Chuck Negron, Three Dog Night Co-Founder Who Took Cover Songs to the Top, Dead at 83 - Rolling Stone

Chuck Negron, one of the founding members and lead singer of rock hounds Three Dog Night, died on Monday. He was 83. Negron passed away at his home in Studio City, California, surrounded by family, according to a representative for the artist. Although a cause of death was not given, a statement said that the singer battled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, for decades, and in his final months suffered from heart failure. Born in Manhattan on June 8, 1942, Negron sang in doo-wop groups and played basketball while growing up in the Bronx. After high school, he was recruited to play basketball at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, and later at California State University in Los Angeles. After landing in Los Angeles, Negron began exploring Hollywood’s music industry, and in 1967, he founded Three Dog Night with fellow singers Danny Hutton and Cory Wells. With roots in R&B, rock & roll, and doo-wop, the group would land its first big hit with “One (Is the Loneliest Number),” written by Harry Nilsson, and it peaked at Number Five on the Billboard Hot 100. The band would go on to garner 21 consecutive Top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975 through songs written by other musicians, including two-time Grammy-nominated “Joy to the World” (Hoyt Axton), Eli’s Coming” (Laura Nyro), “Mama Told Me Not to Come” (Randy Newman), and “An Old-Fashioned Love Song” (Paul Williams). blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-dsk-tab-article-inbody-uid0' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("music\/article\/inbody1") .addSize(,,,,,,,,]) .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); In a 1972 Rolling Stone cover story, Three Dog Night were described as “the discoverers, in the sense that they put them on the pop charts, of Nyro, Nilsson, Newman, and even Elton John and Bernie Taupin,” noting that any song the group put on an album “is liable to become a hit single by album airplay and radio station responses.” At the time, as the band began selling out every headlining show, Three Dog Night were out-grossing the likes of Sly and the Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elvis Presley, and even the Rolling Stones. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century Then, at the height of the band’s career, the wild success broke down due to Negron’s struggles with drug abuse and heroin addiction. For a time, the singer lived on Los Angeles’ skid row after losing the millions he had made on drugs. The group disbanded in 1976 and reunited in 1982 before breaking up again in 1985 following Negron’s relapse. Hutton and Wells continued under the Three Dog Night banner, and Hutton, the lone original member, still tours today. blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-dsk-tab-article-inbody2-uid1' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("music\/article\/inbody2") .addSize(,,,,,,,,]) .setLazyLoadMultiplier(2) .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); After 37 stints in rehab and 13 years, Negron was able to get clean in 1991 and launched a solo career, releasing seven albums between 1995 and 2017. He documented his journey’s vast highs and lows in his 1999 book, Three Dog Nightmare.