Cory Wells

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cory Wells (born February 5, 1942 in Buffalo, New York) is an American singer, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night.

Wells came from a musical family and began playing in Buffalo-area bands in his teens. His father died when he was a small child, leaving his mother to struggle financially until she eventually remarried. Having survived childhood in a rough, racially polorized neighborhood and an even more brutal home environment fueled by his abusive stepfather, Cory joined the US Air Force directly out of high school. While in the Air Force, he formed a band of interracial performers, inspired by his boyhood love of a similar local band called The Del Vikings, who'd had a national hit with the doo-wop song "Come Go With Me." The three black/two white singers became a hit performing on their homebase and before long were pegged to spend the remainder of their hitch performing on various Air Force bases around the country.

Following his tour of duty, Cory returned to Buffalo and tried to get a band together, but with limited success. He then moved to Arizona in 1967, and briefly toured with Sonny and Cher before ending up in Los Angeles, California. He formed a band called The Enemys who became the house band for the Whisky-A-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip at a time when many band who were about to become household names were taking their formative steps -- groups such as The Doors, The Buffalo Springfield and Spirit. The Enemys had minor hits with recordings of "Hey Joe" and "Sinner Man," and the band made appearances in the films Riot on Sunset Strip and the Paul Newman film Harper, as well as making an appearance on an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Through singer Danny Hutton, a former songwriter/performer for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Cory met The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, who, in turn, introduced them to singer Chuck Negron. The three recorded demos under the name Redwood with Wilson as producer (this at the same time when he was producing songs for a rather unsettling singer/songwriter named Charles Manson). The sessions produced a potential single, "Time To Get Alone." Having perfected their three-part harmony sound within Redwood, Cory, Danny and Chuck, with the addition of a four-piece backing group made up of friends and others they'd met during auditions, began performing as Three Dog Night in 1968. That group became one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

After Three Dog Night broke up in 1977, Wells tried a solo career, recording the album Touch Me for A&M Records in 1978. Wells helped re-launch Three Dog Night in the mid-1980s, recording an EP called "It's A Jungle." A falling out with Negron left Hutton and Wells with the name "Three Dog Night" as an entity, under which they continue to perform successfully today, and the pair (along with original members Mike Allsup and Jimmy Greenspoon) tour regularly each year. Wells continues to tour with the band as of 2006. His longtime marriage to wife Mary resulted in two daughters, Dawn and Coryanne, who has worked as an effects animator for Walt Disney Pictures.