''Suitable for Framing'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...

. The album was released on the Dunhill

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

on June 11, 1969 and was the first of two albums released by the band that year. The album contains the top 20 hit singles "

Easy to Be Hard "Easy to Be Hard" is a song from the 1967 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 releas ...

", " Eli's Coming", and " Celebrate"; the latter of which (along with the album's opening track " Feelin' Alright") featured the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the term ...

. It is also notable for being the first album by Three Dog Night to include songs written by band members, and for its inclusion of the

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

Bernie Taupin Bernard John Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English lyricist and visual artist. He is best known for his songwriting partnership with Elton John, recognised as one of the most successful partnerships of its kind in history. Taupin co-wrote th ...

song " Lady Samantha," as the duo of John/Taupin would not become widely known in the United States for another year. The album reached the top 10 on charts in both The United States and Canada and became certified gold by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

at the end of the year.

Recording, production, artwork, packaging

As with the band's self-titled debut album, ''Suitable for Framing'' was recorded at American Recording Company, was produced by Gabriel Mekler (who produced other Dunhill artists including Steppenwolf), and was engineered by Richard Podolor (who would later become the group's producer) and Bill Cooper. The band members during the album's recording were

Danny Hutton Daniel Anthony Hutton (born September 10, 1942) is an Irish-American singer, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night. Hutton was a songwriter and singer for Hanna-Barbera Records from 1965 to 1966. Hutton had a ...

(

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

), Chuck Negron (vocals), Cory Wells (vocals), Jimmy Greenspoon ( keyboards), Michael Allsup (

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s), Joe Schermie (

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

), and

Floyd Sneed Floyd Chester Sneed (November 22, 1942 – January 27, 2023) was a Canadian drummer, best known for his work with the band Three Dog Night. Born on November 22, 1942, in Calgary, Sneed grew up in a musical family (his parents were both musicia ...

(

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

). Engineer Richard Podolor also performed as an uncredited guitarist on the album. The original version of ''Suitable for Framing'' (Dunhill DS 50058) was released as a vinyl LP record with a gatefold sleeve. The

art direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

for the original LP sleeve was done by Wayne Kimbell with

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

by Ed Caraeff. The album's gatefold photo features Three Dog Night wearing greasepaint make-up, and posing with members of the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

groupie A groupie is a fan of a particular musical group who follows the band around while they are on tour or who attends as many of their public appearances as possible, with the hope of meeting them. The term is used mostly describing young women, a ...

troupe

The GTOs The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) were an all-girl group from the Los Angeles area, specifically the Sunset Strip scene. The group was active for two and a half years (1968–1970), followed by one reunion performance in 1974. Their only ...

Critical reception

Writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in 1969,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

believed ''Suitable for Framing'' suffered for the same reasons ''Three Dog Night'' succeeded:

Track listing

Side one

#" Feelin' Alright" (

Dave Mason David Thomas Mason (born 10 May 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Worcester, who came to prominence in 1967 as a founding member of the rock band Traffic. While with Traffic, he wrote and sang lead vocals on two of the b ...

) – 3:39 #* ''Lead vocals shared by Hutton, Negron and Wells; includes the Chicago horn section.'' #" Lady Samantha" (

) – 2:53 #* ''Lead vocal: Negron, verses. Hutton, choruses.'' #"Dreaming Isn't Good for You" (

) – 2:16 #* ''Lead vocal: Hutton.'' #"

A Change Is Gonna Come "A Change Is Gonna Come" is a song by American singer-songwriter Sam Cooke. It initially appeared on Cooke's album '' Ain't That Good News'', released mid-February 1964 by RCA Victor; a slightly edited version of the recording was released as a s ...

" (

Sam Cooke Samuel Cooke (; January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American singer and songwriter. Considered one of the most influential soul music, soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the "King of Soul" for his distin ...

) – 3:10 #* ''Lead vocal: Wells.'' #" Eli's Coming" (

Laura Nyro Laura Nyro ( ; born Laura Nigro; October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter and singer. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'' (1968) and ''Ne ...

) – 2:41 #* ''Lead vocal: Wells. Does not include the piano outro used in the 45 RPM mono mix of the song.''

Side two

" (

Galt MacDermot Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot (December 18, 1928 – December 17, 2018) was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theater. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most successful musicals were ''Hair ...

, James Rado,

Gerome Ragni Gerome Ragni (born Jerome Bernard Ragni; September 11, 1935 – July 10, 1991) was an American actor, singer, and songwriter, best known as one of the stars and co-writers of the 1967 musical ''Hair''. On June 18, 2009, he was inducted into the So ...

) – 3:11 #* ''Lead vocal: Negron. Features an uncredited string section.'' #" Ain't That a Lotta Love" (Willia Dean "Deanie" Parker,

Homer Banks Homer Banks (August 2, 1941 – April 3, 2003) was an American songwriter, singer and record producer. Although best known by many for his songwriting for Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s, some of his own releases from the 1960s are considere ...

) – 2:16 #* ''Lead vocal: Wells.'' #"King Solomon's Mines" (

) – 2:29 #* ''Instrumental, dominated by percussion tracks performed by Sneed.'' #"Circle for a Landing" (

Don Preston Donald Ward Preston (born September 21, 1932) is an American jazz and rock keyboardist. He is best known for being a member of the original version of Frank Zappa's band The Mothers of Invention during the late 1960s. He continued to work with Z ...

) – 2:20 #* ''Lead vocal: Hutton.'' #" Celebrate" (Gary Bonner, Alan Gordon) – 3:13 #* ''Lead vocals shared by Hutton, Negron and Wells; includes the Chicago horn section.''

Personnel

The following people contributed to ''Suitable for Framing'': * Cory Wells – lead vocals (tracks A1, A4–A5, B2, B5), background vocals * Chuck Negron – lead vocals (tracks A1–A2, B1, B5), background vocals *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

(tracks A1, A3, B4–B5),

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

* Mike Allsup –

*Joe Schermie –

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Jimmy Greenspoon – keyboards *

Walter Parazaider Walter Parazaider (born March 14, 1945) is an American woodwind musician who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for being one-third of Chicago's brass/woodwind section alongside Lee Loughnane and James Pankow. Para ...

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

on "Celebrate" and "Feelin' Alright" *

Lee Loughnane Lee David Loughnane (pronounced LOCK-nain; born October 21, 1946) is an American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, vocalist, and songwriter who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for being one-third of Chicago's brass/wo ...

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

on "Celebrate" and "Feelin' Alright" *

James Pankow James Carter Pankow (born August 20, 1947) is an American trombone player, songwriter, and brass instrument arranger who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for his brass arrangements, and for being one-third of Chi ...

–

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

on "Celebrate" and "Feelin' Alright" * Gabriel Mekler – producer * Richard Podolor – guitar (uncredited), engineer *Bill Cooper –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Singles

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Three Dog Night albums 1969 albums Albums produced by Gabriel Mekler Dunhill Records albums Stateside Records albums MCA Records albums