Cory Wells
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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.
[edit] Life and career
Wells, who was born Emil Lowendowski, came from a musical family and began playing in Buffalo-area bands in his teens. His father, who was married to someone else, died when he was a small child, leaving his mother to struggle financially until she eventually remarried. She gave Cory her maiden last name so not to implicate his natural father. Having survived childhood in a rough, racially polarized neighborhood and an even more brutal home environment fueled by an abusive stepfather[citation needed], Wells joined the United States 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 popular band called The Del-Vikings, who had a national hit with the doo-wop song, "Come Go with Me."
Following his military tour of duty, Wells returned to Buffalo and was asked to join a band named the Vibratos. It was here that he was heard by a manager and asked to travel to California with the band. They changed the name to "The Enemy", working all the clubs in the LA area, San Diego, Las Vegas and Sacramento. After being the house band at the Whisky a Go Go for a year and being in several movies and TV shows (The Beverly Hillbillies, Burke's Law, Riot on Sunset Strip, Harper with Paul Newman and Shelly Winters), Cory was asked by Cher at the Whiskey a Go Go to tour with Sonny and Cher. It was on that tour that Cory met Danny Hutton, his future partner in the rock band Three Dog Night. At a time when many bands who were about to become household names were taking their formative steps - groups such as The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds and Spirit. The Enemys had minor hits with recordings of "Hey Joe" and "Sinner Man".
Danny and Cory got together to form Three Dog Night. Danny had met Chuck Negron at a Hollywood party so when Cory and Danny looked for the third singer, they found him in Chuck Negron. Danny Hutton, a former songwriter/performer for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Cory and Chuck met The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. 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" but was stopped by Beach Boy member Mike Love. Having perfected their three-part harmony sound within Redwood, Wells, Hutton and Negron, with the addition of a four-piece backing group made up of friends and others they had had worked with, began performing as Three Dog Night in 1968. That group became one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Unlike many other rock musicians of the day, Wells was able to abstain from serious drug and alcohol problems, nor did he squander his earnings on the lavish life style of a successful rock star, choosing to live a somewhat more moderate existence. 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.
As of 2007 Wells, who is also an avid fisherman, continues to tour with the band. His longtime marriage to wife Mary resulted in two daughters, Corrie Ann and Dawn Marie, who has worked as an effects animator for Walt Disney Pictures.
