The 1970s was an incredible, chameleonic decade for music. It started with the introspective, acoustic singer-songwriter movement, exploded in the middle with heavy stadium rock and funk, and danced its way out to the driving pulse of disco.

Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass guitar), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sneed (drums). The band had 21 Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975, with three hitting number one.^[4] Three Dog Night recorded many songs written by outside songwriters, and they helped to introduce mainstream audiences to writers such as Harry Nilsson ("One"), Randy Newman ("Mama Told Me Not to Come"), Paul Williams ("An Old Fashioned Love Song"), Laura Nyro ("Eli's Comin'") and Hoyt Axton ("Joy to the World", "Never Been to Spain").^[5]

"American Pie" is a song by the American singer and songwriter Don McLean. It was a commercial success and cultural touchstone, notable for its extensive and ambiguous lyrics about America's changing society in the 1950s and 1960s.

Recorded and released in 1971 on the album of the same name, the single was the number-one US hit for four weeks in 1972 starting January 15^[3] after just eight weeks on the US Billboard charts (where it entered at number 69)