An Old Fashioned Love Song

"An Old Fashioned Love Song"
Single by Three Dog Night
from the album Harmony
B-side "Jam"
Released November 1971
Format 7" (45 rpm)
Genre Pop rock
Length 3:26
Label Dunhill
Writer(s) Paul Williams
Producer(s) Richard Podolor
Certification Gold (RIAA)
Three Dog Night singles chronology
"Liar"
(1971)		 "An Old Fashioned Love Song"
(1971)		 "Never Been to Spain"
(1971)

"An Old Fashioned Love Song" is a 1971 song by the American pop-rock band Three Dog Night. Chuck Negron performed the lead vocal on this track. Taken as the lead single from their 1971 album, Harmony, the song peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1971, becoming the band's seventh top-ten hit.[1] It was Three Dog Night's first record to top the U.S. easy listening chart.[2] It reached number two in Canada. "An Old Fashioned Love Song" was written by the noted songwriter Paul Williams. Its lyrics suggest the straightforward and melodic nature of the tune: Just an old fashioned love song / Comin' down in three part harmony / Just an old fashioned love song / One I'm sure they wrote for you and me.

According to the Karen Carpenter biography Little Girl Blue by Randy L. Schmidt, Williams originally intended the song for The Carpenters, who were in the middle of a string of hits with their own brand of "old fashioned love songs," including two of Williams' own compositions, "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays." Although this was the first song Williams had written specifically for the Carpenters, Richard Carpenter rejected it, and so Williams offered the song to Three Dog Night. The Carpenters never recorded the song, but did perform it live on television with Carol Burnett a few months later. [3]

Paul Williams version

"An Old Fashioned Love Song"
Single by Paul Williams
from the album Just an Old Fashioned Love Song
Released 1971
Format 7" (45 rpm)
Genre Pop
Writer(s) Paul Williams

The song's composer Paul Williams recorded his own version of the song he had written, which was included on his 1971 album Just an Old Fashioned Love Song. Williams later performed the song when he appeared on The Muppet Show in 1976. He also sang a portion of the song for an episode of The Odd Couple TV series in 1974.

Other versions

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications)
  2. 1 2 Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)
  3. ↑ Schmidt, Randy L. Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter. Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2010, p. 76.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, February 11, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.