THIS IS ACTUALLY the 3 DOG NIGHT BAND!!!!
charlie bear | Big Sky Country | 03/12/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"In 1976, he legendary Three Dog Night imploded after a mostly stellar career. Some of the guys had already abandoned ship and moved on and what was left in the ashheap was more like 2 Dog Night with a bunch of pedestrian studio musicians.
First, a little detailed latter day history of Three Dog Night:
Years of infighting and drug abuse took their toll on the group and the once proud band went out like a dog with its tail between its legs. The last two 3DN albums (Coming Down Your Way & American Pastime) were, well......dogs. Embarrassingly bad, they both bombed on the charts. Especially the latter Bob Monaco produced effort - by which time most of the band had bailed. Of the 3 singers, Danny Hutton was out - only Chuck and Cory remained (still talking in those days!) All but one of the original guys in the band were gone.
The music? Dreadful. The song choices were pathetic, the spirit and the passion were gone, and the Dog basically chucked the sound that made them famous.
Meantime the core of the original musicians Mike Alsup, Joe Shermie and Floyd Sneed soldiered on, picked up a couple of other guys and formed a new group that actually sounded more at times like the original band than did the latter day so called "3 Dog Night".
Give the guys an A for effort.
For a name they chose SS Fools, named after one of the most successful 3DN albums "Seven Separate Fools".
Not only that, they hired original Dog producer Richard Podolor, along with engineer partner Bill Cooper to take the reigns and recapture a little bit of the old magic. And they did. But only a little bit.
Bobby Kimball, future lead singer of Toto was the guy out front and SS Fools was released not long after the pitiful "American Pastime". And yes at times the production flourishes replicate the sonic essence of the patented 3DN sound. Think 3 Dog Night w/ Toto on the vocals.
There are some good songs here. Certainly superior to the dreadful dreck on the aformentioned latter-day dogs.
Strongest songs: "First Things First" co-written by Joe Shermie w/ Stephen Stills, "Why Can't You Be Mine", a catchy fun song that could have been a hit of sorts, and "Baby's Calling Me Home" an early Boz Scaggs song that really sounds like you know who. Close your eyes and it's Three Dog Night baby.
If Podolor and the guys would have taken a little more time to find some additional upper tier songs, this would have been a solid release that could have scored. As is, it was too little, too late and it's doubtful that SS Fools sold even 5,000 copies. Even though it was released on Columbia, it was not well distributed and got no promotion.
Indeed, most 3 Dog Night fans don't even know of it's existence... not even hard-core fans! And they still don't.
Maybe a few more do now!
"
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1