Hard Labor
March 1974 ABC Dunhill
Side A
1. PRELUDE 1.00
2. SURE AS I'M SITTIN' HERE (J. Hiatt) 4.45
3. ANYTIME BABE (L. Weiss) 3.07
4. PUT OUT THE LIGHT (Daniel Moore) 3.06
5. SITTING IN LIMBO (J. Cliff/G. Bright) 5.03
Side B
1. I'D BE SO HAPPY (S. Prokop) 4:43
2. PLAY SOMETHING SWEET (A. Toussaint) 4:47
3. ON THE WAY BACK HOME (Daniel Moore) 4:19
4. THE SHOW MUST GO ON (L. Sayer/D. Courtney) 4.23
Production by Jimmy Lenner
Coming Down Your Way
May 1975 ABC
Side 1
1. Til The World Ends (D. Loggins) 0:32
2. You Can Leave Your Hat On (R. Newman) 5:06
3. Good Old Feeling (K. Sprague/G. Stovall) 5:14
4. Mind Over Matter (A. Toussaint) 5:05
5. Midnight Flyer ("Eli Wheeler") (S. Konte) 0:20
Side 2
1. Kite Man (J. Gruska/B. Spirit) 4:18
2. Coming Down Your Way (J. Lynton) 4:02
3. When It's Over (J. Barry) 4:50
4. Lean Back, Hold Steady (D. Moore)3:48
5. Yo Te Quiero Hablar (G. Grandillo) 5:11
The last studio album from Three Dog Night to crack the Top 20, Hard Labor shows the growing cracks in the band's armor. Where on previous albums they had selected songs that highlighted their harmonic prowess, most of the tracks on Hard Labor are essentially solo efforts with group backing vocals. As a result, the band loses much of their soul and spirit. The lightweight hits, "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here" and "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)," both with Cory Wells singing lead, are most representative of the record. However, the highlights are the Chuck Negron-sung "The Show Must Go On" (written and originally performed by Leo Sayer) and the dramatic, emotional ballad "I'd Be So Happy" (penned by Skip Prokop of Lighthouse fame). More a compilation of individual tracks than a true band effort, Hard Labor is an inconsequential entry in the Three Dog Night catalog.
Three Dog Night garnered three hits off of their 1974 release, Hard Labor, with material from John Hiatt, Allen Toussaint, and David Courtney/Leo Sayer. This time around they obtain their 21st and final Top 40 entry with a Dave Loggins song, "'Till the World Ends," and it is no "Pieces of April," the lovely composition from the same songwriter which landed in the Top 20 for the group two-and-a-half-years earlier. The problem with the song is the same dilemma faced by the album, Coming Down Your Way, the band seeking another genre to conquer while keeping their eye off of the precise and major Top 40 activity which was their bread and butter. Keyboard player for the Blues Image, Frank "Skip" Konte, joins Jimmy Greenspoon on the ivories with the Monkees/Barry Manilow bassist Dennis Belfield onboard as well. Their addition makes for a very musical album with Danny Hutton, Cory Wells and Chuck Negron emulating the Band and some kind of pseudo-slickGrateful Dead rather than sticking with the formula which made them so very successful. Jimmy Ienner's production doesn't have the sparkle it did four months earlier on Grand Funk Railroad's "Bad Time," a heavy metal band sounding more like Three Dog Night than Three Dog Night. Tracked at Colorado's famed Caribou Ranch, the disc also fails to come up with something as extraordinary as Elton John's "Island Girl," a song manufactured in the same recording facility and hitting number one two months after " 'Till the World Ends" brought the group's six-and-a-half-year chart run to a close. Jack Lynton's "Coming Down Your Way" is a reflection of Leo Sayer's "The Show Must Go On" and the closest thing to familiar Dog Night as this disc gets. Jeff Barry's "When It's Over" puts it all into perspective, Negron phrasing the lament which states the obvious for the once magnificent radio-friendly pop production machine. A frustrating outing because all involved were certainly proficient enough to come up with something more substantial than these ten performances which play like unfinished outtakes. Associate Producer on this effort, Bob Monaco, would take the remnants of the group down a disco path with the 1976 release, American Pastime, effectively closing the door and pointing the band toward their next phase -- that of an oldies act.