The cover of the debut album by the American rock group Three Dog Night originally said almost nothing. Designed by Gary Burden, the front showed only the band's name. The record appeared on Dunhill Records on October 16, 1968, the first studio album from a seven-piece group that had formed the year before. The sessions took place in 1968 at American Recording in Studio City, California, with producer Gabriel Mekler, who had previously worked with Steppenwolf. Engineers Richard Podolor and Bill Cooper handled the recording; Podolor later became the band's producer.
How the Dunhill deal came together
Three Dog Night had earned that deal the old-fashioned way. The band, featuring Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, Chuck Negron, Joe Schermie, Floyd Sneed, Jimmy Greenspoon and Michael Allsup, had been a strong live draw in Los Angeles and caught the attention of several labels. A show at the Troubadour club sealed it, and they signed with Dunhill ABC.
The album's first single, 'Nobody,' came out in November 1968 and stalled at number 116 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was not the breakthrough. The record itself, also known as One, climbed to number 11 on the US Billboard 200, so people were listening, but nothing had exploded yet. The second single, 'Try a Little Tenderness,' appeared in January 1969 with 'Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad' on the flip side. It reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 19 in Canada, giving the album a modest lift before the real breakthrough arrived.
The three-voice concept behind 'One'
Everything shifted with the third single. 'One,' a cover of a Harry Nilsson song, arrived in April 1969 with Chuck Negron on lead vocals. Negron also sang 'Don't Make Promises,' while Danny Hutton handled Neil Young's 'The Loner.' Cory Wells took the lead on all the other tracks, a three-voice setup the producer Gabriel Mekler had shaped as the band's concept.
The album was a cover record through and through. The tracklist drew on Lennon-McCartney, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Tim Hardin and others. None of the three singers wrote songs, and the supporting musicians stayed anonymous. What Three Dog Night sold was interpretation, not authorship, and on 'One' that approach finally connected. Among the covers were 'Chest Fever,' a Robbie Robertson song originally done by The Band, and 'Heaven Is in Your Mind,' written by Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood and Chris Wood for Traffic. 'Let Me Go' came from Danny Whitten, and 'Find Someone to Love' was a Johnny 'Guitar' Watson song.
The single climbed to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and pushed the album back into view. On August 15, 1969, the record was certified gold by the RIAA for 500,000 copies sold. That success left a visible mark: after 'One' took off, the word 'One' was added to the album cover beneath the band's name. The single also topped the Record World Singles chart and reached number 4 in Canada and number 16 in New Zealand. In Canada the album climbed to number 17, and on August 5, 2008, it was certified platinum by the RIAA for one million copies sold.
The debut that had started with a nearly blank sleeve now carried its own hit in the title. A 32-minute collection of other people's songs had become a gold record, and a band built on three rotating voices had found the one song that made the whole design make sense.