About The Song
“It’s for You” has one of those origin stories that makes sense only in the 1960s: John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote it specifically for fellow Liverpudlian singer Cilla Black, and it was released in the U.K. on July 31, 1964. According to accounts of the session, Paul McCartney cut a demo to guide the arrangement, and Black recorded the master at Abbey Road with George Martin producing—an unusually high-profile team for an artist outside the Beatles’ own records.
The song’s early life mattered because it proved the tune could land with the public before it ever became a “cover.” Cilla Black’s version reached the U.K. Top 10, and the composition itself quickly became part of that mid-’60s Lennon–McCartney orbit of songs written for other performers. That is the version Three Dog Night were effectively borrowing from: not a Beatles album track, but a Beatles-written pop single built to spotlight a vocalist.
By 1968, Three Dog Night were exactly the kind of band who could repurpose that material. They had built a reputation as a strong Los Angeles live act, then signed with ABC/Dunhill and began recording their debut at American Recording Company. Producer Gabriel Mekler (fresh off work with Steppenwolf) ran the sessions, with engineering that included Richard Podolor, who would soon become central to the band’s sound. The group’s first album was designed as a calling card: multiple vocalists, lots of stylistic range, and song choices that signaled taste as much as attitude.
“It’s for You” appears on that debut album as a brief, concentrated vocal showcase rather than a full-band rock statement. Later commentary on the track has noted how it leans heavily on the trio of lead voices—Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron, and Cory Wells—using an arrangement that is close to a cappella in feel and built to emphasize blend, timing, and precision. In other words, it’s the band saying: before you judge us by the singles, listen to what we can do with just voices and control.
That same year, Dunhill also used the song in a practical way: the group’s first single release was “Nobody” backed with “It’s for You,” issued in November 1968. That pairing is revealing. “Nobody” introduced the band as interpreters with grit, while “It’s for You” showed polish and musical discipline on the flip side—an early hint of the formula Three Dog Night would lean on for years: strong material, smart vocal casting, and an ability to make a borrowed song feel like part of their identity.
The track didn’t become one of their later chart-defining titles, but it kept a footprint because it worked onstage. A performance of “It’s for You” was included on the 1969 live album Captured Live at the Forum, which suggests the band thought it translated in the room and offered something different from their harder-edged live material. Choosing to preserve it on a live release also tells you it wasn’t just studio experimentation—it was part of how they presented themselves to audiences in that first burst of visibility.
Seen in context, Three Dog Night’s “It’s for You” is less about rewriting a famous song and more about reframing it. A 1964 Lennon–McCartney composition made to spotlight a solo pop singer becomes, in 1968–69, a compact harmony feature for a new American rock group trying to prove range. It’s a small track in minutes, but it carries a lot of information: where their ears were, what their voices could do, and how quickly they learned to turn “someone else’s song” into a Three Dog Night performance.
Video
Lyric
I’d say some day
I’m bound to give my heart away
When I do
It’s for you
It’s for you
It’s for you
You love true love
Seems to be all I’m thinking of
But it’s true
It’s for you
They said that love was a lie
Told me that I should never try
To find somebody who’d be kind
Kind to only me
So I just tell them they’re right
Who wants a fight
Tell them I quite agree
Nobody’d love me
Then I look at you
And it’s for you
It’s for you
It’s for you
Love comes love shows
I give my heart and no one knows
That I do
It’s for you
It’s for you