Three Dog Night concert at Renaissance Center out on DVD, VHS

Release Date: 7/29/2002. Expired: 8/29/2002

Two June 2000 concerts by legendary rock group Three Dog Night with the Tennessee Symphony Orchestra at The Renaissance Center are now available on VHS and DVD. The concert video was released in conjunction with the band’s latest album on which the group performs some of its greatest hits as well as two new songs with the London Symphony Orchestra.

The concert video will make its world premiere at noon Saturday, Aug. 3, when it is shown in The Renaissance Center’s four-story domed CyberSphere Digital Theatre as part of the center’s 3rd anniversary celebration. It also will be aired nationwide this fall on PBS stations.

“This is our first major production to receive nationwide commercial distribution and we are extremely proud of the finished product,” said Steve Hall, senior director of The Renaissance Center’s Multimedia Department. “We believe we have produced one of the highest quality concert videos to be found anywhere. The combining of the band and the orchestra as well as the visual enhancements and animation produced at The Renaissance Center make this a truly remarkable video experience.”

For the final mixing of the concert audio, The Renaissance Center teamed with American Recording Studios in California and the team of Richard Podolor and Bill Cooper, who were responsible for producing many of Three Dog Night’s biggest albums.

The DVD contains not only the 90-minute concert but also interviews with band founders Danny Hutton and Cory Wells as well as Larry Baird, who wrote the orchestration for the show and conducted the 42-piece Tennessee Symphony Orchestra. In addition, the DVD contains behind-the-scenes photographs backstage at The Renaissance Center.

Post-production work on the video was directed by Ken Tucker of The Renaissance Center who edited the best video and sound from both nights together into a spectacular concert. Tucker enhanced the visual effects on several songs, using footage from a 1975 Soundstage performance on “Shambala” and a collection of beautiful outdoor scenes with “Out in the Country” among other effects.

“By having two concerts to draw from, we were able to utilize more camera angles and take the best of both nights to provide a complete concert video,” Tucker said. “With the Soundstage footage, we synchronized Danny and Cory singing the same song 25 years apart to emphasize the longevity of the band’s popularity. Then the nature footage we added to ‘Out in the Country’ adds emphasis to the song’s environmental message.”

In the interviews conducted by Hall and Chris Norman, senior marketing director at The Renaissance Center, Hutton and Wells talk about the band’s 30-plus-year history as well as how the group’s songs blended with or were enhanced by Baird’s orchestration.

Wells said Three Dog Night’s combination of popular music with a symphony orchestra should show young musicians that not everybody has to be a guitar player.

“I think the marriage is good because today we’re talking about the young people and the cutbacks and all the things that are going on in schools where music is being cut back and not a lot of people want to go into the classics or go into the arts. They’re losing people, the classic music (is) losing people because everybody wants to be a rock and roller,” Wells said. “By us doing this, it shows a lot of young people that that can still happen, you can still do that. You can still be part of current music and yet still have that (classical) background and still be part of the classics.”

With the two new songs on the CD, one of which is included in the concert, Hutton said Three Dog Night is still bringing new songwriters to the public just like it was doing 30 years ago when the group had top 10 hits by then-unknown writers like Randy Newman, Elton John, Laura Nyro, Nilsson, Hoyt Axton and others.

“It all starts with the song,” Hutton said. “There’s a million great musicians and singers out there and if they’re not singing a good song it just isn’t working.”

Baird, who also arranged and conducted the Moody Blues at Red Rock concert, said adding a symphony to Three Dog Night’s music and style was a great blend.

“I think Three Dog (Night), having the lead sings that sing harmony and the material lends itself really well to orchestra because they’ve had such great songs to work with,” Baird said.

The DVD contains 15 of the group’s greatest hits, including “Joy to the World,” “Liar,” “Black and White,” “Old Fashioned Love Song” and “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” as well as one new song, “Sault Ste. Marie.”

The VHS and DVD are distributed by Image Entertainment and can be ordered online from Amazon.com or from any of Image Entertainment’s outlets such as Blockbuster, Tower Records, Suncoast and others. The DVD also is available in the Virtually Unlimited Bookstore at The Renaissance Center.

The premiere in the CyberSphere at noon Aug. 3 is free but seating is limited to 135 people on a first-come-first-served basis.