Joy to the World by Three Dog Night (Winter 1971)

When I was five, I became completely obsessed with this ridiculous song about a bullfrog named Jeremiah.  I remember seeing commercials for the New Year's Eve celebration where Three Dog Night would perform this cool song as 1970 rolled into 1971.  My parents were going out and getting me a babysitter, but they told her to let me stay up and watch the performance.  I was so excited - I was allowed to stay up waaaaay past my bedtime and watch my favorite song being performed.

I fell asleep long before the show came on, of course.

But my babysitter Jill was pretty cool, and she woke me up when Three Dog Night came on, so I got to see the performance after all.  I know now that it was all lip-synched, but back then it was just the greatest thing ever.





The following year, Three Dog Night sang about the races getting along. I didn't know what it was about; I thought it was just a children's song.  It kind of sounded like one and they sang about children, so it really appealed to me.  My friend Theresa and I would play on my see-saw together, singing the few words we actually knew - "The child is black, the child is white, together they learn to read and write..." - over and over and over.  Those aren't the correct lyrics, just the words we knew.


Three Dog Night is touring this summer, and I was tempted - but apparently Chuck Negron is not touring with them, and as far as I'm concerned, it's not Three Dog Night without him.