Three Dog Night might have rocked this song a little harder, but its composer did a pretty good job too.

We talk about musicians who left us too soon, but we usually mean Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and Elvis Presley and John Lennon. Somehow Laura Nyro gets left out of those lists, even though she died at the fairly young age of 49 from ovarian cancer.

Nyro was a brilliant songwriter. Think of “And When I Die,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Stoney End,” “Time and Love,” “Save the Country,” “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Flim Flam Man,” all very big hits for others. The sad thing is that comparatively few ever heard her sing them herself. If you have a hankering to do so, pick up her first and second albums, “More Than a New Discovery” (later released again as “First Songs”) and “Eli and the Thirteenth Confession”. Or pick up the compilation album “Stoned Soul Picnic: the Best of Laura Nyro.”