In 1967, Three Dog Night was founded by Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, Chuck Negron, Joe Schermie, Floyd Sneed, Jimmy Greenspoon, and Michael Allsup.

After a show at the Troubadour, the group was signed to the Dunhill ABC label, and the band started work on their first studio album.

After "Nobody" and "Try a Little Tenderness" were released as singles to only moderate success, the band began work on a follow-up album, Suitable for Framing.

The label released "One" as a single in several test markets, and the record quickly became Three Dog Night's first bona fide hit, ultimately peaking at #5 on the US charts.

Writing for The New York Times in 1969, Robert Christgau regarded Three Dog Night as a successful attempt at rock music interpretation: "On the group's first album, producer Gabriel Mekler unveiled an unprecedented concept: three excellent rock voices, named only in small print on the label, alternated on material which could be characterized for the most part as unjustly neglected.