Celebrate: Three Dog Night ready to deliver the hits at Tupelo Music Hall
Aug. 19—Danny Hutton made a decision more than 40 years ago that might have a lot to do with how he's able to keep belting out all those hits he had with Three Dog Night.
First he had to wrestle with whether he would ever sing again.
With co-lead singers Cory Wells and Chuck Negron and their four-piece band, Hutton and Three Dog Night scored 21 Top 40 hits from 1969 to 1975, including "Joy to the World," "Celebrate" and "Shambala." The band had a knack for mining hits from then-unknown writers like Randy Newman, who penned the band's No. 1 hit "Mama Told Me Not to Come."
A few years after that parade of hits and endless touring, Hutton traveled back home to his birthplace.
"For some freaky reason, I lost my voice, I think a little mentally in my head, in the late '70s, and I went back home to Ireland," Hutton said during a recent interview. "I spent two weeks driving around Ireland just changing how I sang."
The baritone decided he would shoot higher.
"I basically chose, do I want a really good falsetto or do I want to sing really high, full power voice, like an opera singer, a big high C? And I said, I'd rather have that. I like that power sound," said Hutton, 78.
With guitarist Michael Allsup sitting out this tour, Hutton will be the only remaining original member when Three Dog Night takes the stage Friday at Tupelo Music Hall to celebrate the Derry venue's return to indoor performances after two summers of outdoor drive-in shows.
Over the past several years, Wells and original keyboard player Jimmy Greenspoon died, and other members have come and gone over the years, including Negron, a recovering heroin addict who left the band in the early '80s.
For this tour, longtime bass player and singer Paul Kingery switched to guitar, and Hutton's son, Tim, is playing bass.
"It's tighter than ever. I'm really proud of everybody," Hutton said.
Patrons attending the sold-out show will have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR test administered 72 hours or less prior to entry, according to a policy the venue announced last week. Masks are recommended but not required.
Since going back on tour in June for the first time in more than a year, Three Dog Night has played about a dozen shows at festivals, theaters and casinos.
"Nobody is wearing masks anywhere, so I don't know what that's all about. And I know about the spike and all that kind of stuff, so let's cross our fingers," Hutton said.
During Three Dog Night's hit-making run, Hutton sang lead or shared the lead on several of the band's biggest hits, including "Liar," "Black and White" and "Family of Man."
When "Liar" hit the Top 10 in 1971, Hutton earned acclaim for the song's haunted vocal — a recording effect he achieved from singing the song in a tiny bathroom.
"Nowadays you press a button and you get your echo or your reverb, and it's processed or sampled from other songs. In those days, you had to create your own thing," Hutton said.
His own thing was the toilet down the hall.
"They had a studio control room and they had a door that opened, and you had about 10 feet to this little bathroom. We set up mics from the studio control room from the hall and in this little bathroom. I just stood in there and did it."
Hutton and his bandmates can't rely on studio effects to produce the vocal harmonies they employ for the song they have been performing a cappella as an encore. "Prayer of the Children" is slated to be included on the band's upcoming new album, "The Road Ahead," which will be Three Dog Night's first complete collection of new material since 1976.
"It just proves that everybody in the band is a good singer," Hutton said. "The hardest thing in the world is to put in a new song as an encore. Your whole set can go down the tubes ... We get a standing ovation every night with this song."
Lead singer David Morgan will be sitting down for some of the show.
"He fell on his hip about a month ago, and we were freaked out," Hutton said. "He didn't have any breakage or anything. He had a big bruise and stuff. And he's going to be fine."
The tall, padded chair that Morgan sits on during some of the songs to rest his hip has become part of the act.
After Morgan joined the band in 2015, he developed a spoken-word intro that segues into "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here," a Top 20 hit for Three Dog Night in 1975 written by singer-songwriter John Hiatt.
"'Sure as I'm Sittin' Here' works great," Hutton said. "He pulls up to this chair, and it's like, 'Oh my God, did you do this on purpose?'"
Mike Cote is senior editor for news and business. Contact him at mcote@unionleader.com or 206-7724.
