurrently, but with Negron’s uncharacteristically delicate delivery it became the group’s 14th consecutive Top 20 single.

 

2. “Joy to the World,” 1971

Hutton once told UCR that Three Dog Night initially turned down the Hoyt Axton tune that arguably became the band’s signature song; “Hoyt just kept coming by the studio and pushing for it. We did the song as kind of a favor to him, and then we really started fiddling and the track ended up being a good track.” Negron, feeling the group needed something “silly,” helped push it through and took the lead vocal — and good thing, since it brought great joy, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 100 and earning the Dogs’ second gold certification.

 

1. “One,” 1969

Inspired by the busy single on a phone call, Harry Nilsson wrote and released the original version of this for his 1968 album Aerial Ballet. A year later Three Dog Night recorded it as the opening track for its self-titled debut, with Negron’s soaring vocal performance leading the group’s third single from the set, which broke through to hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and become the first of the Dogs’ seven gold singles. Negron could do it live, too, as evidenced by his performance on 1969’s Captured Live at the Forum.