1972 single by Three Dog Night
"Pieces of April" is a ballad written by Dave Loggins which became a Top 20 hit for Three Dog Night in January 1973.
Three Dog Night version
First recorded by Loggins for his 1972 debut album Personal Belongings, "Pieces of April" was recorded for the 1972 Three Dog Night album Seven Separate Fools produced and arranged by Richard Podolor with Three Dog Night themselves credited as co-arrangers.[1][2] According to Three Dog Night vocalist Chuck Negron, the group's two other vocalists Danny Hutton and Cory Wells left London where the Seven Separate Fools album was being recorded before the album was complete, necessitating Negron recording the album's final two tracks - which included "Pieces of April" - without them. As a result, "Pieces of April" became the second of two Three Dog Night singles not to feature all three of the group's vocalists, at least on background vocals, with the first being their inaugural Hot 100 single: the 1969's "Try a Little Tenderness" sung by Wells.[3]
Released in October 1972 as the followup to the #1 hit "Black and White", "Pieces of April" was an atypically delicate Three Dog Night track, being particularly distinct from the rollicking "Black and White",[4][5] and "Pieces of April" would not become one of Three Dog Night's biggest hits, rising no higher than #19 on the Hot 100 in Billboard magazine whose Easy Listening hit ranking afforded "Pieces of April" a #6 peak.[6] In Canada, "Pieces of April" ranked as high as #14 on the national hit parade featured in RPM magazine,[7] whose Easy Listening survey ranked the track as high as #9.[8]
