The Road To Shambala Three Dog Night

The Road to Shambala Album: Cyan (1973)
by Three Dog Night

The song playing in the background of the opening scene is:
"Garota de Ipanema" (Brazilian Portuguese), "The Girl from Ipanema", is a Brazilian bossa nova and jazz song. It was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.

The Road to Shamballa Three Dog Night
"Shambala" is a song written by Daniel Moore and made famous by two near-simultaneous releases in 1973: the better-known but slightly later recording by Three Dog Night, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and a version by B. W. Stevenson. Its title derives from a mythical place-name also spelled Shamballa or Shambhala.

The song's actual lyrics are about the mythical kingdom of Shambhala, which was said to be hidden somewhere within or beyond the peaks of the Himalayas and was mentioned in various ancient texts, including the Kalachakra Tantra and ancient texts of Tibetan Buddhism. The original location was a mystic temple in Peru, specifically, the temple of the White Lodge, according to Alice Bailey's A Treatise on White Magic (1934), cited by Moore.

The lyrics refer to a situation where kindness and cooperation are universal, joy and good fortune abound, and psychological burdens are lifted.

The phrases "in the halls of Shambala" and "on the road to Shambala" tie for number of occurrences in the lyrics. The latter phrase perhaps alludes to the idea of Shambala not as a physical place but as a metaphor for the spiritual path one might follow.

The well-known cover version of this song by the rock band Three Dog Night appeared in 1973 on the Billboard Hot 100, on the top 40 from the beginning of June through the end of August, reaching No. 3 in both the pop singles and adult contemporary categories, No. 1 on the Cashbox charts, and an isolated week at No. 1 on WLS. The song, the first one that the group had specifically cut as a single, rather than as part of an album project, later appeared on Cyan, Three Dog Night's ninth album, and subsequently on numerous anthologies and compilation albums.

Although the lyrics of "Shambala" draw on a theme from Eastern mysticism, AllMusic notes the "very strong gospel feeling" of the album Cyan is most evident on this song. Allmusic calls this hit single "one of the group's finest later period records."

In the original recording, writer Daniel Moore pronounces the first syllable of the title ("sham") as it would rhyme with "ham." The Three Dog Night and B.W. Stevenson versions pronounce that syllable to rhyme with "mom."

Written by: Daniel Joseph Moore
1973
The group had specifically cut this as a single, rather than as part of an album project, but it later appeared on Cyan, Three Dog Night's ninth album.

Wash away my troubles
Wash away my pain
With the rain in Shambala
Wash away my sorrow
Wash away my shame
With the rain in Shambala

Ah ooh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Ah ooh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Everyone is helpful
Everyone is kind
On the road to Shambala
Everyone is lucky
Everyone is so kind
On the road to Shambala

Ah ooh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Ah ooh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala

I can tell my sister by the flowers in her eyes
On the road to Shambala
I can tell my brother by the flowers in his eyes
On the road to Shambala

Ah ooh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Ah ooh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
How does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
Tell me how does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala
Tell me how does your light shine
In the halls of Shambala

Ah ooh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Ah ooh yeah
On the road to Shambala

Ah ooh yeah
To Shambala
Ah ooh yeah
On the road to Shambala