by Lindsay Planer 　　Three Dog Night's self-titled debut is one of the strongest and most cohesive offerings by the combo. Their claim to fame would come via overhauls and sleepers from a wide spectrum of luminous singer/songwriters. The moniker refers to lead vocalists Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells, but credit is overdue for the incendiary instrumentalists: Mike Allsup (guitar), Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass) and Floyd Sneed (drums). The combo's initial achievement came in April of 1969 after their remake of Harry Nilsson's loner/heartbreak anthem "One" landed in the Top Five. So successful was the track, the record label emblazoned the name of the song onto the cover art -- resulting in the long-player also (albeit erroneously) being identified as "One." The contents are as eclectic as one might hope to find during the free-form album rock era. The dearth of originals might initially relegate Three Dog Night to the ranks of a competent bar band, what became essential to their burgeoning accomplishments was their ability to consistently turn their interpretations into sizeable hits, whereas the composers weren't able to. For example, Nilsson did not score at all with "One," and their take of "Try a Little Tenderness" placed at a respectable number 29, faring almost as well as Otis Redding's reading which had only reached number 25 three years earlier. While there are few substandard inclusions, among the other notable entries are "Nobody," a secondary R&B classic from Larry Williams, the a cappella redux of John Lennon/Paul McCartney's "It's for You," Traffic's "Heaven Is in Your Mind," and a hard-driving and edgy "Chest Fever" from Robbie Robertson.