<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (October 22, 2015) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; overflow: visible !important;">Cory Wells, Three Dog Night singer, dies at 74</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">DUNKIRK, N.Y. – Cory Wells, a founding member of the popular 1970s band Three Dog Night and lead singer on such hits as “Never Been to Spain” and “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” has died at age 74. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wells experienced acute back pain weeks ago and died suddenly Tuesday in Dunkirk, where he had lived, bandmate Danny Hutton said. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Cory was an incredible singer – a greater performer, he could sing anything,” Hutton said. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The cause of Wells’ death was unknown, Universal Music Enterprises spokeswoman Sujata Murphy said. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Vocalists Wells, Hutton and Chuck Negron formed Three Dog Night in 1967, lifting the name from Australian slang for especially cold weather. They added a backing band as they became a top group over the following decade, specializing in covers of songs by Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and Paul Williams, among others. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dubbed the “kings of oversing” by Village Voice critic Robert Christgau, they patented a fervent, gospel-influenced style on such hits as “One,” “Eli’s Coming” and the chart-topping “Joy to the World.” </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Band members took turns on lead vocals, with Wells’ singing featured on “Shambala,” “Never Been to Spain” and the No. 1 hit “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” Newman’s comic tale of an innocent man at a wild party. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wells, a Polish-American with several polka players among his relatives, was born Emil Lewandowski in Buffalo. He joined the Air Force right out of high school and performed in local groups after returning. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s and while in the house band for the popular club the Whiskey A-Go-Go he met Hutton, a writer and producer at the time with Hanna-Barbera Records. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wells and Three Dog Night continued to record and tour, in various incarnations, right up to the present. Wells’ death comes seven months after longtime keyboard player Jimmy Greenspoon died of cancer. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wells is survived by his wife, two daughters and five grandchildren.</span></p></div><div>--------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><b>"Mama Told Me (Not To Come)"</b> by Three Dog Night</div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Three_Dog_Night/Mama_Told_Me_Not_To_Come.mp3">http://www.TomandRodna.com/Songs/Three_Dog_Night/Mama_Told_Me_Not_To_Come.mp3</a></div><div><br></div><div><b>"Never Been To Spain"</b> by Three Dog Night</div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Three_Dog_Night/Never_Been_To_Spain.mp3">http://www.TomandRodna.com/Songs/Three_Dog_Night/Never_Been_To_Spain.mp3</a></span></div><div><br></div><div>Rest well, Cory.<br><div><div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div><div></div></div></body></html>