JOY TO THE WORLD (HOYT AXTON SONG)

"'Joy to the World'" is a song written by Hoyt Axton, and made famous by the band Three Dog Night. The song is also popularly known by its incipit, "'Jeremiah was a bullfrog'". The words are nonsensical. Axton wanted to convince his record producers to record a new melody he had written and the producers asked him to sing any words to the tune.
Three Dog Night's version went to number one on the pop music charts in February 1971, and was on the band's album ''Naturally''. It was also released on their albums ''Around the World With Three Dog Night'' (1973), '' (1974), ''The Best of 3 Dog Night'' (1982), and '' (1993). Three Dog Night never really wanted to record the song but they needed one last track for their ''Naturally'' album. The group had been on an overseas tour when that album was released and were greatly surprised to hear that the song they didn't want to record ended up being a big hit.
The single released on Dunhill records (D-4272) varies from the version widely available on their Greatest Hits collections. The mono single has a guitar solo in the instrumental bridge at approximately 1:10 that is not heard on the stereo Greatest Hits version. Plus the trailing ad libs in the single were edited from the order in which they appear in the stereo version. The singles running time is also slightly shorter.
In the 1990s, former Three Dog Night lead singer Chuck Negron recorded the Christmas carol "Joy to the World" and playfully included a few lyrics from the Three Dog Night/Hoyt Axton song — coming to a full stop in mid-song for the line "Jeremiah was a bullfrog." The refrain of Axton's song was also included in Mariah Carey's recording of the Christmas carol for her 1994 ''Merry Christmas'' album.

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Popular culture references

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Popular culture references

In an episode of the TV series ''Sex and the City'', Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friend Jeremiah (played by Samuel Ball) sing the "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" part of this song on the way home to Carrie after a party.
The song was also featured in an episode of the sitcom ''Friends''.
It was also referenced in a cartoon from ''The Far Side'', where a frog says to his two friends, "Yeah, I remember Jerry. He was a good pal of mine...you know, I never understood a word he said, but he always had some mighty fine wine," parodying the first lines of the song.
The song is the opening song in ''The Big Chill'' and ''Raise Your Voice'' and can be found in ''28 Days'' during one of the flashbacks of the main character's mother being drunk.
The song also appears in the movie ''Amazon Women on the Moon'', performed by David Alan Grier as Don 'No Soul' Simmons.
The song was referenced in "Detour", the fourth episode of the fifth season of the television series ''The X-Files''. Agent Mulder demands Agent Scully sing to him, the pair having found themselves lost in a forest while attempting to capture a seemingly invisible predator. After declaring that she is unable to carry a tune, Scully proceeds to sing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog... Was a good friend of mine... Never understood a single word he said... But I helped him drink his wine...".
It is sometimes used in advertising during the Christmas season, as a play on the Christmas song Joy to the World. It was used by JC Penney in 2004.
The Nintendo DS videogame also referenced the song via the inclusion of a frog called Jeremiah. He is among the neighbour roster in the game, in which the player could have a maximum of eight.
The song was played in the movie ''Forrest Gump'', when Forrest is playing Ping Pong.
In Malcolm in the middle episode, Garage sale when Hal restarts his pirate radio station he plays a tape with the starting lyrics of joy to the world "Jeremiah was a bullfrog".

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★ Lyrics