Three Dog Night Singer Chuck Negron Dead at 83

Chuck Negron, a founding singer of Three Dog Night, died of unspecified causes Monday night at the age of 83.

According to a press release announcing the news, the singer passed away surrounded by his family at his Studio City, California home. T

he statement goes on to explain that Negron dealt with the chronic lung disease COPD for several decades, and in recent months had also battled heart failure.

Formed in 1967, the Los Angeles-based group is best known for their chart-topping singles “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” “Joy to the World (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog)” and “Black and White.” They employed a three-singer lineup which also featured Danny Hutton and Cory Wells.

Born June 8, 1942, Negron grew up in the Bronx, and began singing in doo-wop groups at an early age. As a member of Three Dog Night, he handled lead vocals on songs such as “Joy to the World,” “One (Is the Loneliest Number),” “Old Fashioned Love Song” and “The Show Must Go On.”

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“I received the news today that my former bandmate from Three Dog Night, Chuck Negron, passed away peacefully at his home,” Hutton – the band’s sole remaining active touring member – wrote on Facebook. (Wells died in 2015.)

Negron was fired from the group in 1985 after a long struggle with substance abuse which eventually left him homeless. He was able to overcome his addictions in the early ’90s in a struggle chronicled in his 1999 book Three Dog Nightmare.

He then launched a solo career that yielded seven albums, most recently 2017’s Negron Generations. The COVID pandemic forced Negron off the road, as touring became “impossibly unsafe” due to his lung disease.

“We rarely spoke and lost touch for much of that time,” Hutton continued in his tribute post. “Five months ago, his wife Ami called to tell me he was very sick, and I decided I should go see him.

“When I arrived at his house, we hugged, cried, reminisced, and shared many stories. In that moment, we realized how much time had been lost by not being in each other’s lives. It was a beautiful and deeply meaningful reunion. ….I will always be grateful for the music we made together.”