Rocker whose group had a string of No. 1 hits reveals why manager hated the band’s name

Decades after their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, Three Dog Night remains one of the most recognizable names in rock history.

But founder and singer Danny Hutton, 82, said the band’s manager wasn’t too keen on the group’s name.

“The name has nothing to do with music,” Hutton told Advance/SILive.com in a telephone interview. “But our manager was really angry when we chose that name.”

Three Dog Night, starring Hutton, opens at the St. George Theater on Saturday.

‘Circus act’

Three Dog Night refers to the Australian Aboriginal practice of sleeping with dogs for warmth. The coldest nights required three dogs for comfort.

The band’s manager didn’t think the name was that important, Hutton said.

“They’ll think you’re a circus act,” Hutton said the band was told. “And the word ‘dog’ wasn’t used at the time. Everyone thought that was derogatory. And now everyone uses dog as a nickname. It’s almost, you know, ‘Hey, dog.’

Harmony first

Hutton formed Three Dog Night in 1967 with singers Chuck Negron and Cory Wells.

Hutton entered the music world in the 1960s as a singer and producer, including at Hanna-Barbera Records.

Hutton said that he always placed three-part vocal harmonies in his songs and that he had that in mind when forming the band that would become Three Dog Night.

“I love that triad sound,” Hutton said. “And so I specifically looked for two other guys.”

He said: “Our goal has always been to just serve the music, serve the song and do it well. Lots of harmony. So even if you don’t speak the language, you hear a lot of harmony, a lot of hooks. And that is important to me.”

The group was initially called Redwood and was in line to be produced by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, who was a close friend of Hutton, and to be signed to the group’s Brother Records.

But the other Beach Boys wanted Wilson to focus solely on the Beach Boys, Hutton said.

Hutton, Negron and Wells formed a full band and went on to record 21 Top 40 hits, including three songs that topped the charts: “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” “Joy to the World” and ” Black and White,” the latter of which featured Hutton on lead vocals.

Three Dog Night performed songs by emerging songwriters of the time who would later become icons, including Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Laura Nyro and Paul Williams.

Three Dog Night’s first gold record, ‘One’, was on an album by Nilsson, but was not a hit for him.

“We took the song out and rearranged it and we had a hit with it,” says Hutton.

But Hutton said Three Dog Night shouldn’t be considered a “cover band.”

“We breathed new life into songs,” he said. “And that formula was great. I mean, Randy Newman gives you a song. Are you going to do one of your songs?

Crime of the century

Hutton also has a link to what was once known as ‘the crime of the century’.

Hutton was born in Ireland and later came to Boston with his family. His mother, Kathleen, owned a boarding house in town.

The boarding house rose to prominence when resident Elmer “Trigger” Burke tried to kill Joseph “Specs” O’Keefe, one of the participants in the 1950 Great Brink’s Robbery, then the largest robbery in American history.

O’Keefe had bragged about his role in the ‘crime of the century’ and Burke was called in to silence him. Burke injured O’Keefe after a chase, but O’Keefe survived.

“Then my mother got a knock on the door from the police and she had to come downstairs and she was on the front page of the Boston Globe Fingering (Burke),” Hutton said.

Hutton’s mother received police protection, but soon decided to move the family to California.

No politics

Despite being a band rooted in the turbulent 1960s and currently touring during a time of division in America, Hutton said Three Dog Night is not a political band.

“Our goal is to get everyone into the theater or wherever we’re playing and forget about the outside world,” he said.

He said: “I couldn’t be happier with the band. You go home in a good mood.”