Cory Wells (born Emil Lewandowski; February 2, 1941 – October 20, 2015) was an American singer, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night.

Three Dog Night - Mama told me not to come 1970

Three Dog Night - The Show Must Go On (1974)

Early life

Wells came from a musical family and began playing in Buffalo-area bands in his teens. His father, who was married to someone other than his mother, died when Cory was a small child, leaving his mother to struggle financially until she eventually remarried. She gave Cory her maiden last name in order to not implicate his natural father, although Cory did eventually change his last name to Wells (which is a shortened version of his birth father's last name, Wellsley). His full stage name "Cory Wells" was suggested by The Enemies' first manager, Gene Jacobs who had a son named Cory.

Having survived childhood in a rough, racially polarized neighborhood and an even more brutal home environment fueled by an abusive stepfather, this according to manager Joel Cohen's band biography, Three Dog Night And Me, before forming The Enemies, Wells joined the United States Air Force directly out of high school. While in the Air Force, he formed a band of interracial musical performers, inspired by his boyhood love of a similar popular band called The Del-Vikings, who had a national hit with the doo-wop song, "Come Go with Me."

Career

Following his military tour of duty, Wells returned to Buffalo and was asked to join a band named the Vibratos. It was here that he was heard by Gene Jacobs, brother-in-law to the Vibratos guitar player, Mike Lustan, who suggested to him if he was serious about making it in music that he travel to California with the band. They changed the name to "The Enemys", and took his advice. They soon began working all the clubs in the LA area, San Diego, Las Vegas and Sacramento. After being the house band at the Whisky a Go Go for a year and being in several movies and TV shows (The Beverly Hillbillies, Burke's Law, Riot on Sunset Strip,Harper with Paul Newman and Shelley Winters), Wells was asked by Cher at the Whiskey a Go Go to tour with Sonny and Cher. It was on that tour that Wells met Danny Hutton, his future partner in the rock band, Three Dog Night. The Enemys had minor hits with recordings of "Hey Joe" and "Sinner Man". Wells moved to Phoenix in 1967 where he formed The Cory Wells Blues Band, whose bass player was future Three Dog Night bass player, Joe Schermetzler (stage name Joe Schermie), By the following year he had returned to Hollywood where he "couch-surfed" while Danny Hutton worked to convince Wells of the feasibility of forming a group of three lead singers and a back-up band. According to an interview in Goldmine Magazine in 1993, Hutton originally wanted the three singers to perform and record with backing tapes rather than fellow musicians, while Wells disagreed.

Three Dog Night

Hutton and Wells got together to form Three Dog Night in 1968. When they looked for a third singer, they found him in Chuck Negron, whom Hutton had met at a Hollywood party. Hutton, a former songwriter/performer for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Wells, and Negron met The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. The three recorded demos under the name "Redwood" with Wilson as producer. The sessions produced a potential single, "Time to Get Alone" but was stopped by Beach Boy member Mike Love, who wanted to save the song for the next Beach Boys album. Having perfected their three-part harmony sound within Redwood, Wells, Hutton and Negron, with the addition of a four-piece backing group made up of friends and others they had worked with, began performing as Three Dog Night in 1968. The group became one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Wells sang the lead vocal on Three Dog Night's Billboard #1 hit song "Mama Told Me Not to Come". He said that Randy Newman, who wrote the song, later called him on the phone and said: "I just want to thank you for putting my kids through college."

Unlike many other rock musicians of the day, Wells was able to abstain from serious drug and alcohol problems, plus he didn't squander his earnings on the lavish life styles of many successful rock stars. Rather, he chose to live a somewhat more moderate existence. After Three Dog Night broke up in 1976, Wells tried a solo career, recording the album Touch Me for A&M Records in 1978. Wells helped re-launch Three Dog Night in the mid-1980s, recording an EP called "It's a Jungle." A falling out with Negron left Hutton and Wells with the name "Three Dog Night" as an entity, under which they had performed successfully until recently, and the pair (along with original member Mike Allsup) toured regularly each year. Original member Jimmy Greenspoon also toured with Three Dog Night until his diagnosis of metastatic melanoma in late 2014, which led to his death in March 2015.

Personal life and death

As of 2007, Wells, who also was an avid fisherman, continued to tour with the band. His longtime marriage to wife, Mary, resulted in two daughters, Coryann and Dawn Marie, who has worked as an effects animator for Walt Disney Pictures.

Wells died suddenly in his sleep on October 20, 2015 at his home in Dunkirk, New York at the age of 74.