N@ncy S!natr@ - 1968 - L!ghtn!ng's G!rl

Lightning's Girl/Happy/Good Time Girl/100 Years



Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940) is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of Frank Sinatra and is widely known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".

Other defining recordings include "Sugar Town", the 1967 number one "Somethin' Stupid" (a duet with her father), the title song from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, several collaborations with Lee Hazlewood such as "Jackson", and her cover of Cher's "Bang Bang". Nancy Sinatra began her career as a singer and actress in November 1957 with an appearance on her father's ABC-TV variety series, but initially achieved success only in Europe and Japan. In early 1966 she had a transatlantic number-one hit with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". She appeared on TV in high boots, and with colorfully dressed go-go dancers, creating a popular and enduring image of the Swinging Sixties. The song was written by Lee Hazlewood, who wrote and produced most of her hits and sang with her on several duets, including the critical and cult favorite "Some Velvet Morning". In 1966 and 1967, Sinatra charted with 13 titles, all of which featured Billy Strange as arranger and conductor. 

 Sinatra also had a brief acting career in the mid-1960s including a co-starring role with Elvis Presley in the movie Speedway, and with Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels. In Marriage on the Rocks, Frank and Nancy Sinatra played a fictional father and daughter.

Sinatra was signed to her father's label, Reprise Records, in 1961. Her first single, "Cuff Links and a Tie Clip", went largely unnoticed. However, subsequent singles charted in Europe and Japan. Without a hit in the US by 1965, she was on the verge of being dropped. Her singing career received a boost with the help of songwriter/producer/arranger Lee Hazlewood, who had been making records for ten years, notably with Duane Eddy. Hazlewood became Sinatra's inspiration.[citation needed] He had her sing in a lower key and crafted songs for her. Bolstered by an image overhaul — including bleached-blonde hair, frosted lips, heavy eye make-up and Carnaby Street fashions — Sinatra made her mark on the American (and British) music scene in early 1966 with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin''", its title inspired by a line in Robert Aldrich's 1963 western comedy 4 for Texas starring her father and Dean Martin. One of her many hits written by Hazlewood, it received three Grammy Award nominations, including two for Sinatra and one for arranger Billy Strange. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. She appeared on TV in high boots, and with colorfully dressed go-go dancers, a craze during the late Sixties, and created a popular and enduring image of the Swinging Sixties.

 A run of chart singles followed, including the two 1966 Top 10 hits "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?" (U.S. No.7) and "Sugar Town" (U.S. No.5). "Sugar Town" became her second million seller. The ballad "Somethin' Stupid" — a duet with her father — hit No.1 in the U.S. and the U.K. in April 1967 and spent nine weeks at the top of Billboard's easy listening chart. It earned a Grammy Award nomination for Record of the Year and remains the only father-daughter duet to hit No.1 in the U.S.; it became Sinatra's third million-selling disc. Other 45s showing her forthright delivery include "Friday’s Child" (U.S. No.36, 1966), and the 1967 hits "Love Eyes" (U.S. No.15) and "Lightning’s Girl" (U.S. No.24). She rounded out 1967 with the raunchy but low-charting "Tony Rome" (U.S. No.83) — the title track from the detective film Tony Rome starring her father — while her first solo single in 1968 was the more wistful "100 Years" (U.S. No.69). In 1968 she recorded the Kenny Young song "The Highway Song" with Mickey Most producing for the U.K. and European markets. The song reached Top 20 in the U.K. and other European countries.

Sinatra enjoyed a parallel recording career cutting duets with the husky-voiced, country-and-western-inspired Hazlewood, starting with "Summer Wine" (originally the B-side of "Sugar Town"). Their biggest hit was a cover of the country song, "Jackson". The single peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1967, when Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash also made the song their own. In December they released the "MOR"-psychedelic single "Some Velvet Morning", regarded as one of the more unusual singles in pop, and the peak of Sinatra and Hazlewood’s vocal collaborations. It reached No.26 in the US. The promo clip is, like the song, sui generis. The British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph placed "Some Velvet Morning" in pole position in its 2003 list of the Top 50 Best Duets Ever. ("Somethin' Stupid" ranked number 27).

In 1967, she recorded the theme song for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. In the liner notes of the CD reissue of her 1966 album, Nancy In London, Sinatra states that she was "scared to death" of recording the song, and asked the songwriters: "Are you sure you don't want Shirley Bassey?" There are two versions of the Bond theme. The first is the lushly orchestrated track featured during the opening and closing credits of the film. The second – and more guitar-heavy — version appeared on the double A-sided single with "Jackson", though the Bond theme stalled at No.44 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. "Jackson"/"You Only Live Twice" was more successful in the U.K., reaching No.11 on the singles chart during a nineteen-week chart run (in the Top 50) that saw the single become the 70th best-selling single of 1967 in the U.K.

In 1966 and 1967 Sinatra traveled to Vietnam to perform for the US troops. Many US soldiers adopted her song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" as their anthem, as shown in Pierre Schoendoerffer's Academy Award winning documentary The Anderson Platoon (1967) and reprised in a scene in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Sinatra recorded several anti-war songs, including "My Buddy", featured on her album Sugar, "Home", co-written by Mac Davis, and "It's Such A Lonely Time of Year", which appeared on the 1968 LP The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas. In 1988 Sinatra recreated her Vietnam concert appearances on an episode of the television show China Beach. Today, Sinatra still performs for charitable causes supporting US veterans who served in Vietnam, including Rolling Thunder Inc.

Cass Elliot - 1970 - Make Your Own Kind Of Music

New World Coming/It's Getting Better/Move In A Little Closer Baby/Make Your Own Kind Of Music



Cass Elliot was born Ellen Naomi Cohen on September 19, 1941 in Baltimore, Maryland. She grew up in the Washington D.C. environs and in her senior year of high school, she performed in a summer stock production of "The Boyfriend" at the Owings Mills Playhouse where she played the French nurse who sings "It's Nicer, Much Nicer in Nice." After this experience, even though her family anticipated her to seek a college education in pursuit of a career, Cass forged ahead in the world of performance. She made a splash in New York and began an acting career, competing with Barbra Streisand for the Miss Marmelstein part in "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" in 1962. She toured in a production of Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man." Elliot also produced a play at Cafe La Mama in New York.
 

  But by early 1963 she had met up with Tim Rose and John Brown and formed a folk trio initially dubbed The Triumvirate, yet later known as The Big 3 when Brown was replaced by James Hendricks. The Big 3 were a progressive and innovative folk trio who recorded two albums and made appearances on The Tonight Show, Hootenanny and the Danny Kaye Show. In 1964 the group had begun to fall apart and it metamorphasized into a foursome called "Cass Elliot and The Big 3" which included Canadians, Denny Doherty and Zal Yanovsky (Tim Rose had left at this point). Soon this foursome became The Mugwumps who operated out of The Shadows nightclub in Washington. They released a single for Warner Brothers and stayed together through the end of 1964, until they too began to disintegrate. Cass Elliot began to work as a solo single in Washington, D.C.

 At this point Denny Doherty had joined John and Michelle Phillips and the three were performing as The New Journeymen. Soon they left for the Virgin Islands where Cass subsequently joined them and the four began to sing together in mid-1965. Thus the superstar group The Mamas and The Papas was born. From 1965-1968 the Mamas and Papas recorded a series of top ten hits including "Monday, Monday," "California Dreamin'," "I Saw Her Again," and "Dedicated to the One I Love."
 

The group's last hit was a launching number for Cass Elliot. Cass' first solo album, Dream A Little Dream, 1968"Dream A Little Dream Of Me" became Cass' theme song and beginning in 1968 she embarked on her own short-lived but solid solo career. Her distinct voice had always emerged from the groups in which she sang. In 1969 she scored big with "It's Getting Better" and 1970 yielded the hits "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "New World Coming." In 1970, Elliot also appeared in the film version of "Pufnstuf" and recorded an album with rock star Dave Mason.


Elliot had two prime time television specials of her own in 1969 and 1973, but most people remember her scores of television appearances throughout the early 1970's with Mike Douglas, Julie Andrews, Andy Williams, Johnny Cash, Red Skelton, Ed Sullivan, Tom Jones, Carol Burnett and others. She guest hosted The Tonight Show, had successful stints in Las Vegas and continued to record for RCA during these years too. Cass had one daughter Owen Vanessa in April 1967 and she was married twice, first (1963-68) to fellow Big 3 and Mugwumps member Jim Hendricks and second to Baron Donald von Wiedenman (1971).
 

London Palladium Concert Program, In 1974, Cass Elliot travelled to London where she had a two week engagement at the London Palladium. After performing to sellout audiences and basking in repeated ovations, Cass tragically succumbed to a heart attack on July 29, 1974 in London, following this successful concert tour.

In 1998, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Cass Elliot and her fellow band mates from The Mamas and The Papas into that institution. Her daughter Owen represented her mother and accepted her award.

Julie Driscol Brian Auger And The Trinity - 1969 - Julie Driscol Brian Auger And The Trinity

This Wheels On Fire/Save Me Part 1/Save Me Part 2/Road To Cairo



Brian Albert Gordon Auger (born 18 July 1939 in Hammersmith London) is an English jazz and rock keyboardist, who has specialised in playing the Hammond organ. A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with artists such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon and others. He has incorporated jazz, early British pop, R&B, soul music and rock, and he has been nominated for a Grammy.

In 1965 Auger formed the group The Steampacket, along with Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll, Vic Briggs and Rod Stewart. Due to contractual problems there were no official recordings made by the band; nevertheless, nine tracks were laid down for promotional use in late 1965 and enclosed on a cd by Repertoire Records (1990) (Licenced from Charly Records) as well as 12 live tracks from "Live at the Birmingham Town Hall, February 2, 1964. Soon thereafter the band broke up and shortly after Stewart left in 1966. In 1965, Auger played on For Your Love by The Yardbirds.

                                          Steampacket  Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger

 With Driscoll and the band, Trinity, he went on to record several hit singles, notably a cover version of David Ackles' "Road to Cairo" and Bob Dylan's "This Wheel's on Fire", which was featured on Dylan Covered. In 1969 Auger, Driscoll and Trinity appeared performing in the United States on the nationally telecast 33? Revolutions Per Monkee.

Julie Tippetts (born Julie Driscoll, 8 June 1947) is an English singer and actress, known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan and Rick Danko's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger and The Trinity. Along with The Trinity, she was featured prominently in the 1969 television special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, singing "I'm a Believer" in a soul style with Micky Dolenz. She and Auger had previously worked in Steampacket, with Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart.

"This Wheel's on Fire" reached number five in the United Kingdom in June 1968. With distortion, the imagery of the title and the group's dress and performance, this version came to represent the psychedelic era in British rock music. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early 1990s with Adrian Edmondson as the theme to the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, the main characters of which are throwbacks to that era.

Since the 1970s, Driscoll has concentrated on experimental vocal music. She married jazz musician Keith Tippett and collaborated with him and now uses the name Julie Tippetts, adopting the original spelling of her husband's surname. She took in Keith Tippett's big band Centipede and in 1974 sang in Robert Wyatt's Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert. She released a solo album, Sunset Glow in 1975; and was lead vocalist on Carla Bley's album Tropic Appetites and also in John Wolf Brennan's "HeXtet".

Later in the 1970s, she toured with her own band and recorded and performed as one of the vocal quartet Voice, with Maggie Nichols, Phil Minton, and Brian Eley. In the early 1980s, Julie Tippetts was a guest vocalist on an early single by pop-jazz band Working Week, on the song "Storm of Light", which brought them to the attention of a wider audience.

D0lly P@rt0n - 1973 - D0lly P@rt0n

Joshua/Harper Valley PTA/Coat of Many Colors/Jeannie's Afraid of the Dark




 Dolly Parton's girlish soprano and songs about old-time virtues made her a major country star in the early 1970s. Later in that decade, she wooed pop audiences and became a household name, her playful, self-deprecating comments about her blond sex-bomb image winning hearts as her finely crafted country-pop singles yielded a succession of more than 20 C&W Number One hits, including classics like "Here You Come Again," "Jolene," and "9 to 5." A self-titled theme park, television variety shows, and several successful films, including an Oscar nomination for her role in 9 to 5, in the 1980s helped cement Parton's status a singularly American superstar.

Parton grew up poor on a farm in the foothills of Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, the fourth of 12 children born to a farming couple. Her sister Stella later became a singer as well, and five other siblings also worked as professional musicians. Parton sang in church as a girl, and at age ten appeared on the The Cass Walker Progam, a TV show in Knoxville with members of her grade school class. She became a regular on Walker's radio show, where she performed until age 18. Parton appeared at the Grand Ole Opry at age 12, and her first single, "Puppy Love," was released by the blues-oriented Louisiana label Goldband. 

 One day after graduating high school, in 1964, she moved to Nashville and signed with Monument. Her first day in town, she met Carl Dean, whom she married two years later. Early recordings, in a rock vein, were not successful. Her big break came with "Dumb Blonde," a minor hit that peaked at Number 24 on the country chart. In 1967 she joined singer Porter Wagoner's syndicated country-music show, and "Miss Dolly," as she was called, became very popular with viewers. She signed to RCA, and the duo had many country hits, including "Just Someone I Used to Know" (1969) and "Daddy Was an Old Time Preacher Man" (1970). While with Wagoner, she charted over a dozen solo country hits, including "Joshua" (Number One, 1970) and "Coat of Many Colors" (Number Four, 1971).

In 1974 Parton left Wagoner completely, having released Jolene, the title track of which became her second Number One country hit and a minor pop crossover. Other singers began to take an interest in her work. Linda Ronstadt covered "I Will Always Love You" (which Parton wrote about leaving Porter Wagoner) in 1975 on Prisoner in Disguise, Emmylou Harris sang "Coat of Many Colors" that same year, and Maria Muldaur covered "My Tennessee Mountain Home" on her first record. The covers encouraged Parton to bring her country to the pop market, which she did with New Harvest. The LP was more rock-oriented and included a version of "Higher and Higher." She also broke away from the country circuit to play rock clubs.

Parton's first major pop single was "Here You Come Again," which went gold and hit Number Three in early 1978. The LP of the same name went platinum. She also hit the pop Top 20 that year with "Two Doors Down." Parton had successfully crossed over; "Baby, I'm Burnin'" (Number 25, 1978) even had some success in discos. Other Number One country hits of that time include "You're the Only One" (1979), "Starting Over Again" (1980), and "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You" (1980).
 

By 1980, Parton was a regular headliner in Las Vegas, and that year she earned an Oscar nomination for her film debut in 9 to 5 (costarring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin). Parton's recording of the title theme was a Number One hit in pop and country. In 1982 she costarred with Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Her other film credits include Rhinestone (with Sylvester Stallone, 1984), Steel Magnolias (with Julia Roberts and Shirley MacLaine, 1989), Straight Talk (with James Woods, 1992), the made-for-television Wild Texas Wind (with Gary Busey, 1992), and The Beverly Hillbillies (1993). 

 In 1976 she had hosted a syndicated music show, Dolly; her 1987 prime-time variety show of the same name on ABC did not fare as well and was canceled after one season.

Immediately before the release of Rhinestone Cowboy, Parton began a difficult period plagued by health problems. Through the 1980s she continued to score C&W Number One hits with "But You Know I Love You" (1981), "I Will Always Love You" (1982), the Bee Gees–written and –produced duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands in the Stream" (1983), "Tennessee Homesick Blues" (1984), "Real Love" (another duet with Rogers, 1985), "Think About Love" (1985), "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin' Like That" (1989), "Yellow Roses" (1989), and "Rockin' Years" (1991), a duet with Ricky Van Shelton.

Parton's most successful album of the period was Trio, a collection of traditional country songs performed with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. In 1987 the recording won a Grammy for Best Country Album by a Duo or Group with Vocal. In 1999 the long-awaited followup, Trio II, was released and featured a Grammy-winning (Best Country Collaboration With Vocals) cover of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush." In 1993 Parton teamed with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette for Honky Tonk Angels, an album featuring the songs of country singers such as Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells (who appears on the title track).
 
In 1986 Parton opened Dollywood, a Smoky Mountain theme park. She has also established the Dolly Parton Wellness and Rehabilitation Center of Sevier County Medical Center as well as the Dollywood Foundation, which works to lower the high school–dropout rate in her home county. In 1994 she released her autobiography, Dolly: My Life and Unfinished Business. In 1996 Parton picked up her eighth career Country Music Association Award, for Vocal Event of the Year, for a new version of "I Will Always Love You" (Number 15 C&W, 1995) recorded with Vince Gill for a greatest-hits set.
 
 After 1996's Treasures, an album of covers, Parton moved to Decca and recorded Hungry Again, a rootsy collection of self-penned songs that kicked off what many critics viewed as an artistic reawakening for the veteran performer. In 1994 she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and cut her first bluegrass album, The Grass Is Blue, for the independent Sugar Hill label. The set featured an all-star band of bluegrass pros (including mandolin ace Sam Bush and Dobro player Jerry Douglas, among others) and went on to win Parton Album of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards and a pair of Grammy nominations. She followed it in 2001 with a second bluegrass effort, Little Sparrow, which in addition to several new originals featured such left-field covers as Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You" and Collective Soul's gospel-rock anthem "Shine." 

A third Sugar Hill collection, Halos and Horns (Number Four country, Number 58 pop, 2002), found Parton continuing her foray into folk and bluegrass, this time boldly taking on Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she released For God and Country (Number 23 country, 2003), an album of patriotic and religious standards as well as originals. She returned to folk and bluegrass for her eclectic covers album Those Were the Days (Number Nine country, Number 48 pop, 2005), in which she teamed with an variety of singers including Yusuf Islam for a version of his classic as Cat Stevens, "Where Do the Children Play"; Tommy James on his 1968 hit with the Shondells, "Crimson & Clover"; and Norah Jones and Lee Ann Womack for the folk standard "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

 In late 2006 the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts honored Parton with a lifetime award for her contribution to the arts. Two years later, after years of traveling off the beaten musical path, Parton returned on her own label with her first album of mainstream country in nearly a decade, Backwoods Barbie (Number Two country, Number 17 pop, 2008), with a title song written for the Broadway version of 9 to 5.

Pussyc@t - 1976 - Pussyc@t

Mississippi/My Broken Souvenirs/Georgie/Smile



Pussycat was a Dutch country and pop music group from the Netherlands, driven by the three Kowalczyk sisters Toni, Betty and Marianne. Other members of the band were Lou Willé (Toni's ex-husband), Theo Wetzels, Theo Coumans and John Theunissen.

Prior to forming the band, the three sisters were telephone operators in Limburg, whilst Theunissen, Wetzles and Coumans were in a group called Scum. Lou Wille played in a group called Ricky Rendall and His Centurions until he married Toni, and created the group Sweet Reaction that eventually became known as Pussycat.

 In 1975 they scored a big European hit with the song "Mississippi". However they had to wait a further year for the single to make the British charts when it climbed to number one in the UK Singles Chart in October 1976. Penned by Werner Theunissen, who had been the sisters' guitar teacher, it is estimated that "Mississippi" sold over five million copies worldwide. It was later followed by "Smile" in 1976, and "Hey Joe" in 1978. Other hits were "If You Ever Come to Amsterdam", "Georgie", "Wet Day in September" and "My Broken Souvenirs". Their career in Europe spanned more than a decade and included some seventeen albums. By 1978 Hans Lutjens had replaced Coumans on drums, as the band continued to release albums and tour, travelling as far afield as South Africa. They made regular appearances on the West German TV series, Musikladen, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

$hock!ng Blue - 1969 - Venu$

Venus/I'm A Woman/Love Buzz/Hot Sand



"Venus" is a 1969 song written by Robbie van Leeuwen. In 1970, the Dutch band Shocking Blue took the song to number one in nine countries. In 1981 it was sampled as part of the Stars On 45 medley. In 1986, the British girl group Bananarama returned the song to number one in seven countries. The composition has been featured in numerous films, television shows and commercials, and covered dozens of times by artists around the world.

Released in late 1969 as a single from the group's second album At Home, Shocking Blue's single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 7 February 1970. RIAA certification came on 28 January 1970 for selling over one million copies in the US, garnering a gold record. Worldwide, the single sold over 7.5 million copies.

The song's lead vocals are performed by Mariska Veres. The song's music and lyrics are written by Robbie van Leeuwen, the band's guitarist, sitarist and background vocalist, who also produced, along with record producer Jerry Ross. Van Leeuwen originally miswrote the line "...the goddess on the mountain top..." as "...the godness on the mountain top...". This was corrected in later versions. The Hohner electric piano on the release was played by Cees Schrama.

Van Leeuwen was inspired by "The Banjo Song", a composition by Tim Rose that set Stephen Collins Foster's lyrics to "Oh! Susanna" to a completely new melody.

 Venus" was remixed and re-released by dance producers The BHF (Bisiach Hornbostel Ferrucci) Team in May 1990, scoring the group a Top 10 hit in the UK and Australia 21 years after the release of the original. The remix featured a hip house rhythm and samples. An instrumental version was also released independently under the producer's alias "Don Pablo's Animals". The instrumental version (credited only to Don Pablos Animals – without referencing Shocking Blue) became the highest charting version of the song. The single began with a sample from James Brown's 1988 hit "The Payback Mix (Part One)". This release of "Venus" peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 8 in Australia in 1990.

Three D0g N!ght - 1971 - Hits @ Plenty

Joy To The World/Liar/An Old Fashioned Love Song/Never Been To Spain




Three Dog Night is an American rock band. They formed in 1967 with a line-up consisting of vocalists Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Mike Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sneed (drums). The band registered 21 Billboard Top 40 hits (with three hitting number one) between 1969 and 1975. Mainly a cover band, it helped introduce mainstream audiences to the work of many songwriters, including Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Laura Nyro, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and Leo Sayer.

The official commentary included in the CD set Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1964–1975 states that vocalist Danny Hutton's girlfriend, actress June Fairchild (best known as the "Ajax Lady" from the Cheech and Chong movie Up In Smoke) suggested the name after reading a magazine article about indigenous Australians, in which it was explained that on cold nights they would customarily sleep in a hole in the ground while embracing a dingo (feral dog). On colder nights they would sleep with two dogs and, if the night was freezing, it was a "three dog night".

 The three vocalists, Danny Hutton (who got his start with Hanna-Barbera Records in 1964), Chuck Negron and Cory Wells (who landed a recording contract with Dunhill Records) first came together in 1967 and made some recordings with Brian Wilson and initially went by the name of Redwood. Shortly after abandoning the Redwood moniker in 1968, the vocalists hired a group of backing musicians – Ron Morgan on guitar, Floyd Sneed on drums, Joe Schermie from the Cory Wells Blues Band on bass, and Jimmy Greenspoon on keyboards – and soon took the name Three Dog Night, becoming one of the most successful bands in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Ron Morgan left the band early on and subsequently went on to join the Electric Prunes. Michael Allsup was quickly recruited to replace him on guitar.

Three Dog Night earned 12 gold albums and recorded 21 consecutive Billboard Top 40 hits, seven of which went gold. Their first gold record was "One" (US #5), which had been written and recorded by Harry Nilsson. The group had three US #1 songs, each of which featured a different lead singer: "Mama Told Me Not to Come" (Cory Wells on lead), which was also their only Top 10 hit in the UK; "Joy to the World" (Chuck Negron on lead); and "Black and White" (Danny Hutton on lead). Dunhill Records claimed that 40 million record albums were sold by the band during this time. 

As its members wrote just a handful of songs on the albums, most songs Three Dog Night recorded were written by outside songwriters. Notable hit covers include Harry Nilsson's "One" (US #5), the Gerome Ragni - James Rado - Galt MacDermot composition "Easy to Be Hard" (US #4) from the musical Hair, Laura Nyro's "Eli's Comin'" (US #10), Randy Newman's "Mama Told Me Not to Come" (US #1), Paul Williams' "Out in the Country" (US #15), "The Family Of Man" (US #12), and "An Old Fashioned Love Song" (US #4), Hoyt Axton's "Joy to the World" (US #1) and "Never Been to Spain" (US #5), Arkin & Robinson's "Black and White" (US #1), Argent's Russ Ballard's "Liar" (US #7), Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Lady Samantha" and "Your Song", Daniel Moore's "Shambala" (#3), Leo Sayer's "The Show Must Go On" (US #4), John Hiatt's "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here" (US #16), and Bush's "I Can Hear You Callin'".