An Old Fashioned Love Song

{{short description|1971 single by Three Dog Night}}

{{Infobox song

| name = An Old Fashioned Love Song

| cover = An_Old_Fashioned_Love_Song_-_Three_Dog_Night.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Three Dog Night

| album = Harmony

| B-side = Jam

| released = November 1971

| recorded =

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = Pop rock

| length = 3:26

| label = Dunhill

| writer = Paul Williams

| producer = Richard Podolor

| prev_title = Liar

| prev_year = 1971

| next_title = Never Been to Spain

| next_year = 1971

}}

"An Old Fashioned Love Song" is a 1971 song written by Paul Williams and performed by the American pop-rock band Three Dog Night. Chuck Negron performed the lead vocal on this track. Taken as the first single from their 1971 album, Harmony, the song peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1971, becoming the band's seventh top-ten hit.Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications) It was Three Dog Night's first record to top the U.S. easy listening chart.Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications) It reached number 2 in Canada.

According to the Karen Carpenter biography Little Girl Blue by Randy L. Schmidt, Williams originally intended the song for the Carpenters, who were in the middle of a string of hits with their own brand of "old fashioned love songs", including two of Williams' own compositions, "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays". Although this was the first song Williams had written specifically for Carpenters, Richard Carpenter rejected it, and so Williams offered the song to Three Dog Night. Carpenters never recorded the song, but did perform it live on television with Carol Burnett a few months later.Schmidt, Randy L. Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter. Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2010, p. 76.