It’s amazing how a band name can come along. Three Dog Night was adopted by the band after one of their girlfriend’s read a story describing how indigenous Australians would sometimes sleep in a hole in the ground on cold nights, embracing a dingo. If it was freezing it could be a two or three-dog night, thereby inspiring the name. Of course that was disputed since there’s always more to a story than you originally hear and given that this is a bit obscure it might be hard to others to really swallow. Whether or not any of that story is true however it is true that the band came up with some of the most persistent songs in the history of music that kind of creep into your head and stay there for a while. The band was actually inducted into the Vocal Hall of Fame in 2000, and their songs are still played on occasion on the radio and in other venues.
Here are some of their songs as they’ve been played in movies and on TV.
5. Three Dog Night – The Road to Shamballa
Lords of Dogtown is the movie that this song showed up in, or one of them at least. Based on a true story of a group of pioneering young skaters that came out of one of the supposedly worst areas the tale goes that three young men helped to set the stage for the evolution of skating and took things to such extremes that the entire nation and then the world stood up and took note. The only problem with this was that fame seemed to go to their heads and in no time at all they forgot who had gotten them there and gone off on their own to do the great things they’d always dreamed about.
4. Magnolia – One is the Loneliest Number
This movie is a serious hodgepodge of humanity that seems to bubble and boil over until one has to watch each little individual part by itself so that the rest will make sense as they put it together throughout the film. Otherwise it could be extremely confusing and turn a person this way and that without much effort since there are so many working parts and so many directions to watch at once. Movies like this tend to either get heavily criticized or lauded for their originality, but quite honestly it’s very hard to think that, as well-laid out as it is, that this movie could have been anything other than a visual oddity.
3. Forrest Gump – Joy to the World
Either Forrest was just a very fortunate man or karma figured that it owed him a time or two throughout his life since he did have things rough in the beginning and at certain points throughout the movie. But if you notice he never complains all that much, if at all. Forrest just takes life as it comes and doesn’t blame anyone for his shortcomings or the harder things that he has to experience in life. Even when he’s treated unfairly or loses those that mean something to him, there’s never a complaint other than to say that he misses them. He tells his story and theirs without apology and without regret.
2. Boogie Nights – Mama Told Me Not to Come
It’s simply too easy to knock the porn industry as something that comes with a veritable host of drawbacks, but it’s also an industry that many people enjoy and that provides good money to those that are willing to put in the work and earn their way to a respectable living. It might seem immoral and even disgusting to some people but it’s a business just like any other and it’s bound to be a little controversial at times. In this movie however it shows just how quickly someone can make their way up through the ranks and just how quickly they can be smacked down when they’re no longer the next big thing.
1. The Simpsons – One is the Loneliest Number
Lisa Simpson is kind of the girl you want to get to know but don’t always fully appreciate since she does tend to speak her mind a lot and doesn’t bother to loosen up her stance on certain things for anything or anyone. That’s kind of admirable really but it does keep her alone a lot since she belongs to a family that doesn’t value education as much as she does and tends to live more or less in a state of blissful ignorance that’s only interrupted by the use of knowledge when they really deem it as necessary. Being the only smart person in a family that seems to love being kind of dim can’t be easy, but being a know-it-all sometimes earns a person the right to be lonely.
It might be time to at least go out and do some research on Three Dog Night if you don’t know who they are.Magnolia
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