Love Will Keep Us Together

Captain & Tennille | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Respond 2
• ASIN: B000B9E2EA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,381 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Love Will Keep Us Together

2. Disney Girls

3. The Way I Want To Touch You

4. Cuddle Up

5. Good Songs

6. God Only Knows

7. Honey Come Love Me

8. Feel Like A Man

9. Broddy Bounce

10. Gentle Stranger

11. I Write the Songs

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Keyboardist / arranger / producer Daryl "The Captain" Dragon and singer / pianist Toni Tennille became one of the most successful pop music duos of all-time as Captain & Tennille. The husband and wife team kicked off their recording career in style when their debut single Love Will Keep Us Together went straight to # 1 and won the 1975 Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The hits kept flowing with more top 40 singles, including The Way I Want to Touch You, Shop Around, Lonely Night (Angel Face,) Muskrat Love, Can’t Stop Dancin’, You Never Done It Like That and another chart-topper in 1980 with Toni Tennille’s Do That To Me One More Time.

The couple met in 1971, when Dragon was the keyboard player for a musical revue composed by Tennille. Daryl is the son of conductor Carmen Dragon and his mother was a singer. In 1967, he was playing and touring with the Beach Boys - where he was dubbed "Captain Keyboard" by lead singer Mike Love for always wearing a captain’s hat on-stage. Additionally, he appeared on a few Beach Boys albums of the period.

Toni Tennille, born Cathryn Antoinette Tennille – is the daughter of Frank Tennille, a big-band singer and Cathryn Tennille, who became a local television talk-show host. In 1965 Toni moved to California and became involved in theater, which led to her toward writing music for the ecologically minded revue, Mother Earth. The show was performed in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where Dragon joined the band. After it closed, Dragon returned to the Beach Boys and arranged to have Tennille hired as a pianist and backup singer. "Captain Keyboard" and the "Beach Girl" toured with the Beach Boys for a year, while becoming romantically involved. The couple was married shortly thereafter and began performing in Los Angeles clubs as a duo called Captain & Tennille.

In September 1973, they financed their own recording, Tennille’s composition of The Way I Want to Touch You and released it on their own Butterscotch Castle label. The song earned significant airplay in Los Angeles and the duo was signed by A&M Records. For their major-label debut they covered the Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield tune Love Will Keep Us Together. The song quickly went to number 1 on the Billboard charts, and the rest is pretty much pop-music history.

Amidst a continual flurry of hit songs, 1976 also brought the Captain & Tennille’s weekly television show, which only lasted one season. In 1979, Captain & Tennille left A&M for Casablanca records, a move that placed them atop the Billboard Hot 100 once again, this time with Toni’s song Do That To Me One More Time.

Toni Tennille continues on with a solo career as a singer of traditional pop, performing with big bands and symphonies and has released numerous solo recordings to the praise of critics. She’s also become involved in stage musicals, having starred in the touring company of Victor/Victoria. Daryl Dragon continues to produce Toni’s and Captain & Tennille records and he also ran Rumbo Recorders, the recording studio they built in Los Angeles in 1979 – and sold in 2003. These days there’s no place like home for the couple, as they much prefer their own surroundings to life on the road. Now, 30 years after their chart debut they’ve recorded two new holiday songs, "Saving Up Christmas" and "Tahoe Snow."

Product Description

It’s the 30th anniversary of the Captain & Tennille’s debut album - which went all the way to # 2 on the Billboard LP charts on the strength of the # 1 title track, which also won the 1975 Grammy Award for record of the year. Also includes the top 5 single "The Way I Want To Touch You" written by Toni Tennille, plus "Cuddle Up" written by Daryl Dragon and Dennis Wilson and more. All new CD packaging, including 2005 liner notes by Toni Tennille. Digitally remastered for the first time, under the supervision of the Captain humself.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Captain and the woman who should have been a Beach Boy, May 18, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Love Wil Keep Us Together (Audio CD)

The Captain and Tennille exploded on the music scene in the last half of the Seventies in the same sort of way that the Carpenters did at the start of the decade. The similarities were obvious, with Toni Tennille doing the singing while spousal unit Daryl Dragon, who had played keyboards with the Beach Boys, playing anything with a keyboard. The big differences, of course, were that Tennille played piano instead of the drums and the couple were married instead of siblings. Musically the signature sound of the Captain and Tennille were their vibrant harmonies, courtesy of background vocals that usually include sisters Melissa and Louisa Tennille. The title song from this 1975 album, co-written by Neil Sedaka as if you could not tell, sold a million copies and made it to the top of the charts while the album itself peaked at #2. The album produced another #1 hit with a reissue of "The Way I want To Touch" you, an original Tennille composition. The key thing is that once you get past the hits you might find you like some of the other songs on the album better. There are a pair of covers of songs by another former Beach Boy, Bruce Johnston ("Disney Girls" and "I Write the Songs"), "Cuddle Up" was co-written by Dragon and Dennis Wilson, and an emotionally charged cover of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" that show cases Tennille's depth as a singer. But while the Beach Boys related songs tend to dominate the album (and make you wonder why Tennille did not just go become a Beach "Girl") the original compositions by the Captain and Tennille are really the heart of the album. "Gentle Stranger" and "Honey Come Love Me" are love songs spawned by a happy marriage, which is exception and not the rule both in terms of performers and songwriting contexts. Toni Tennille's voice combines tenderness and maturity, with a touch of southern sultriness, that obviously contrasted with the more cynical rock `n' roll singers of the time. If you have followed her career at all during the last two decades then you know the woman can sing just about anything. Daryl Dragon was never compared to Elton John, but his keyboard playing always added a nice musical contrast to his wife's voice.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pop Gem That is as Fresh and Fun Today as It Was in 1975, October 28, 2004

By 

m magnolia - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love Wil Keep Us Together (Audio CD)

As a child growing up in the 70's, I adored Captain & Tennille. For this I endured the merciless teasing of my peers, as the duo was deemed not cool enough for general pre-adolescent consumption. Never the less, there was something about them that always appealed to me.

Gripped by nostalgia, which seems inevitable as one approaches midlife in this post "9/11" world, I re-listened to the debut album of this apparently all but forgotten 70's husband and wife team. (For those of you too young to remember, Toni Tennille sang lead vocals backed by her husband, keyboard player, arranger and former Beach Boys touring musician Daryl Dragon.)

What I discovered was a pop gem that is as fresh and fun today as it was in 1975. High quality production and musicianship are consistent throughout all 11 tracks of the album. Ms. Tennille's straight forward approach to the vocals is complimented well by her husband's intricate, layered, almost "Baroque" arrangements - a style they perfected on subsequent recordings.

The title track, Love Will Keep Us Together, written by the legendary Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield is probably all that most people remember about Captain & Tennille. But it is the lesser known tracks on the album where the pair's talent and creativity shines through.

Most outstanding are the emotionally charged cover of Beach Boy Brian Wilson's God Only Knows, and the beautiful vocal harmonies on I Write the Songs. Also noteworthy are the tender ballads Cuddle Up and Gentle Stranger, penned by Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille.

Overall, there is a warmth and sweetness about this album which is evocative of more innocent times.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing!, February 24, 2007

By 

Tamara J. Griffin (Granger, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Will Keep Us Together (Audio CD)

I grew up on this kind of music; my Mom and Dad had their albums and recorded them onto cassettes so we could listen to them when we traveled. Having them again in my own home brings back alot of memories (although my teenager just rolls her eyes!)about what music used to be like. I really couldn't beat the price either. Thank you for such wonderful service!