About The Song
“Try a Little Tenderness” gave Three Dog Night their first substantial U.S. hit of 1969, a spirited re-imagining of a pop standard first published in 1932 (by Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly, and Harry M. Woods). The band’s version appeared on their self-titled debut album, released in October 1968 on Dunhill, and it was issued as the LP’s second single in January 1969. Set against the late-’60s turn toward tighter, radio-forward production, the track framed an old song with a contemporary, high-energy build that fit the group’s live-show charisma.
On the studio recording, producer Gabriel Mekler keeps the arrangement lean at the outset—piano and rhythm section leaving space for the vocal—before the performance gathers steam. The dynamic arc mirrors the approach made famous by Otis Redding’s 1966 Stax version: a slow, pleading opening that accelerates toward a cathartic coda. Three Dog Night adopt that dramatic lift as the track surges, turning a crooner classic into something closer to a show-stopping closer.
Vocally, the cut plays to the band’s unique strength: a three-frontman lineup. On the debut album, Cory Wells handles lead on most tracks, and “Try a Little Tenderness” is no exception—his grainy urgency drives the crescendo without sacrificing clarity. Behind him, the ensemble’s harmonies and ad-libs add crowd-pleasing heat as the tempo rises, illustrating how the group could reshape outside material through arrangement and delivery rather than radical reinvention.
As a single, “Try a Little Tenderness” was backed with Randy Newman’s “Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad,” another pointer to the band’s crate-digging instincts. The A-side runs about four minutes on the LP (early labels misprinted it at 3:05), while the group’s live renditions stretched further; on the 1969 concert album Captured Live at the Forum, the tune expands past six minutes as the coda becomes a call-and-response workout built to raise the roof in arenas.
Commercially, the song broke the ice for the band’s chart run. It climbed to No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1969 and reached No. 19 in Canada, giving Three Dog Night broader national exposure before their bigger smashes arrived later that year. In the U.S., the single proved they could translate their onstage momentum into AM-radio rotation, setting the table for “One,” “Easy to Be Hard,” and the long string of hits that followed into the early ’70s.
Context matters for why this version landed. By the time Three Dog Night cut the song, it had already traveled a long road—from 1930s dance-band fare to Redding’s explosive soul reinvention. The band’s reading threads the needle between eras: swing-era melody intact, but phrased with late-’60s pop-rock muscle and a pacing tailored for 45-rpm impact. That bridge between past and present helped the track resonate with multiple generations listening side by side in 1968–69.
More than five decades later, “Try a Little Tenderness” endures as a snapshot of Three Dog Night’s core identity: world-class song pickers with the vocal horsepower to make familiar material feel newly urgent. It’s not their biggest hit, but it’s a statement of method—tasteful curation, canny dynamics, and a finale that leaves the band (and audience) a little breathless. As the opening chapter of their hit-making story, it still sounds like a door swinging open.
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Lyric
Ooo she may be weary
Young girls they do get weary
Wearin’ that same old funky dress
But ooo while she gets weary, weary
Won’t you try some ten-tenderness?
You know she’s there waitin’
And anticipatin’
For the things she’ll never, never have
Oh no, no
Ooo while she gets weary
Won’t you try, oh try some tenderness?
Mmm hmm hmm
And I know it, ha
Sentimental don’t know why
She had love, she had her grief and care
But when ah, ha girl
Soft words were spoken
Make it easier, easy girl, ah ha, easier to bear
You know you won’t regret it, no ah
Young girls they don’t forget it
Lovin’ the same old, same old happiness yeah, ha yeah
Ooo, while she get weary, weary
Won’t you try, oh try some tenderness?
I feel good lovin’ in the mornin’
You got to hold her,
Squeeze her
Never leave her
You got to
You got to
You got to try some tenderness
I feel good love, yeah
I feel good love, ow yeah
You got to hold her
Squeeze her
Never leave her
Got to
Got to
Yeah, you got to
Try it now, try it, try it, try it, try some tenderness
In the mornin’ you’ll feel good love
So I say
You got to hold her
Squeeze her
Never leave her
Sock it to me, sock it to me one more time
You got to try, hey yeah
I feel good love
In the mornin’ love
Great God, you must
You got to hold her
Squeeze her
Never leave her