Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night has issued recordings of new songs since regrouping in the '80s, but let's face it: What keeps the band on the road are memories of the late '60s and early '70s, when the intriguingly named group (from an era of intriguing musical monikers) was dominant on AM radio. FM rock devotees seldom took them seriously. After all, they scoffed, the Dogs don't write their own songs. Ah, but what songs!<P> Whether motivated by their own taste or the dictates of savvy management, Three Dog Night recorded a string of gems by top writers during their golden years. Among the 21 Billboard Top-40 hits were nuggets by Harry Nilsson (“One”), Laura Nyro (“Eli's Coming”), Hoyt Axton (“Joy to the World”) and Randy Newman (“Mama Told Me Not to Come”). Years before anyone had heard of John Hiatt, they piloted his “Sure as I'm Sittin' Here” to No. 16.<P> And then it all ended as abruptly as it had begun. Three Dog Night's middle-school fans graduated, disco dawned and the new worlds of punk, metal and hip-hop were beyond the horizon. But even if you weren't singing “Joy to the World” in the back of a yellow school bus circa 1971, their recordings are worth rediscovering for their superb pop craftsmanship.