Synopsis

Blind Melon's version updates the classic Schoolhouse Rock! number with a loose, funk-driven alternative-rock arrangement while retaining the song's educational core. The video uses the original animated footage, following a magician as he demonstrates the importance and supposed magic of three through multiplication tables and visual examples of trios. New material was added to extend the cartoon for the longer cover, creating a bridge between the familiar 1970s educational short and Blind Melon's 1990s recording.

Factoids & Trivia

• The cover appeared on the tribute album "Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks!" on April 9, 1996. Blind Melon's recording was produced by Mike Napolitano and the band.

• The video combines the original "Three Is a Magic Number" cartoon with additional footage created to fit Blind Melon's longer version. The original segment was one of the earliest and most recognizable entries in the Schoolhouse Rock! series.

• Bob Dorough wrote and originally performed the song. Its lyrics mix the three times table with philosophical groupings such as the past, present and future, and the heart, brain and body.

• Blind Melon's recording was the band's last before singer Shannon Hoon died on October 21, 1995. That timing gave the track a particularly poignant afterlife, despite its playful subject and upbeat arrangement.

• The song was issued as the first single from "Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks!" and received alternative, album-rock and later broader radio promotion in 1996.

• The track has remained one of the more frequently remembered songs from the compilation, alongside covers by acts including Pavement, the Lemonheads, Moby and Biz Markie.