“Eli’s Coming” (Three Dog Night)

Your classic song written by Laura Nyro but performed by someone else of the day is “Eli’s Coming,” by Three Dog Night. The band released this one in October of 1969 and it went all the way to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Cory Wells sang lead.

As noted, the song wasn’t written by any of the Three Dog Nighters (they didn’t write their own material), but by a songwriter named Laura Nyro. Ms. Nyro wrote this one in 1967 and included it on her second album, 1968’s Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

Laura Nyro wrote a lot of songs that became hits for other artists. I remember listening to “Eli’s Coming,” “And When I Die,” and “Wedding Bell Blues” back in the day and thinking there was something about all three of them, even though they were recorded by very different artists. When I plopped down my 99 cents for each of the 45s I looked at the labels and saw that all three of these songs (and many others) were written by an “L. Nyro.” That was, of course, Laura Nyro, and she was a terrific songwriter.

Here’s a short list of some of her most famous songs: “And When I Die” and “He’s a Runner” for Blood, Sweat & Tears; “Blowing Away,” “Save the Country“, “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Sweet Blindness,” and “Wedding Bell Blues” for the 5th Dimension; and “Flim Flam Man,” “Stoney End,” and “Time and Love” for Barbra Streisand. That’s a terrific portfolio, cementing Ms. Nyro’s place in the songwriting firmament. Her songs influenced hundreds of other artists, from Janis Ian (who went to high school with her) to Rickie Lee Jones to Todd Rundgren to Kanye West.

Three Dog Night, of course, had a ton of hits in the late ’60s through the mid-70s. “Eli’s Coming” was their third Top Ten hit overall, after “One” and “Easy to Be Hard,” all one after another in 1969. Part of their secret of success was choosing the best songs from the best songwriters of the period, including Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Randy Newman, and, of course, Laura Nyro.

The group had a total of 21 Top Forty hits, including three number-ones: 1970’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come” (written by Randy Newman), 1971’s “Joy to the World” (written by Hoyt Axton), and 1972’s “Black and White” (written by David Arkin and Earl Robinson). They also had a previous Classic Song of the Day, “Pieces of April,” which was written by Kenny Loggins’ second cousin, Dave Loggins. (That one also happens to be the most-viewed song on this website, for whatever reason.) They were pretty much unstoppable from 1969 through 1975 or so.

Despite all those hits, Three Dog Night remains somewhat underappreciated today. I even wrote an article for the Classic Rock History website that said pretty much that, and you can read it here.