Captain & Tennille
Encyclopedia
Captain & Tennille are American
pop music
recording artists who achieved chart success from 1975 to 1980. The duo consists of husband and wife duo "Captain" Daryl Dragon
(born August 27, 1942), and Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille
(born May 8, 1940). They are best known for their singles "Love Will Keep Us Together
" and "Do That to Me One More Time
". Their television variety series appeared on the ABC
network in the 1976–77 season.
was the co-writer of an ecology-themed musical called Mother Earth. At that time, Daryl Dragon
(son of composer Carmen Dragon
) was the keyboardist for The Beach Boys
. When Tennille's show was getting ready to move from San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatre to Southern California's South Coast Repertory
, a call was put out for a replacement keyboardist. Dragon was in between tours when he heard about the opening, went to audition for Tennille, and landed the gig.
Reciprocating in kind, Dragon later suggested Tennille to The Beach Boys when the band needed an additional keyboardist, and they hired her. She toured with them for a year, and Toni Tennille has since been forever known as The Beach Boys' one and only "Beach Girl".
When the tour was over, and realizing their collaborative potential, they began performing as a duo at the legendary Smokehouse Restaurant across from Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California
, eventually to sold out crowds, and started to make a name for themselves in the Los Angeles area. During this time, an early version of a Tennille-penned tune they had recorded, "The Way I Want to Touch You", became a hit on a local radio station and led to a recording contract with A&M Records
.
Their first hit single was a cover
of Neil Sedaka
's and Howard Greenfield
's "Love Will Keep Us Together
". The track went to number-one on the Billboard Hot 100
nine weeks after its debut in 1975, and it went on to win the Grammy Award
for Record of the Year. It sold over one and a half million copies, and was certified Gold
by the R.I.A.A. in July 1975. A Spanish recording of the single ("Por Amor Viviremos") also charted that same year. This was the first time two versions of the same single charted at the same time.
Tennille and Dragon married on November 11, 1975.
" (U.S. #4) and another million seller; "Lonely Night (Angel Face)
" (U.S. #3); "Shop Around
" (U.S. #4); "Muskrat Love
" (U.S. #4); and "You Never Done It Like That" (U.S. #10). Such was their level of success that they were given their own television variety show, The Captain & Tennille, but they were not only unhappy with its network-imposed heavy reliance on comedy, but also its physical demands and its resulting overexposure of their image, and they asked to be released from their contract. They also left A&M when it began to turn its attentions to the newly signed punk rock
act Sex Pistols
at the expense of acts such as The Carpenters
and themselves.
In July 1976, Captain & Tennille were invited by First Lady Betty Ford
to perform in the East Room of the White House
in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and President Gerald Ford
during the Bicentennial celebration.
In 1979, Neil Bogart
signed them to a contract with Casablanca Records
, and they reached number-one with their first single "Do That to Me One More Time
" in January 1980. Subsequent singles achieved only moderate success, and when Bogart died in 1982, Casablanca went bankrupt, and the duo was left without a record company. They signed with CBS Records but were released from their contract.
In between time, Toni Tennille had recorded two solo albums—one in 1984 with Mirage Records called More Than You Know and the other in 1987 entitled All Of Me for another unknown independent label.
Captain & Tennille appeared on many television talk show
s of the era. In an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show
in July 1981, Tennille sang "Love Will Keep Us Together
" accompanied by music played by a TI 99/4A home computer.
During the duo's period of highest popularity, Tennille also worked as a session singer
(most frequently partnered with The Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston
), performing as a backing vocalist
on three Elton John
albums including Caribou
, Blue Moves
, and 21 at 33
(some vocally arranged by Dragon) and most notably on the hit track "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
". She also appeared as a backing vocalist on tracks by Art Garfunkel
and The Beach Boys, as well as Pink Floyd
for whom she performed backing tracks on The Wall
album.
In the liner notes of the Captain & Tennille anthology Ultimate Collection: The Complete Greatest Hits, Tennille explains how her work on Pink Floyd's album gained her at least one new fan:
which was close to their home near Carson City, Nevada
. One of their appearances in that decade occurred when they played at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip
in Los Angeles in 1995, as part of their twentieth anniversary as an act.
At the same time throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Tennille enjoyed a second career as a big band
and pop standards singer, not unlike pop colleague Linda Ronstadt
. She released several albums and performed with orchestras throughout the country.
Both the Captain and Tennille had a guest appearance as themselves in the television series Vega$ (Year 2, Ep 18).
Tennille also enjoyed a year as the star of the Broadway
tour of Victor/Victoria
. At the end of that project, she and Dragon were to have embarked on a twenty-fifth anniversary tour; however, the stresses of the road proved too demanding and Captain & Tennille instead put an indefinite hold on their career as a performing duo. During their run through the mid 1970s into the early 1980s, Captain & Tennille sold close to 25 million records.
Nevertheless, Captain & Tennille's popularity remained evident in the release of their Ultimate Collection: The Complete Hits on Hip-O Records
(a subsidiary of Universal Records
) in 2001 and More Than Dancing... Much More, a 2002 compact disc. The latter contains what was originally their final album in 1982, More Than Dancing, which at that time was released only in Australia
, and is combined with selected tracks from their 1995 20 Years of Romance, originally on K-Tel
(re-recordings of their songs, and cover versions of others), as well as five tracks never-before-released.
In November 2003, Tennille performed a benefit concert
for the Reno, Nevada
Chamber Orchestra, where her surprise guest was Dragon. This was the first time they had publicly performed as Captain & Tennille in many years. As a result, their first live recording, An Intimate Evening with Toni Tennille, was released to commemorate the event.
2005 marked a resurgence for Captain & Tennille when Brant Berry, the vice president of a small Portland, Oregon
–based entertainment company, Respond 2 Entertainment (R2), signed an agreement with Captain & Tennille to release three separate projects featuring the duo. The first was the home video release of Captain & Tennille's 1976 variety series, on a three-disc DVD
set containing eleven complete episodes with bonus musical tracks. Second, R2 re-released all six of their albums, both from the original A&M and Casablanca labels, on newly-remastered CDs. Several of the CDs were previously only available in Japan. The new CDs, packaged both as individual CDs and in a box set, contain new liner notes written by Toni Tennille.
Third, a new recording by Captain & Tennille was released—a three-song Christmas CD entitled Saving Up Christmas. This effort was followed by The Secret of Christmas released on Captain & Tennille's own label, Purebred Records, on November 1, 2006. This is Captain & Tennille's first complete original album produced in more than a decade, and their first-ever Christmas album.
Tennille returned to the UK
airwaves and to club play when Bent
sampled a small portion of her vocals from Captain & Tennille's 1979 track, "Love on a Shoestring" (from the album Make Your Move), into their "Magic Love" single in 2003. An Ashley Beedle
remix
of the single heightened the danceability of the original ambient
track.
In October 2006, Cartoon Network
's animated special Casper's Scare School
was aired. The duo recorded two songs for the film
, and voiced the dialog for the characters who sang the songs. Tennille portrayed Aunt Belle and Dragon was Uncle Murray, who together formed a two-head-on-one-body being known as the Ankle. The two songs they performed, "Why Does Love Make Me Feel So Good" and "World Without Fear", were written by Magnus Fiennes
. Captain & Tennille's co-stars on the show included Phyllis Diller
, James Belushi
, Dan Castellaneta
, and Bob Saget
.
In 2007, three new DVDs were released of Captain & Tennille's ABC TV specials: Captain & Tennille in Hawaii, Captain & Tennille in New Orleans, and Captain & Tennille Songbook.
Dragon & Tennille spent most of the 1990s and 2000s in the Lake Tahoe area in Nevada, where they had lived for more than a dozen years, and where, during that time, Tennille served as Ambassador for the Arts for the state. In the mid-2000s, they temporarily took year-round residence at their second home, located in the Palm Springs area of Southern California, until 2008, when they built a house and settled down in Prescott, Arizona
, where Tennille participates in the annual Prescott Jazz Summit.
(A) Also charted at No. 33 UK
(B) Australian release only
(C) Worldwide re-release of 1982 Australian album with bonus tracks
(D) Spanish Version
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
recording artists who achieved chart success from 1975 to 1980. The duo consists of husband and wife duo "Captain" Daryl Dragon
Daryl Dragon
Daryl Frank Dragon is a keyboardist, known as Captain in the successful 1970s pop musical duo Captain & Tennille, with his wife, Toni Tennille....
(born August 27, 1942), and Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille
Toni Tennille
Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille is one-half of the 1970s Grammy Award-winning duo Captain & Tennille. Tennille has also done musical work independently of her husband Daryl Dragon. Tennille has a contralto vocal range.-Biography:...
(born May 8, 1940). They are best known for their singles "Love Will Keep Us Together
Love Will Keep Us Together
"Love Will Keep Us Together" is a popular song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield in 1973. It was first released in the United Kingdom on Sedaka's 1973 LP The Tra-La Days Are Over, which was never released in the U.S. The song arrived in the U.S...
" and "Do That to Me One More Time
Do That to Me One More Time
"Do That to Me One More Time" is a song performed by American pop duo Captain & Tennille. It was their second chart-topping hit in the U.S., following "Love Will Keep Us Together" from 1975. The song was included on the duo's 1979 album, Make Your Move...
". Their television variety series appeared on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network in the 1976–77 season.
Early history and collaboration
In 1971 Toni TennilleToni Tennille
Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille is one-half of the 1970s Grammy Award-winning duo Captain & Tennille. Tennille has also done musical work independently of her husband Daryl Dragon. Tennille has a contralto vocal range.-Biography:...
was the co-writer of an ecology-themed musical called Mother Earth. At that time, Daryl Dragon
Daryl Dragon
Daryl Frank Dragon is a keyboardist, known as Captain in the successful 1970s pop musical duo Captain & Tennille, with his wife, Toni Tennille....
(son of composer Carmen Dragon
Carmen Dragon
Carmen Dragon was an American conductor, composer, and arranger who in addition to live performances and recording, worked in radio, film, and television.Dragon was born in Antioch, California...
) was the keyboardist for The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
. When Tennille's show was getting ready to move from San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatre to Southern California's South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
, a call was put out for a replacement keyboardist. Dragon was in between tours when he heard about the opening, went to audition for Tennille, and landed the gig.
Reciprocating in kind, Dragon later suggested Tennille to The Beach Boys when the band needed an additional keyboardist, and they hired her. She toured with them for a year, and Toni Tennille has since been forever known as The Beach Boys' one and only "Beach Girl".
When the tour was over, and realizing their collaborative potential, they began performing as a duo at the legendary Smokehouse Restaurant across from Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, eventually to sold out crowds, and started to make a name for themselves in the Los Angeles area. During this time, an early version of a Tennille-penned tune they had recorded, "The Way I Want to Touch You", became a hit on a local radio station and led to a recording contract with A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
.
Their first hit single was a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...
's and Howard Greenfield
Howard Greenfield
Howard Greenfield was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building...
's "Love Will Keep Us Together
Love Will Keep Us Together
"Love Will Keep Us Together" is a popular song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield in 1973. It was first released in the United Kingdom on Sedaka's 1973 LP The Tra-La Days Are Over, which was never released in the U.S. The song arrived in the U.S...
". The track went to number-one on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
nine weeks after its debut in 1975, and it went on to win the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Record of the Year. It sold over one and a half million copies, and was certified Gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the R.I.A.A. in July 1975. A Spanish recording of the single ("Por Amor Viviremos") also charted that same year. This was the first time two versions of the same single charted at the same time.
Tennille and Dragon married on November 11, 1975.
Popular success
Over the next few years Captain & Tennille released a string of hit singles including "The Way I Want to Touch YouThe Way I Want to Touch You
"The Way I Want to Touch You" is a song by Captain and Tennille. The song was written by Toni Tennille and had been released on both the Butterscotch Castle and the Joyce record labels in 1974 before being included on the duo's Love Will Keep Us Together album in 1975. "The Way I Want to Touch You"...
" (U.S. #4) and another million seller; "Lonely Night (Angel Face)
Lonely Night (Angel Face)
"Lonely Night " is a song written by Neil Sedaka, who first recorded the song for his 1975 album, The Hungry Years. The following year, the song was a hit single for Captain & Tennille, for whom Sedaka had written the duo's hit single, "Love Will Keep Us Together"...
" (U.S. #3); "Shop Around
Shop Around
"Shop Around" is a 1960 single by The Miracles for the Tamla label, catalog number T 54034. It is notable as being the label's first #1 hit on the Billboard magazine R&B singles chart, and also hit #2 on the Hot 100....
" (U.S. #4); "Muskrat Love
Muskrat Love
"Muskrat Love" is a pop song by written by Willis Alan Ramsey and introduced on his sole album the 1972 release Willis Alan Ramsey; the song had its highest profile via a 1976 remake by Captain & Tennille...
" (U.S. #4); and "You Never Done It Like That" (U.S. #10). Such was their level of success that they were given their own television variety show, The Captain & Tennille, but they were not only unhappy with its network-imposed heavy reliance on comedy, but also its physical demands and its resulting overexposure of their image, and they asked to be released from their contract. They also left A&M when it began to turn its attentions to the newly signed punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
act Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
at the expense of acts such as The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
and themselves.
In July 1976, Captain & Tennille were invited by First Lady Betty Ford
Betty Ford
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...
to perform in the East Room of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
during the Bicentennial celebration.
In 1979, Neil Bogart
Neil Bogart
Neil Bogart was an American record executive. He is perhaps best known as the founder of Casablanca Records, with Peter Guber....
signed them to a contract with Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records was an American record label started by Neil Bogart, who partnered with Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris, and Buck Reingold in 1973, and based in Los Angeles. The label was formed after all of them had left Buddah Records and secured financing by Warner Bros. Records to start the venture...
, and they reached number-one with their first single "Do That to Me One More Time
Do That to Me One More Time
"Do That to Me One More Time" is a song performed by American pop duo Captain & Tennille. It was their second chart-topping hit in the U.S., following "Love Will Keep Us Together" from 1975. The song was included on the duo's 1979 album, Make Your Move...
" in January 1980. Subsequent singles achieved only moderate success, and when Bogart died in 1982, Casablanca went bankrupt, and the duo was left without a record company. They signed with CBS Records but were released from their contract.
In between time, Toni Tennille had recorded two solo albums—one in 1984 with Mirage Records called More Than You Know and the other in 1987 entitled All Of Me for another unknown independent label.
Captain & Tennille appeared on many television talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s of the era. In an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that aired in syndication from 1961 to 1982, distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations.The program featured light banter with...
in July 1981, Tennille sang "Love Will Keep Us Together
Love Will Keep Us Together
"Love Will Keep Us Together" is a popular song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield in 1973. It was first released in the United Kingdom on Sedaka's 1973 LP The Tra-La Days Are Over, which was never released in the U.S. The song arrived in the U.S...
" accompanied by music played by a TI 99/4A home computer.
During the duo's period of highest popularity, Tennille also worked as a session singer
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
(most frequently partnered with The Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston
Bruce Johnston
Bruce Arthur Johnston is a member of The Beach Boys and a songwriter, remembered especially for composing "I Write the Songs". Johnston was not one of the original members of the band...
), performing as a backing vocalist
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
on three Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
albums including Caribou
Caribou (album)
Caribou is the 8th studio album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1974 . It was John's 4th chart-topping album in the U.S. and his 3rd in the U.K. The album contains the singles, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", which reached # 16 in the UK Singles Chart and # 2 in the U.S.,...
, Blue Moves
Blue Moves
Blue Moves is the eleventh studio album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1976. It was also his second double album , and his first album released by his own Rocket Records Ltd...
, and 21 at 33
21 at 33
-Side two:...
(some vocally arranged by Dragon) and most notably on the hit track "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" is the first single from British musician Elton John's 1974 album Caribou; it was released that year during the latter half of May in the United Kingdom, and on 10 June in the United States.-Lyrics and music:...
". She also appeared as a backing vocalist on tracks by Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
and The Beach Boys, as well as Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
for whom she performed backing tracks on The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
album.
In the liner notes of the Captain & Tennille anthology Ultimate Collection: The Complete Greatest Hits, Tennille explains how her work on Pink Floyd's album gained her at least one new fan:
More recent activities
Throughout the 1990s, they continued to perform various concert dates at venues around the world, frequently at Harrah's Lake TahoeHarrah's Lake Tahoe
Harrah's Lake Tahoe, is a resort casino, in South Lake Tahoe, at Stateline, Nevada. It is branded with the name of its former owner William Fisk Harrah and owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp.. The 18-story tower and 525 rooms, plus of casino make it one of the largest resorts at South Lake...
which was close to their home near Carson City, Nevada
Carson City, Nevada
The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...
. One of their appearances in that decade occurred when they played at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
in Los Angeles in 1995, as part of their twentieth anniversary as an act.
At the same time throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Tennille enjoyed a second career as a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
and pop standards singer, not unlike pop colleague Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
. She released several albums and performed with orchestras throughout the country.
Both the Captain and Tennille had a guest appearance as themselves in the television series Vega$ (Year 2, Ep 18).
Tennille also enjoyed a year as the star of the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
tour of Victor/Victoria
Victor/Victoria (musical)
Victor/Victoria is a musical with a book by Blake Edwards, music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and additional musical material by Frank Wildhorn...
. At the end of that project, she and Dragon were to have embarked on a twenty-fifth anniversary tour; however, the stresses of the road proved too demanding and Captain & Tennille instead put an indefinite hold on their career as a performing duo. During their run through the mid 1970s into the early 1980s, Captain & Tennille sold close to 25 million records.
Nevertheless, Captain & Tennille's popularity remained evident in the release of their Ultimate Collection: The Complete Hits on Hip-O Records
Hip-O Records
Hip-O Records is a record label, currently part of Universal Music Group, which specializes in reissues and compilations. Their Hip-O Select label is currently in the midst of releasing the Complete Motown Singles, a series of fourteen box sets which include both sides of every 45 from Motown...
(a subsidiary of Universal Records
Universal Records
Universal Records was a record label owned by Universal Music Group, and it is now owned by Manny Patino and Michael Jackson, and operated as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group.-History:...
) in 2001 and More Than Dancing... Much More, a 2002 compact disc. The latter contains what was originally their final album in 1982, More Than Dancing, which at that time was released only in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and is combined with selected tracks from their 1995 20 Years of Romance, originally on K-Tel
K-tel
K-tel International is an "As-Seen-On-TV" company, which is most noted for its compilation music albums, such as "The Super Hits" series, "The Dynamic Hits" series and "The Number One Hits" series...
(re-recordings of their songs, and cover versions of others), as well as five tracks never-before-released.
In November 2003, Tennille performed a benefit concert
Benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...
for the Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
Chamber Orchestra, where her surprise guest was Dragon. This was the first time they had publicly performed as Captain & Tennille in many years. As a result, their first live recording, An Intimate Evening with Toni Tennille, was released to commemorate the event.
2005 marked a resurgence for Captain & Tennille when Brant Berry, the vice president of a small Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
–based entertainment company, Respond 2 Entertainment (R2), signed an agreement with Captain & Tennille to release three separate projects featuring the duo. The first was the home video release of Captain & Tennille's 1976 variety series, on a three-disc DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
set containing eleven complete episodes with bonus musical tracks. Second, R2 re-released all six of their albums, both from the original A&M and Casablanca labels, on newly-remastered CDs. Several of the CDs were previously only available in Japan. The new CDs, packaged both as individual CDs and in a box set, contain new liner notes written by Toni Tennille.
Third, a new recording by Captain & Tennille was released—a three-song Christmas CD entitled Saving Up Christmas. This effort was followed by The Secret of Christmas released on Captain & Tennille's own label, Purebred Records, on November 1, 2006. This is Captain & Tennille's first complete original album produced in more than a decade, and their first-ever Christmas album.
Tennille returned to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
airwaves and to club play when Bent
Bent (band)
Bent are an electronica act from Nottingham in England, consisting of Neil "Nail" Tolliday and Simon Mills. They gained critical acclaim from their debut album Programmed to Love in 2000....
sampled a small portion of her vocals from Captain & Tennille's 1979 track, "Love on a Shoestring" (from the album Make Your Move), into their "Magic Love" single in 2003. An Ashley Beedle
Ashley Beedle
Ashley Beedle is a British music DJ, producer and remixer. People often confuse him for being of Asian origin, but his ethnicity is partly Barbadian....
remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of the single heightened the danceability of the original ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
track.
In October 2006, Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
's animated special Casper's Scare School
Casper's Scare School
Casper's Scare School is a computer animated TV film starring Casper the Friendly Ghost. It was produced by The Harvey Entertainment Company and released by Classic Media and premiered on October 20, 2006. It has a TV series of the same name in 2009...
was aired. The duo recorded two songs for the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and voiced the dialog for the characters who sang the songs. Tennille portrayed Aunt Belle and Dragon was Uncle Murray, who together formed a two-head-on-one-body being known as the Ankle. The two songs they performed, "Why Does Love Make Me Feel So Good" and "World Without Fear", were written by Magnus Fiennes
Magnus Fiennes
Magnus Fiennes is an English cross-genre composer, record producer and songwriter. He has worked with artists such as Shakira, Pulp, Tom Jones and Morcheeba...
. Captain & Tennille's co-stars on the show included Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...
, James Belushi
James Belushi
James Adam "Jim" Belushi is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is the younger brother of comic actor John Belushi.-Early life:Belushi was born in Chicago...
, Dan Castellaneta
Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
, and Bob Saget
Bob Saget
Robert Lane "Bob" Saget is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his roles as Danny Tanner in Full House, host of America's Funniest Home Videos and Future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, Saget is also known outside of television for his blue...
.
In 2007, three new DVDs were released of Captain & Tennille's ABC TV specials: Captain & Tennille in Hawaii, Captain & Tennille in New Orleans, and Captain & Tennille Songbook.
Dragon & Tennille spent most of the 1990s and 2000s in the Lake Tahoe area in Nevada, where they had lived for more than a dozen years, and where, during that time, Tennille served as Ambassador for the Arts for the state. In the mid-2000s, they temporarily took year-round residence at their second home, located in the Palm Springs area of Southern California, until 2008, when they built a house and settled down in Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
, where Tennille participates in the annual Prescott Jazz Summit.
Albums
| Year | Album | RIAA Certification | US 200 | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Love Will Keep Us Together Love Will Keep Us Together (album) Love Will Keep Us Together was a 1975 album, the first release by the duo The Captain & Tennille. The album would peak at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart, while the title song, Love Will Keep Us Together, won the Grammy Award for Record Of The Year and was nominated for Song Of The Year.The... |
Gold | 2 | A&M |
| 1976 | Por Amor Viviremos D | A&M | ||
| 1976 | Song of Joy Song of Joy (album) Song of Joy is an album released by the Captain & Tennille in 1976. The album included the top-ten singles "Muskrat Love", "Lonely Night " and "Shop Around".-Track listing:#"Song of Joy"... |
Platinum | 9 | A&M |
| 1977 | Come in From the Rain Come in from the Rain (Captain & Tennille album) Come In from the Rain is an album by The Captain & Tennille.-Track listing:# "Come In from the Rain" - 4:36# "Sad Eyes" - 3:46# "Let Mama Know" - 400... |
Gold | 18 | A&M |
| 1977 | Greatest Hits | Gold | 55 | A&M |
| 1978 | Dream Dream (Captain & Tennille album) -Recording Studios:The album was recorded at A&M Recording Studios 1977; A&M Recording Studios "A" 1977; Captain & Tennille's Private Studio, 1977; The Record Plant 1977; Wally Heider Recording Studios 1977.-First side:# "I'm On My Way" # "You Never Done It Like That" -Recording Studios:The... |
131 | A&M | |
| 1979 | Make Your Move Make Your Move (Captain & Tennille album) Make Your Move is an album by the American duo Captain & Tennille. Released in 1979, the album includes the hit single "Do That to Me One More Time". The album was certified Gold by the RIAA.-Track listing:... A |
Gold | 23 | Casablanca |
| 1980 | Keeping Our Love Warm | — | Casablanca | |
| 1980 | 20 Greatest Hits | — | Music for Pleasure | |
| 1981 | Scrapbook | — | Spectrum | |
| 1982 | More Than Dancing B | — | Wizard | |
| 1993 | A&M Gold Series: Captain & Tennille | — | A&M | |
| 1995 | Twenty Years of Romance | — | Nouveau | |
| 1997 | Captain & Tennille | — | Arcade | |
| 1998 | A&M Digitally Remastered Best | — | A&M | |
| 2001 | Ultimate Collection | — | Hip-O | |
| 2002 | More Than Dancing … Much More C | — | Raven | |
| 2005 | 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection | — | Universal | |
| 2005 | Saving Up Christmas | — | R2 Entertainment | |
| 2005 | Songs of Joy: The Complete Captain & Tennille Collection | — | R2 Entertainment | |
| 2007 | The Secret of Christmas | — | RetroActive |
(A) Also charted at No. 33 UK
(B) Australian release only
(C) Worldwide re-release of 1982 Australian album with bonus tracks
(D) Spanish Version
Singles
see Captain & Tennille Singles DiscographyCaptain & Tennille singles discography
This is a list of all singles released commercially and promotionally by recording duo Captain & Tennille, grouped by album.-Love Will Keep Us Together:*FR 7" single A&M 625 040#"Love Will Keep Us Together" - 3:15#"Gentle Stranger" - 3:26...
| Year | Single Single (music) In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear... |
RIAA Certification RIAA certification In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards... |
Hot 100 | AC Adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music.... |
Country Country music Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music... |
R&B | UK Pop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | "Love Will Keep Us Together Love Will Keep Us Together "Love Will Keep Us Together" is a popular song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield in 1973. It was first released in the United Kingdom on Sedaka's 1973 LP The Tra-La Days Are Over, which was never released in the U.S. The song arrived in the U.S... " |
Gold | 1 | 1 | — | — | 32 |
| 1975 | "Por Amor Viviremos" | 49 | — | — | — | — | |
| 1975 | "The Way I Want to Touch You The Way I Want to Touch You "The Way I Want to Touch You" is a song by Captain and Tennille. The song was written by Toni Tennille and had been released on both the Butterscotch Castle and the Joyce record labels in 1974 before being included on the duo's Love Will Keep Us Together album in 1975. "The Way I Want to Touch You"... " |
Gold | 4 | 1 | — | — | 28 |
| 1976 | "Lonely Night (Angel Face) Lonely Night (Angel Face) "Lonely Night " is a song written by Neil Sedaka, who first recorded the song for his 1975 album, The Hungry Years. The following year, the song was a hit single for Captain & Tennille, for whom Sedaka had written the duo's hit single, "Love Will Keep Us Together"... " |
Gold | 3 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 1976 | "Shop Around Shop Around "Shop Around" is a 1960 single by The Miracles for the Tamla label, catalog number T 54034. It is notable as being the label's first #1 hit on the Billboard magazine R&B singles chart, and also hit #2 on the Hot 100.... " |
Gold | 4 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 1976 | "Muskrat Love Muskrat Love "Muskrat Love" is a pop song by written by Willis Alan Ramsey and introduced on his sole album the 1972 release Willis Alan Ramsey; the song had its highest profile via a 1976 remake by Captain & Tennille... " |
Gold | 4 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 1977 | "Can't Stop Dancin" | 13 | 12 | — | — | — | |
| 1977 | "Come in From the Rain" | 61 | 8 | — | — | — | |
| 1977 | "Circles" | — | 9 | — | — | — | |
| 1978 | "I'm on My Way" | 74 | 6 | 97 | — | — | |
| 1978 | "You Never Done It Like That" | 10 | 14 | — | — | 63 | |
| 1978 | "You Need a Woman Tonight" | 40 | 17 | — | — | — | |
| 1979 | "Do That to Me One More Time Do That to Me One More Time "Do That to Me One More Time" is a song performed by American pop duo Captain & Tennille. It was their second chart-topping hit in the U.S., following "Love Will Keep Us Together" from 1975. The song was included on the duo's 1979 album, Make Your Move... " |
Gold | 1 | 4 | — | 58 | 7 |
| 1980 | "Love on a Shoestring" | 55 | — | — | — | — | |
| 1980 | "Happy Together (A Fantasy)" | 53 | 27 | — | — | — | |
| 1980 | "This Is Not the First Time" | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1981 | "Keepin' Our Love Warm" | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 2007 | "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 2007 | "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" | — | — | — | — | — |
DVDs
- The Ultimate Collection (2005)
- The Christmas Show (2007)
- Captain & Tennille in New Orleans (2007)
- Captain & Tennille in Hawaii (2007)
- Songbook (2007)