Song:Love Will Keep Us Together
Album:Ultimate Collection: The Complete Hits
Love Will Keep Us Together was one of the biggest hits of the 70s. And the husband and wife duo Captain & Tennille had a strong run until they faded in the early 80s. Both started out as backup musicians until they married and started doing their own music. Daryl Dragon was born Aug. 27, 1942 in Los Angeles. He is the son of film composer Carmen Dragon, best known for the score of the 1956 classic film Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. He formed the jazz group The Dragons with his brothers and after releasing an unsuccessful single on Capitol in 1964, Dragon turned to session work and started touring with The Beach Boys in 1967. Mike Love named him Captain Keyboard because he always wore a yachting cap on stage. Cathryn Antoinette Tennille was born May 8, 1943 in Montgomery, AL. Her father Frank Tennille sang for Bob Crosby & The Bobcats as Clark Randall and then retired from music to run the family furniture store. Her mom hosted a daytime TV talk show. Toni began performing with her sisters at a very early age. She moved to Los Angeles in 1965 and joined the South Coast Repertory theater group and wrote the music for the show Mother Earth. Dragon was a musician in the Los Angeles run. After the show closed, Dragon got her a pianist and backup singer job with The Beach Boys. So Toni Tennille was the very first female Beach Boy. They became a couple while touring and decided to strike out on their own. They released the single The Way I Want To Touch You independently and this led to a recording contract with A & M Records who had success with the similar pop group The Carpenters. Love Will Keep Us Together was their first single from their debut album and it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1975. The album reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 200 and was certified Gold. Though Captain & Tennille are both songwriters, Toni wrote The Way I Want To Touch You and Do That To Me One More Time, Love Will Keep Us Together was written by legendary Brill Building singer songwriter Neil Sedaka and partner Howard Greenfield. It was on his album Sedaka's Back that also featured Sedaka's comeback hit Laughter In The Rain. And of course Toni made a point of acknowledging Sedaka on the fade of the record. They had several hits over the next couple of years and even had a TV variety show. They left A & M for Casablanca in 1979. And after their second #1 hit Do That To Me One More Time in 1980, Casablanca went broke and label owner Neil Bogart died in 1982. You can get all of Captain & Tennille's hits on this comp. Toni Tennille has had a lot of success as a pop vocalist aimed at an older audience. Daryl Dragon owns a recording studio. They have performed together occasionally. But with health problems in recent years, I would describe Dragon as semi-retired. Here's Captain & Tennille performing Love Will Keep Us Together on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert 1976.
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