With a little extra time on my hands, I found myself listening to some of my favorite tunes...Although this has little or nothing to do with darts or dart strategy, I have included this on my dart website as this is MY dart music of choice. And if I ever were to select music to play while walking on stage for a competitive match - this would be it. The greatest band, IMHO (in my humble opinion), is of course, Three Dog Night.

Music has a way of touching someone, and hearing that music instantly transports one to the time and place of yester-year. When I first heard the song "Joy to the World", it was spring of 1971..I was 7 years old, almost 8, and living with a German family in the city of Chicago. My brother and I were finishing the school year on the north side of the city, while my parents moved into the first house that they had dreamed of all their lives, in the suburbs. That was their dream...to work hard, have a family, buy a house in the suburbs (away from the city), raise their children, and make their first house "home."

The Richter family (were my brother and I were staying...) had a radio in their kitchen and in the morning, while rushing around to get ready for school, we would quickly (even as a 7 year old!) drink coffee with cream (a German thing) while listening to the top hits on the radio. Over and over and over, Joy to the World was played and I loved that song. To this day, hearing that song brings me right back to that kitchen...bright and sunny, very warm and full of love, to a time and place long ago where everything was so simple, uncomplicated, innocent and all-things-were-good and hopeful-in-the-world.

Fast forward a few decades and I happened to pick my younger brother up in my car as we were going somewhere together and it was my turn to drive. Steven got into the car and as I pulled away, the Three Dog Night CD advanced to the song "Joy to the World" and though we had never spoken of it before, my brother asked "Do you remember this song playing in the Richter's kitchen?" And we turned the music up loud, sang along to the radio, and were simply joyful in the moment. Yes indeed, life is good, isn't it?

The Greatest Song in The World, Top 10 - Spring, 1971
"Joy To the World" by Three Dog Night

Don Krider's Full Review: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection, Three Dog Night:

The late Hoyt Axton (an actor of sorts in movies like "Gremlins" and "The Black Stallion," whose film debut was in an episode of "Bonanza" in 1965)) was an accomplished songwriter already when Three Dog Night recorded his "Joy To The World." Among the artists who have recorded his tunes: Steppenwolf ("The Pusher," "Snowblind Friend"), The Kingston Trio ("Greenback Dollar") and Ringo Starr ("The No No Song").

Three Dog Night's "Joy To The World" was a monster single, hitting # 1 for six straight weeks in 1971 (out of 17 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100). It had multi-generational appeal in its uptempo, Mitch Miller-style chorus of "joy to the world, all the boys and girls" and an understated background bass vocal of "oh, I wanna tell you..."

Essentially the radio anthem of 1971 with two million certified radio airplays to date (according to BMI.Com), the band sang this million-seller:

"Jeremiah was a bull frog / was a good friend of mine / I never understood a single word he said / but I helped him drink his wine / and he always had some mighty fine wine / singin' / joy to the world / all the boys and girls, now / joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea / joy to you and me..."

About the Band Three Dog Night:

The seven-piece outfit with three lead vocalists (Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells) featured six white males (Hutton, Negron, Wells, guitarist Michael Allsup, keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon and bassist Joe Schermie) and an African-American male (drummer Floyd Sneed). The racial integration of the group was pretty unique at the time.

Their album tracks included material by then-unknown songwriters such as Elton John, Hoyt Axton (trivia buffs: Hoyt's mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote Elvis Presley's first hit, "Heartbreak Hotel"), Laura Nyro, Paul Williams, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Leo Sayer, among others, whose careers took off when Three Dog Night scored with their songs.

The band was formed in Southern California in 1968 by Danny Hutton (from Ireland), Chuck Negron (from the Bronx in New York) and Cory Wells (from Buffalo, New York). They played around with different names for the band before becoming Three Dog Night.

According to the CD booklet, "Three Dog Night" is "an Australian expression referring to it being so cold that, as one would sleep beside a dog for warmth, in this case, one would need three."

They recorded a couple of demonstration records for Brother Records, The Beach Boys' personal label, but when they found that Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson wouldn't be available to produce an entire album for them, they struck out to find a new label.

Already a major concert draw without a recording deal, the band became the subject of a bidding war among all the major record labels, but it was ABC-Dunhill Records that won the contract.

Three Dog Night scored quickly with the single "Try A Little Tenderness" (not in this collection) which reached # 29 in early 1969, followed by 20 more consecutive Top 40 hits by 1975. Not only did 19 of those singles also go Top 20 on the charts, but 11 of the tunes went Top 10 and three rose to # 1 ("Mama Told Me Not To Come" in 1970, "Joy To The World" in 1971 and "Black & White" in 1972).

According to Billboard magazine, seven of the singles earned Gold Record Awards for sales of over a million copies each in the United States (these days, singles can earn the same award for selling half that amount).

On the album charts, the band scored 12 straight Gold Record Awards for its albums between 1969 and 1976 ("Coming Down Your Way" in 1975 and "American Pastime" in 1976 failed to sell the required 500,000 album units to earn the award, however).

They never had a # 1 album in the United States, but five of their albums went Top 10 and 14 long players hit the Top 200 Album chart in Billboard. Thirteen of those albums hit the top half of the Top 200 Album chart --- their first 12 albums all made the Top 30 in 1969-74.

Chart impact of those albums was greater than their chart rankings, too: five of the albums were each on the charts for more than a year, with "Suitable For Framing" in 1969 spending 74 weeks on the Billboard chart (their "Captured Live At The Forum," also released in 1969, was a close second in chart residency with 72 weeks on the chart).

Worldwide, the act has sold more than 50 million albums and singles over the years. The group reunited in 1981 and continues to tour (with founding members Hutton, Wells, Allsup and Greenspoon in the current six-man lineup; Negron, the third lead singer, is a solo act these days).

As always, shoot well and I'll see you at the line.