Easy to be hard - Three Dog Night
"Easy to Be Hard" is a song from the rock musical Hair. It was written by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni, who put the musical together in the mid-1960s. The original recording of the musical featuring the song was released in May 1968 with the song being sung by Lynn Kellogg, who performed the role of Sheila on stage in the musical. The song was first covered by American band Three Dog Night on their 1969 album Suitable for Framing, with the lead vocal part sung by Chuck Negron, and was produced by Gabriel Mekler.
Three Dog Night is an American rock band. They formed in 1967 with a line-up consisting of vocalists Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sneed (drums). The band registered 21 Billboard Top 40 hits (with three hitting number one) between 1969 and 1975. Because Three Dog Night recorded many songs written by outside songwriters, they helped introduce mainstream audiences to writers such as Paul Williams ("An Old Fashioned Love Song") and Hoyt Axton ("Joy to the World").
Three Dog Night's version of the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, and was ranked number 33 on Billboard's Hot 100 songs of 1969