It Ain't Easy (Three Dog Night Album)
''It Ain't Easy'' is the fourth album by American rock band Three Dog Night, released in 1970. Title and packaging According to lead singer Chuck Negron's book ''Three Dog Nightmare'', the album's working title was ''The Wizards of Orange'', with a cover featuring the band's members wearing orange make-up and posing in the nude. The band's record company, ABC/ Dunhill, rejected the original album title and cover art, although some configurations of their first "greatest hits" album, 1971's '' Golden Bisquits'', would later be packaged using ''It Ain't Easys original cover photo. Critical reception Reviewing in '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Admitting it won't gain me any of the hip cachet I crave, but I admired and enjoyed this group's first LP. I found the second mediocre and the live job that followed it wretchedly excessive, but this one—their fourth in just fourteen months—gets back: exemplary song-finding ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records (78s) collected in a bound book resembling a photo album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP record, long-playing (LP) records played at rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the ''album era''. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983, being gradually supplanted by the cassette tape throughout the 1970s and early 1980s; the popul ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rock Albums Of The Seventies
''Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' is a music reference book by American music journalist and essayist Robert Christgau. It was first published in October 1981 by Ticknor & Fields. The book compiles approximately 3,000 of Christgau's capsule album reviews, most of which were originally written for his "Consumer Guide" column in ''The Village Voice'' throughout the 1970s. The entries feature annotated details about each record's release and cover a variety of genres related to rock music. Christgau's reviews are informed by an interest in the aesthetic and political dimensions of popular music, a belief that it could be consumed intelligently, and a desire to communicate his ideas to readers in an entertaining, provocative, and compact way. Many of the older reviews were rewritten for the guide to reflect his changed perspective and matured stylistic approach. He undertook an intense preparation process for the book during 1979 and 1980, which temporarily ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Danny Hutton
Daniel Anthony Hutton (born September 10, 1942) is an Irish-American singer, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night. Hutton was a songwriter and singer for Hanna-Barbera Records from 1965 to 1966. Hutton had a modest national hit, "Roses and Rainbows", during his tenure as a recording artist for Hanna-Barbera Records. Hutton is the father of two sons, Dash Hutton, the former drummer in the American rock band Haim and Timothy V. Hutton, a bassist and producer. The sons co-own a recording studio called The Canyon Hut. Three Dog Night Three Dog Night was based around the vocal skills of Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron, and Cory Wells. In 1967, Hutton conceived the idea of a three-vocalist group, and he and Wells enlisted mutual friend Negron. The official commentary included in the CD set ''Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1965–1975'' states that vocalist Hutton's then-girlfriend June Fairchild suggested the name after reading a magazine a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams Jr. (born September 19, 1940) is an American composer, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for writing and co-writing popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s, including Three Dog Night's " An Old Fashioned Love Song" and " Out in the Country", Helen Reddy's " You and Me Against the World", Biff Rose's "Fill Your Heart", and the Carpenters' " We've Only Just Begun" and " Rainy Days and Mondays". He also wrote " Cried Like a Baby" for teen idol Bobby Sherman. Williams is also known for writing the score and lyrics for '' Bugsy Malone'' (1976) and his musical contributions to other films, including the Oscar-nominated song " Rainbow Connection" from '' The Muppet Movie'', and writing the lyrics to the No. 1 chart-topping song "Evergreen", the love theme from the Barbra Streisand film '' A Star Is Born'', for which he won a Grammy for Song of the Year and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. He wrote the lyrics to the opening t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roger Nichols (songwriter)
Roger Stewart Nichols (September 17, 1940 – May 17, 2025) was an American composer and songwriter. He was a multi-instrumentalist who played violin, guitar, bass guitar and piano. Background Roger Stewart Nichols was born in Missoula, Montana, on September 17, 1940, but grew up in Santa Monica, California, where his family had moved shortly after his birth. Both of his parents were musicians, and he inherited their interest in music from an early age, playing the violin as a child and later starting a band. After graduating from Santa Monica High School, he enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played basketball under head coach John Wooden. However, he dropped out of college after two years to pursue music. Career Nichols co-wrote many songs with lyricists Paul Williams, Tony Asher, and Bill Lane. Asher and Nichols co-wrote several songs on Nichols' debut album ''Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends'' (A&M Records, 1968) which was produced ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ron Davies (songwriter)
Ronny Wayne "Ron" Davies (January 15, 1946 – October 30, 2003) was an American songwriter and musician. He was described by CMT News at the time of his death as "the family's artistic trailblazer" although "less celebrated… than his oungersister, singer/songwriter and producer Gail Davies."Songwriter Ron Davies Dead at 57 CMT News, 10-30-2003. Retrieved 03-07-2011. The son of country singer Tex Dickerson, Ron took the name ''Davies'' after he and his siblings were adopted by their stepfather, Darby Davies. He began his professional songwriting career at the age of 17, when he wrote an entire album of songs (''Outburst!'') for the [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paul Rodgers
Paul Bernard Rodgers (born 17 December 1949) is an English-Canadian singer. He was the lead vocalist of numerous successful rock bands, including Free (band), Free, Bad Company, The Firm (rock band), the Firm and The Law (English band), the Law. He also has performed as a solo artist and collaborated with the remaining active members of Queen (band), Queen under the moniker Queen + Paul Rodgers, from 2004 to 2009. A poll in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him number 55 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2011, Rodgers received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Rodgers has been cited as a significant influence on various rock singers. In 1991, John Mellencamp called Rodgers "the best rock singer ever". Freddie Mercury in particular liked Rodgers and his aggressive style. Rodgers holds Multiple citizenship, joint citizenship, after becoming a Canadians, Canadian citizen in 2011. Early career Rodgers w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andy Fraser
Andrew McIan Fraser (3 July 1952 – 16 March 2015) was an English musician and songwriter, best known as the bassist and co-composer for the rock band Free, which he helped found in 1968 when he was 15. He also founded the rock band Sharks after leaving Free in 1972. Peak years (1960s and 1970s) Fraser was born in the Paddington area of Central London to a Barbadian/ Guyanese father of mixed European and African ancestry, and an English mother. His parents later divorced and, along with his three siblings, he was raised by his mother. He began playing the piano at the age of five. He was trained classically until twelve, when he switched to guitar. By thirteen he was playing in East End, West Indian clubs and after being expelled from St Clement Danes Grammar School in 1968 at the age of 15, enrolled at Hammersmith College of Further Education. There, another student, Sappho Korner, introduced him to her father, pioneering blues musician and radio broadcaster Alexis Kor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band in Western popular music and were integral to the development of Counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat music, beat and 1950s rock and roll, rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from Folk music, folk and Music of India, Indian music to Psychedelic music, psychedelia and hard rock. As Recording practices of the Beatles, pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the Baby boomers, era's youth and soc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mama Told Me Not To Come
"Mama Told Me Not to Come", also written as "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)", is a song by American singer-songwriter Randy Newman written for Eric Burdon's first solo album in 1966. Three Dog Night's 1970 cover topped the US pop singles chart. Tom Jones and Stereophonics' version also reached 4 on the UK Singles Chart in 2000. Newman original and first recordings Newman says that the song was inspired by his own lighthearted reflection on the Los Angeles music scene of the late 1960s. As with most Newman songs, he assumes a character; in this song the narrator is a sheltered and extraordinarily straitlaced young man, who recounts what is presumably his first "wild" party in the big city, is shocked and appalled by marijuana smoking, whiskey drinking, and loud music, and – in the chorus of the song – recalls that his "Mama told imnot to come". The first recording of "Mama Told Me Not to Come" was cut by Eric Burdon & The Animals. A scheduled release of a single in September ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is known for his non-rhotic Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and various film scores. His hits as a recording artist include "Short People" (1977), "I Love L.A." (1983), and "You've Got a Friend in Me" (1995), and has written songs such as "Mama Told Me Not to Come" (1966), "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" (1968), and "You Can Leave Your Hat On" (1972). Born in Los Angeles to an extended family of Hollywood film composers, Newman began his songwriting career at the age of 17, penning hits for acts such as the Fleetwoods, Cilla Black, Gene Pitney, and the Alan Price Set. In 1968, he made his formal debut as a solo artist with the album ''Randy Newman (album), Randy Newman'', produced by Lenny Waronker and Van Dyke Park ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plastic Soul
Plastic soul is described as soul music that is believed to lack authenticity. Usages Paul McCartney referenced the phrase as the name of the Beatles 1965 album ''Rubber Soul'', which was inspired by the term "plastic soul". In a studio conversation taped in June 1965 after recording the first take of " I'm Down", McCartney says "Plastic soul, man. Plastic soul". Popularity David Bowie also described his own funky, soulful songs released in the early to mid-1970s as "plastic soul". These singles sold well, and Bowie became one of the few white music artists to be invited to perform on '' Soul Train''. In a 1976 ''Playboy'' interview, Bowie described his recent album '' Young Americans'' as "the definitive plastic soul record. It's the squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of Muzak, written and sung by a white limey." Bowie's most commercially successful album, '' Let's Dance'', released in 1983, has also been described as "plastic soul". See also *Selli ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |