Customer Reviews

Make Your Move

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This is an excellent re-mastered version of their 1979 album. I always wondered how C&T wound up on the disco-heavy Casablanca label. Toni explains it in the brief (but great) liner notes: the label prez assured them they'd have another hit. Well, they did.

What we get is some of the best pop music of the late 70s. The eight tracks include the #1 "Do That To Me One More Time" plus the shoulda been bigger singles "Love On A Shoestring" and "Happy Together (A Fantasy)" . "Baby You Still Got It" has got to be the best ballad Toni's written after "Do That To Me One More Time". The inventive casbah arrangement on "Happy Together" is over-the-top but fun. As the Amazon review states, this is a more adult offering from C&T. Fans will be thrilled and those not familiar with the duo might be surprised.

The disc itself has a clear, even sound. I have C&T's "Scrapbook" CD from Germany (which includes many of the songs from "Make Your Move") that seems to have distorted bass on a few sections. Nothing like that here. The booklet includes session players for each track, Toni's liner notes and pics of the original Casablanca releases -- including the 8-track tape. My only gripe is that the jewel case is housed in a slipcase cover that has the original cover art while the booklet has a different picture taken from the same photo sessions. No lyrics are re-printed.

Overall, it's nice to finally have "Make Your Move" on disc...and it's about time.

This album represents a significant shift in the career of Captain & Tennille. Daryl lost the captain's hat and Toni turned blonde--successfully shedding the "bubble gum pop" image that plagued them. There is serious musicianship on this album: saxophones, piano, guitar, and plenty of music solos. Toni Tennille wrote 4 of the 8 tracks on this album, including the million-seller, "Do That To Me One More Time". Tennille's vocals and the musical production on this album are top notch. Though there are only 8 tracks on this album, all of the songs are 5 minutes or over (with the exception of "Do That To Me One More Time", which is just over 4 minutes).

This album reached the top 30 in album sales in 1979 and 1980, with the help from the singles, "Happy Together (A Fantasy)" and "Love On A Shoestring". Toni's vocals are superb throughout the album and demonstrate, as one reviewer has noted, "why she made such a connection" with the pop audience. There's a touch of soul in her vocals that may surprise those whose only outing with Captain & Tennille has been "Love Will Keep Us Together" or "Muskrat Love".

Suprise cut: "Never Make A Move Too Soon", featuring an all-out party/jam session feel. This song starts out slowly, but quickly builds to a rocking climax as Toni sings about a lover who "turns up found" when she "strikes it rich".

Pure pop gold. Highly recommended.

"Make Your Move" was a departure of sorts for Captain and Tennille: A new image and record company and another #1 hit (Do That To Me One More Time) make this a very enjoyable adult contemporary album and their most coeshive album until "Keeping Our Love Warm". All the songs here run over 4 minutes. The highlights are the Toni Tennille penned "Deep In The Dark" and "Do That To Me One More Time" plus the far-out version of "Happy Together" (a total trip).

As a 48 year old male and a metal head I should hate this album! but I just can't, its too good. I had this as an LP but did not bother to put it on CD so I have not listened to it for about 15 years. I saw a cheap CD on amazon so I thought it would be nice to buy it so I would not have to convert my LP to CD. From the first song it was amazing. The first song, (love an a shoe string) Toni Tennille sounds just like Carly Simon. I also noticed the very special sound from the Keyboards. Electronic bleeps that still sound ahead of there time 33 years later. Yes as a Elton john fan I had to say the Captain is giving Elton game on this CD. But the songwriting, very deep, every song makes sense, the words rhyme when they should. Yes I think they give Bob Dylan game on the song writing front. Then the song (Do that to me one more time). Wow I haven't heard that song in 30 years it sounds so good ! It's so funny in 79 the raidio played that song to death, I liked it but enough was enough. Now it sounds so fresh, I forgot about the cool Keyboard work in that song. Then comes the cover of the Turtles song (happy together) boy did they change that song. pure genius. Rod Argent as a member of the Turtles, the Who and of course Argent must have been amazed at the work on the keys on this song. Anyway I start to update my CD list and this CD is copyrighted 2005 so I go to look it up in my rock and roll history book to see what year it really come out in and guess what? I can't even find Captain and Tennille in this 1200 page book. they got Captain Beefheart. (Who never had a hit). They got Captain beyond (Who I never heard of). but no Captain and Tennille. I then go on to find Captain and Tennille had two #1's and a total of 8 top 40 hits in five years only to get dropped from there label. Rock and roll fans got robbed, I can't imagine how good this duo could have gotten by there 15th or 20th album. If you like Sonny and Cher, the Bee Gee's, Elton John or Carly Simon you've got to check this one out. you will love the hits but admire the great B sides on this CD. And shame on the local radio, instead of playing (do that to me one more time) every hour on the hour, they should have been mixing in the other great songs on this LP.

Considering what's been said about Captain & Tennille by writers like Ricky Vincent and cable channels such as VH1 you'd think that this duo were nothing but loungy hacks with no genuine credibility outside of that. So what a big surprise when I purchased this CD in a discount bin and discovered what a soulful and genuinely soulful experience this album is. True this album was recorded at the peak of the disco era and the result is there is a rather overcooked four-on-the-floor version of "Happy Together". On the other hand the albums other major nod towards disco is much more successful with "How Can You Be So Cold" with this kind of dark sounding chording with this Philly type arrangement. Two of the qualities that make these soulfully grooving quality come out in this album are,for one Toni's Aretha/Gladys Knight style southern fried vocals but the presense of jazz-funk trained musicians such as bassist Abraham Laboriel as well as guitarist Lee Ritenour and sax man Tom Scott. What really impress though are the soulful,midtempo grooves of "No Love In The Morning"-a great slow crawling sophistifunk styled tune if I ever heard one and even more sultry songs such as "Deep In The Dark","Baby You Still Got It" and the classic "Do That To Me One More Time"-one of those songs that seems one thing purely by association but when heard in this context has an entirely different flavor to it. Throughout this album Daryl Dragon of course has a way with texturing different keyboards and synthesizers in a decidedly unique and rhythmic way that he'd been developing since the duo began their career several years earlier. That sort of keyboard playing lends itself very well to funk and soul and,since that's where the heart of this album is it all makes perfect sense. The album ends on the intense,foot stomping late 70's southern funk styled "Never Make A Move Too Soon". Considering the fact the song was partly written by Stix Hooper of The Crusaders it's only fitting that everything from Abe's bass kicks to Toni's sly,smartly sassy "rapped intro" at the beginning of the song has flavors to it that wouldn't have been inappropriate on a Crusaders recording such as Street Life. Like them,weather intentional or not Captain & Tennille captured here the elegance of sophistication of late 70's southern disco-funk. And even if many of the originators of that sound still don't get a lot of credit the fact this duo,especially when what they were associated with could put out an album showcasing that kind of music says something interesting about people's perceptions (and misconceptions) about funk,R&B,disco and how they all inter-relate.

When "Do That To Me One More Time" came out at the end of 1979, it was the beginning of the rise back to the top for Daryl and Toni. I remember watching this song climb ever so slowly up the charts to finally hit #1 on Feb 14, 1980. When I bought the single in Oct 1979 it said the album title was "Memories". Interesting, may be worth money (not that I will give it up). This is a great album for start to finish. "Love On A Shoestring" shows Toni stepped it up a notch with her excellent vocals. "No Love In The Morning" should have been the follow up single to "Do That To Me One More Time". In the spring of 1980, we were ready for this upbeat song and I know that it would have been a huge hit. One of the most haunting songs on the album is "Deep In The Dark". From the lyrics to the music itself, sends chills thru me. "How Can You Be So Cold"--definate disco though they pulled it off excellently. This has been of my favorite tunes by them for decades. I guess the song that I least like is "Happy Together". I just have trouble with it. That is the Turtle's song and I just don't think they pulled it off. I highly recommend this album to fans and non fans. This album pulled them away from the music on A & M and showed they could step it up. Unfortuneatly, Cascablanca records would not survive too much longer thus leaving Captain and Tennille out in the cold.

It really is good to have the Captain and Tenille albums reissued on CD. When I first bought this one on vinyl, it was my favourite of all of them. It isn't quite my favourite now.

I still love "No Love in the Morning" which was the track that first alerted me to these two wonderful artists. I don't think they made a bad record.

Every reissue in this series has the benefit of new notes by Toni Tenille, which place each album neatly in the context of their recording careers. The remastered sound is excellent.

Thoroughly recommended.