{"id":562662,"date":"2026-02-03T06:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/562662\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T06:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:20:11","slug":"singer-for-three-dog-night-on-major-hits-was-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/562662\/","title":{"rendered":"Singer for Three Dog Night on Major Hits Was 83"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChuck Negron<\/a>, one of the three founding members of the rock group Three Dog Night<\/a> and lead singer on some of their biggest hits, died Monday at age 83. A statement from his publicist said Negron died peacefully at his home in Studio City, Calif., surrounded by family. <\/p>\n

\n\tNegron\u2019s voice was heard as the lead vocalist on such hits as \u201cJoy To The World (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog),\u201d \u201cOne (Is the Loneliest Number),\u201d \u201cOld Fashioned Love Song,\u201d \u201cThe Show Must Go On\u201d and \u201cEasy To Be Hard.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough no exact cause of death was given, a statement said that Negron struggled with heart failure in his final months, in addition to the chronic COPD he had dealt with for three decades.<\/p>\n

\n\tThree Dog Night was founded in 1967 by Negron, Danny Hutton and Cory Wells. The group struggled to find credibility with some rock audiences, who resisted the band for not writing its own songs as the singer\/songwriter age took over. Yet they had 21 top 40 hits, many of them offering early shots to some of the top writers of the day. They recorded material by Nilsson, Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, Paul Williams, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Tim Hardin, Hoyt Axton and Leo Sayer, among others.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI like different songs for different reasons,\u201d he told Rock Cellar<\/a>. \u201cI like \u2018One\u2019 because it was our first million-selling record, that one really put us in the game. It has a special place in my heart for other reasons too, it was done in one take, and at the time I was in awe of what came out of me, I couldn\u2019t believe I\u2019d done that. \u2026 I loved \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 because it became a signature song for us, and it\u2019s still a hit to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe group\u2019s self-titled debut album came out on Dunhill in 1968 and went platinum. Wells sang most of the lead vocals on the first album, but, fatefully, the very first song on the very first LP, \u201cOne,\u201d written by Nilsson, was sung by Negron. It went to No. 5 on the Hot 100.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir following seven album releases, through 1974, all reached gold status. The group\u2019s first No. 1 was \u201cMama Told Me Not to Come,\u201d sung by Wells, in 1970, and the second was the Negron-sung \u201cJoy to the World\u201d in 1971.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe partnership fell apart in the mid-1970s, due in part to Negron\u2019s well-documented and admitted struggles with drugs, including a heroin addiction that he finally kicked. The group disbanded between 1976-1981, then reunited from 1981-1985 before there was another fallout, this one more permanent. Hutton and Wells carried on under the Three Dog Night banner, and Hutton continues to tour behind it today, as the sole original member. Negron eked out a successful career as a solo artist on the oldies circuit for decades to come, until the pandemic put a halt to his touring.<\/p>\n

\n\tNegron estimated that at one point, he was spending $2,000-3,000 a day on drugs and spent millions of dollars on his habit over time. In 1991, Negron checked into rehab, later telling Rock Cellar<\/a> of his time at CRI: \u201cI wanted to cry help, and they took a spiritually and physically broken man, and they changed me with many tools and an unbelievable support group.\u201d Later he did benefits for the rehab center, and would speak at hepatitis conventions to share his experiences with the condition.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn obituary provided by Negron\u2019s representative said that although he and Hutton had been estranged for decades, they met up last year \u201d\u00a0in a timely effort to exchange apologies and bury the hatchet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a December interview Hutton<\/a> did with Catalyst\u2019s Bill DeYoung, he spoke of that meeting with Negron. \u201cThey\u2019re making a documentary on us now, and the producer asked me\u2026 \u2018Would you and Chuck ever get back together again?\u2019 I just looked at her and said, \u2018Absolutely not. No way.\u2019 She said, \u2018He would love to talk to you,\u2019 and I said \u2018Look, I don\u2019t want to talk to him.\u2019 A lot of hurt, all of that stuff. And then I finally said, all right, you know what? I\u2019ll talk to him. So we went to his place \u2013 she had a whole crew there \u2013 and we hugged. And made up. It was wonderful. It was a great relief to get that burden \u2026 it\u2019s not healthy to keep that anger. Anger always comes from hurt, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe third founding membrer, Wells, died in 2015 at age 74.<\/p>\n

\n\tNegron told Rock Cellar about the secrets of performing with COPD. \u201cI reached a point where the COPD was going to prevent me from performing live; I could have literally died on stage,\u201d he said. \u201cBut people aren\u2019t going to pay to see someone singing with an oxygen mask on, so I had to do something or it was all going to be over.\u00a0Luckily my girlfriend Amy stumbled across this pair of glasses that feed the oxygen from the tank, through the glasses, to the wearer.\u00a0The cord has been modified to look like a guitar cable, so it\u2019s more \u2018rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u2019 The audience can\u2019t even tell.\u00a0It changed my entire career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNegron is survived by his wife, Ami Albea Negron; his children Shaunti Negron Levick, Berry Oakley, Charles Negron III, Charlotte Negron, and Annabelle Negron; his brother Rene (Jody) Negron, sister Denise (Janey) Negron; nine grandchildren, five nieces and two nephews, as well as his children\u2019s mothers, Paula Servetti, Julia Negron, Robin Silna and Kate Vernon.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chuck Negron, one of the three founding members of the rock group Three Dog Night and lead singer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":562663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[245615,171,245616,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-562662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-chuck-negron","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-three-dog-night","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116005255592354479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}