"Easy to Be Hard" is a song from the rock musical Hair. It was written by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni, who put the musical together in the mid-1960s. The original recording of the musical featuring the song was released in May 1968 with the song being sung by Lynn Kellogg, who performed the role of Sheila on stage in the musical. The song was first covered by American band Three Dog Night on their 1969 album Suitable for Framing, with the lead vocal part sung by Chuck Negron, and was produced by Gabriel Mekler.
Three Dog Night's version of the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, and was ranked number 33 on Billboard's Hot 100 songs of 1969.
Other versions
- John Rowles released the song as a single in 1969 in the Netherlands.
- Jennifer Warnes released the song as a single in 1969. It reached peaked on the chart at number 128.
- Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66 released the song as a single in 1970 in the United Kingdom.
- Cheryl Barnes released a version as a single in 1979. It reached number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- Three Dog Night's version was sampled on the song "Old to the New" by Nice & Smooth in 1994. Their song was also sampled on the song "A Grand Love Theme" by Kid Loco in 1997.
- Bomb The Bass sampled fragment of the song to their track "One to One Religion", available on the US release of their 1995 album Clear.
- Minneapolis rock group Golden Smog covered the song in 1992 on their debut EP On Golden Smog.
In media
- Three Dog Night's version was used in the 2005 The Simpsons episode, "Thank God, It's Doomsday".
- Three Dog Night's version was used in the 2007 film Zodiac and is featured on the movie's soundtrack.