"Shambala" is a song written by Daniel Moore and made famous by two near-simultaneous releases in 1973: the better-known but slightly later recording by

Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, with founding members consisting of vocalists Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael A ...

, which reached No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and a version by

B. W. Stevenson Louis Charles "B.W." Stevenson (October 5, 1949 – April 28, 1988) was an American country pop singer and musician, working in a genre now called progressive country. "B.W." stood for "Buckwheat". Stevenson was born in Dallas, Texas, United ...

. Its title derives from a mythical place-name also spelled Shamballa or

Shambhala In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala ( sa, शम्भल ',''Śambhala'', also ''Sambhala'', is the name of a town between the Rathaprā and Ganges rivers, identified by some with Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. In the Puranas, it is named as ...

Lyrics

The song's actual lyrics are about the

mythical Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

kingdom of

, which was said to be hidden somewhere within or beyond the peaks of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

and was mentioned in various ancient texts, including the

Kalachakra ''Kālacakra'' () is a polysemic term in Vajrayana Buddhism that means " wheel of time" or "time cycles". "''Kālacakra''" is also the name of a series of Buddhist texts and a major practice lineage in Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The ...

Tantra and ancient texts of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

. The original location was a mystic temple in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

, specifically, the temple of the White Lodge, according to

Alice Bailey Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Mancheste ...

's ''

A Treatise on White Magic ''A Treatise on White Magic'' is a book by Alice Bailey. It is considered to be among the most important by students of her writings, as it is less abstract than most, and deals with many important subjects of her works in an introductory, even pr ...

'' (1934), cited by Moore. The lyrics refer to a situation where kindness and cooperation are universal, joy and good fortune abound, and psychological burdens are lifted. The phrases "in the halls of Shambala" and "on the road to Shambala" tie for number of occurrences in the lyrics. The latter phrase perhaps alludes to the idea of Shambala not as a physical place but as a metaphor for the spiritual path one might follow.

Three Dog Night version

The well-known

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

of this song by the rock band

appeared in 1973 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, on the top 40 from the beginning of June through the end of August, reaching No. 3 in both the pop singles and

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

categories, No. 1 on the '' Cashbox Magazine'' charts, and an isolated week at No. 1 on WLS. Headed toward the Hot 100's summit in late July, had it not run out of steam, "Shambala" would have completed an uncommon distinction of a Hot 100 chart-topper for each of four consecutive years for the group. The song, the first one that the group had specifically cut as a single, rather than an album cut, later appeared on ''

Cyan Cyan () is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK col ...

,'' Three Dog Night's ninth album, and subsequently on numerous

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

and compilation albums. Although the lyrics of "Shambala" draw on a theme from

Eastern mysticism Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

notes the "very strong

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

feeling" of the album ''Cyan'' is most evident on this song. This comment may be based on both the instrumentation, including the characteristic gospel keyboard organ sounds that accompany the chorus, which features the repeated, unmistakable dog howls for which the group was long famous, and the

bluesy Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afric ...

vocals of

Cory Wells Cory Wells (born Emil Lewandowski; February 5, 1941 – October 20, 2015) was an American singer, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night. Early life Wells came from a musical family and began playing in Buffalo ...

. ''Allmusic'' calls this hit single "one of the group's finest later period records." In the original recording, writer Daniel Moore pronounces the first syllable of the title ("sham") as it would rhyme with "ham." The Three Dog Night and B.W. Stevenson versions pronounce that syllable to rhyme with "mom."

B. W. Stevenson version

One week before Three Dog Night's version appeared on the charts,

Texan Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by b ...

singer-songwriter

's minute-shorter version bowed at No. 96 and later peaked at No. 66 the week of June 9. It also reached No. 31 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart. This lesser-known version is often regarded as

country pop Country pop (also known as pop country or urban cowboy) is a fusion genre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. Country pop music blends genres ...

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal ...

and appears on collections of such. The

twang Twang is an onomatopoeia originally used to describe the sound of a vibrating bow string after the arrow is released.Hensleigh Wedgwood, ''A Dictionary of English Etymology: Q - Z'' (1865), p. 433. By extension it applies to the similar vibrat ...

of Stevenson's steel-string acoustic guitar, his Southern accent and an

American folk music The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...

sound all distinguish it from the better-known Three Dog Night version. In South Africa, Stevenson's version actually charted higher, peaking at No. 8, compared to Three Dog Night's No. 13.

Chart performance (Three Dog Night version)

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Other versions

Despite having two successful incarnations in the same year (one of which has remained a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prim ...

standard), few other artists have covered the song including: *

Rockapella Rockapella is an American a cappella musical group formed in 1986 in New York City. The group's name is an amalgam of "rock" and "a cappella". Rockapella sings original vocal music and a cappella covers of pop and rock songs; and over time, their ...

covered it twice, once in 1997 for their album ''Primer'' and again in 2002 for their album ''Smilin''. *

The New Seekers The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would have ...

recorded a version in the 1970s; however, it only appeared on their 1992 compilation, ''Greatest Hits

asters ''Aster'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Its circumscription has been narrowed, and it now encompasses around 170 species, all but one of which are restricted to Eurasia; many species formerly in ''Aster'' are ...

'. * South African musician

Dr Victor Victor Khojane, better known as Dr Victor or Dr Vic, is a reggae and R&B musician, who was born in Kimberley, South Africa.The Skeptics Skeptics were a New Zealand industrial post-punk band from 1979 to 1990. They became notorious in 1987 for an unusually graphic music video entitled "AFFCO". Early recordings Skeptics' first recording appeared in 1982 on ''The Furtive Four Th ...

also recorded a power pop version of the song on their 1994 CD, ''Be Satisfied''. * Country singer

Toby Keith Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961), known professionally as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. He released his first four studio albums—1993's '' Toby Keith'', 1994's ''Boomtown'', 19 ...

issued a live recording of "Shambala" as a bonus track on the deluxe version of his 2011 album ''

Clancy's Tavern ''Clancy's Tavern'' is the fifteenth studio album by American country music artist Toby Keith. It was released on October 25, 2011 by Show Dog-Universal Music. Lead-off single " Made in America" was released on June 13, 2011, reaching number one ...

''. * The South African trio Mark Haze (from

Idols South Africa ''Idols'' is a television show on the South African television network Mzansi Magic, and previously on M-Net, based on the popular British show ''Pop Idol''. The show is a contest to determine the best young singer in South Africa. The general ...

season seven), Dozi and Ghapi recorded a version on their album ''Rocking Buddies'' in 2013.
/ref> * The Switzerland based band Light Food covered "Shambala" on their 2016 album ''Party Approved''.

References

{{Authority control 1973 songs 1973 singles Songs written by Daniel Moore (musician) B. W. Stevenson songs Three Dog Night songs The New Seekers songs Toby Keith songs Cashbox number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand Tibetan Buddhist mythology Tibetan Buddhist art and culture Dunhill Records singles Buddhism in music