Jeremiah Was A Good Friend Of Mine

 I was in the 6th grade when Three Dog Might released "Joy To The World" in February of 1971. It was the first record i purchased using my own money, which i had made from mowing yards. I bought it at McWhorters Variety Store for $1.05. The single had been out less than two months when, on April 9, 1971, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of over 1,000,000 units across the United States. The record was also given a Gold Leaf award by RPM magazine for sales of over a million units and it won the award for the Best Selling Hit Single Record by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in March 1972. It was also ranked the #1 Pop single of 1971 by Billboard magazine. When the song hit #1, it's writer, Hoyt Axton, and his mother, Mar Axton, became the first mother and son to each have written a number one pop single in the rock era. She co-wrote Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel."

"Joy To The World" was recorded in 1970 at American Recording Company. Three Dog Night originally released the song on their fourth studio album, "Naturally," in November of that year. Some of the words are nonsensical. Axton wanted to persuade his record producers to record a new melody he had written and the producers asked him to sing any words to the tune. The original opening line was "Jeremiah was a prophet," but no one liked that. When he performed the song to the group, Danny Hutton and Cory Wells rejected it, but Chuck Negron felt it would help bring the band back together as a working unit. Instead of having the three main vocalists singing harmony, the song was recorded with all seven members of the band singing. Drummer Floyd Sneed sang the deep lyric, "I wanna tell you," towards the end of the song.

"Joy To The World" went on to sell 5 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Everytime I hear the song on the radio or I play it the band, my mind goes back to that 45rpm record I bought in early 1971.

"Joy To The World"

Verse 1
Jeremiah was a bull frog
Was a good friend of mine
I never understood a single word he said
But I helped him drink his wine
And he always had some mighty fine wine

Verse 2
If I were the king of the world
Tell you what I'd do
I'd throw away the cars
And the bars and the wars
Make sweet love to you

Verse 3
You know I love the ladies
Love to have my fun
I'm a high night flier and a rainbow rider
A straight-shootin' son of a gun
I said a straight shootin' son of a gun

Chorus
Joy to the world
All the boys and girls
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me