Joy to the World (Hoyt Axton song)
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"Joy to the World" is a song written by Hoyt Axton, and made famous by the band Three Dog Night. The song is also popularly known by its incipit, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog". The words are nonsensical. Axton wanted to convince his record producers to record a new melody he had written and the producers asked him to sing any words to the tune.
Three Dog Night's version went to number one on the pop music charts in February 1971 and was the top single of the year in Billboard Magazine for 1971[1]. The song was released on the band's album Naturally. It was also released on their albums Around the World With Three Dog Night (1973), Joy to the World: Their Greatest Hits (1974), The Best of 3 Dog Night (1982), and Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1965-1975 (1993). Three Dog Night never really wanted to record the song but they needed one last track for their Naturally album. The group had been on an overseas tour when that album was released and were greatly surprised to hear that the song they didn't want to record ended up being a big hit.
The edited single version (3:17) released on Dunhill records (D-4272) varies from the version widely available on their Greatest Hits collections. The mono single has a guitar solo in the instrumental bridge at approximately 1:10 that is not heard on the stereo Greatest Hits version. Plus the trailing ad libs in the single were edited from the order in which they appear in the stereo version.
In the 1990s, former Three Dog Night lead singer Chuck Negron recorded the Christmas carol "Joy to the World" and playfully included a few lyrics from the Three Dog Night/Hoyt Axton song — coming to a full stop in mid-song for the line "Jeremiah was a bullfrog." The refrain of Axton's song was also included in Mariah Carey's recording of the Christmas carol for her 1994 Merry Christmas album.
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[edit] Popular culture references
In an episode of the TV series Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friend Jeremiah (played by Samuel Ball) sing the "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" part of this song on the way home to Carrie after a party.
The song was also featured in an episode of the sitcom Friends when Phoebe, Monica and Chandler have gone to a karaoke evening hosted by Phoebe's new boyfriend, Mike. Chandler stands up and opens with the line "Jeremiah was a bullfrog".
It was used as the ending theme song for the Japanese drama Lunch Queen.
It was also referenced in a cartoon from The Far Side, where a frog says to his two friends, "Yeah, I remember Jerry. He was a good pal of mine...you know, I never understood a word he said, but he always had some mighty fine wine," parodying the first lines of the song.
The song is the opening song for Raise Your Voice, and the closing song for The Big Chill. It is also found in 28 Days during one of the flashbacks of the main character's mother being drunk.
The song also appears in the movie Amazon Women on the Moon, performed by David Alan Grier as Don 'No Soul' Simmons.
Two early-1970s clips of then-Chicago Bears head coach Abe Gibron singing the song were used on NFL Films' 1981 documentary on "The NFL's Best Ever Coaches" and was recycled into 1985's "The Best of Football Follies".
The song was referenced in "Detour", the fourth episode of the fifth season of the television series The X-Files. Agent Mulder demands Agent Scully sing to him, the pair having found themselves lost in a forest while attempting to capture a seemingly invisible predator. After declaring that she is unable to carry a tune, Scully proceeds to sing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog... Was a good friend of mine... Never understood a single word he said... But I helped him drink his wine...". Scully again sings a few lines in the season nine episode "William".
It is sometimes used in advertising during the Christmas season, as a play on the Christmas song "Joy to the World". It was used by JCPenney in 2004.
The Nintendo DS videogame Animal Crossing: Wild World also referenced the song via the inclusion of a frog called Jeremiah. He is among the neighbor roster in the game, in which the player could have a maximum of eight.
The video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion also makes a passing reference to the song. If the player listens in on some of the conversations between NPCs there is a chance that the NPCs will hold a conversation similar to the lyrics of the song.
The song was played in the movie Forrest Gump, when Forrest is playing Ping Pong.
In the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Garage Sale", when Hal restarts his pirate radio station, he plays a tape with the starting lyrics of "Joy to the World".
The song has now been included on the recent Sky Digital "Environment" advert.
The Green Bay Bullfrogs mascot is named Jeremiah.
During the 2007 season of American Idol, the song was once sung by all contestants.
A special version of song's main chorus was also employed as the opening and closing theme to the early-1980s episodes of Joy Junction, a Christian children's television series.
[edit] Parodies
In 2008, Paul Shanklin recorded a version call "Jeremiah Was My Pastor," referencing the controversy over remarks made by Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama's attempt to distance himself from them.[1]
| Preceded by "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" by The Temptations |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single April 17, 1971 |
Succeeded by "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones |
| Preceded by "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel |
Billboard Hot 100 Number one single of the year 1971 |
Succeeded by "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack |
[edit] References
- ^ Billboard Magazine, Top Single for the Year, 1971
