LISTENING IN: Chuck Negron – the immortal singer with a frog in his throat

Chuck Negron, the singer who belted out the immortal line, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog!” in the charting topping 1971 hit “Joy to the World,” died this week at the age of 83 due to heart failure. A founding member of ‘70s soul-rock sensations Three Dog Night, Negron also sang lead on such hits as “One” and “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song.”

Negron and fellow vocalists Cory Wells and Danny Hutton were Los Angeles-based performers who began working together in the mid-1960s, originally calling themselves Redwood but settling on Three Dog Night, Australian slang for frigid outback weather. Between 1969 and 1974, they were among the world’s most successful acts, with 18 top 20 singles and 12 albums certified gold for selling at least 500,000 copies.

Three Dog Night was so popular, and so in demand, it released four albums within 18 months. In December 1972, the band hosted and performed on the inaugural edition of Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”

“We were really on a roll and very prolific,” Negron told smashinginterviews.com in 2013. “We were in the zone so to speak and really putting it out there. Back then, I don’t think it hurt us. It started hurting a little after that when there was just too much product. We were going to towns too many times a year. I remember getting off a plane in Dallas and thinking, ‘Wait a second. Weren’t we just here?’ Just thinking, ‘Oh, God, how are we going to sell out?’”

Negron himself stood out for his drooping mustache, in contrast to his clean-shaven peers, and for his multi-octave tenor. He helped transform “One,” a Harry Nilsson ballad, from a breakup song to a cry of helpless solitude. And he helped convince Wells and Hutton not to pass on what became their most famous song.

“Joy to the World,” written by Hoyt Axton, shared the title and little else with the 18th century English hymn. Axton’s novelty anthem was a secular blessing – “Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me” – with carefree asides about women, rainbow-riding and the friendship of a wine-guzzling bullfrog named Jeremiah. According to Negron, the other singers had twice turned down “Joy to the World” in his absence before Axton played him a demo.

No one seemed to care what “Jeremiah was a bullfrog!” was supposed to mean; it became a catchphrase of the era. “Joy to the World” outsold all other songs in 1971, received two Grammy nominations and lived on through oldies radio stations and movie soundtracks, notably for “The Big Chill” and “Forrest Gump.” The song caught on so fast, and for so long, that Three Dog Night performed it at back-to-back Grammy ceremonies.

Their other hits included “Black and White,” “Celebrate,” “Shambala” and “Easy to Be Hard.” But by the mid-1970s, the band was burned out, feuding and self-destructing. They broke up in 1976, attempted the occasional reunion and settled in as an oldies act. Negron dropped out for good in the mid-1980s, when his drug problems led to his being fired.

In his post-Three Dog Night years, Negron released several solo albums, including “Joy to the World” and “Long Road Back,” a companion to his memoir, and otherwise dedicated himself to helping others struggling with substance abuse.