Three Dog Night keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon died this week at 67, after a battle with metastatic melanoma. Greenspoon was with Three Dog Night from 1968 until just last October when he stopped performing to receive treatment. Greenspoon performed with the likes of Jimmy Hendrix and the Beach Boys during his long career, but it was with Three Dog Night–an enduring band that still fills the seats–that he made his biggest mark.
Three Dog Night remains enormously busy. The band became world famous in the Sixties and Seventies for tunes like Joy to The World and Mama Told Me (Not to Come)–hits that still get people up out of their seats and dancing. Greenspoon’s keyboards were a critical, driving element in most of the band’s biggest hits, especially his hypnotizing play on Mama Told Me (below). Three Dog Night, with most members in their 60s, still has a seriously busy schedule–with 28 dates on their current slate. They’re playing six more dates in March alone. (Though these dates are likely to be affected by Greenspoon’s passing.) No surprise they pile ’em on–Three Dog Night knows better than anybody that One Is The Loneliest Number.
