This is the last day this song title will be true for me.
A hit for Three Dog Night, who earlier took Axton’s “Joy to the World” to No. 1, this is the songwriter’s less glitzy original version. It was released, aptly enough, on Axton’s 1971 LP “Joy to the World.” It contains the original final verse with the line, “Oklahoma, born in a coma, what does it matter?”
Three Dog Night recorded it by the end of the year with Cory Wells singing lead, and they changed the line to “Oklahoma, not Arizona, what does it matter?” Their version reached No. 5.
By 1972 Elvis Presley had added it to his set for his concert in Madison Square Garden.
