Captain & Tennille

Keyboardist/arranger “Captain” Daryl Dragon and his wife, vocalist/pianist Toni Tennille, scored some pop/rock strikes within a light, intimate vein in the next half from the 1970s, one of the most successful which was the initial, “Love COULD KEEP Us Jointly.” The few met in the summertime of 1971, when Dragon was involved as the key pad player to get a musical revue, NATURE, made up by Tennille. Dragon, created August 27, 1942, in LA, was the boy of conductor Carmen Dragon; his mom was a vocalist. He researched piano while developing up and briefly went to California State College or university at Northridge before shedding out to create an instrumental jazz trio along with his brothers known as the Dragons. The group released the solitary “Elephant Stomp”/”Troll” on Capitol Information in 1964, but its design was out of stage with labelmates the Beatles, who dominated well-known music at that time. In 1967, Dragon became a touring back-up musician for the Seaside Young boys. He was dubbed “Captain Key pad” by business lead vocalist Mike Like because he constantly appeared on-stage inside a yachting cover. Furthermore to touring using the Seaside Boys, Dragon made an appearance on the albums of the time, including Sunflower and Holland, and he was billed as Rumbo on the British solitary released in 1970, “Audio of Free of charge”/”Woman,” credited towards the Seaside Young boys’ Dennis Wilson & Rumbo. Tennille, created Cathryn Antoinette Tennille on, may 8, 1943, in Montgomery, AL, was the child of Frank Tennille, a big-band vocalist (beneath the name Clark Randall) who got abandoned music to perform his family’s home furniture shop, and Cathryn Tennille, who became an area tv talk-show web host. Tennille also researched piano and sometimes appeared on her behalf mother’s present as a kid. She went to Auburn University, learning music. In 1965, she shifted to California, where she wedded and divorced drummer Kenneth Shearer and became mixed up in South Coastline Repertory movie theater group, which resulted in her composing the music for an ecologically minded revue, NATURE. The display was performed in SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA and LA, where Dragon became a member of the music group. After it shut, Dragon returned towards the Seaside Boys and organized to possess Tennille hired being a pianist and back-up vocalist. (NATURE eventually gained a Broadway creation that opened up on Oct 19, 1972, and shut after 12 shows. Tennille was no more engrossed at that stage, but she was acknowledged because of its music under her wedded name, Toni Shearer.) Dragon and Tennille toured using the Seaside Boys for any year, meanwhile learning to be a passionate couple (they wedded in 1975), after that left and started performing in LA clubs like a duo known as Captain & Tennille. (Dragon insists that this name isn’t “The Captain & Tennille,” though it is frequently imprinted that method.) In Sept 1973, they financed their very own debut one, Tennille’s intimate ballad structure “JUST HOW I wish to Contact You,” pressing up 500 copies independently Butterscotch Castle Information label and earning airplay in LA. “JUST HOW I wish to Contact You” was bought by the huge independent A&M Information, which re-released it and agreed upon Captain & Tennille to a agreement, apparently observing them correctly being a somewhat harder rocking, somewhat sexier version from the Carpenters, who also documented for the label. For his or her next solitary, Captain & Tennille protected Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield’s “Like COULD KEEP Us Collectively,” a track that experienced appeared lately on Sedaka’s American return album, Sedaka’s Back again, even performing “Sedaka is back again” by the end from the monitor. The disk became lots one, gold-selling strike, starting Captain & Tennille’s profession. For another 2 yrs, they could perform no incorrect commercially. (Rock and roll critics, predictably, dismissed their middle-of-the-road pop design.) The Like COULD KEEP Us Together record spent 2 yrs in the graphs and went yellow metal. “JUST HOW I wish to Contact You,” released another time, provided them their second yellow metal single. “Unhappy Night (Angel Encounter),” compiled by Sedaka and released in January 1976 before their second record, Song of Pleasure, produced that three platinum singles. In Feb, “Love COULD KEEP Us Collectively” received the 1975 Grammy Honor for Record of the entire year. Song of Pleasure was a platinum album upon launch and later proceeded to go platinum, spawning two even more platinum singles, a cover from the Wonders’ “CHECK AROUND” and Willis Alan Ramsey’s “Muskrat Like.” In Sept 1976, The Captain & Tennille, a every week hourlong musical range series, debuted around the ABC tv network, which evidently viewed them improperly as a remedy to CBS’ Sonny & Cher. The display became Captain & Tennille’s 1st false step, failing woefully to generate high rankings and, in Dragon’s view, overexposing the duo and therefore harming their record product sales. Although ABC was ready to prolong the series, the few demurred, as well as the present proceeded to go off the surroundings after only 1 period in March 1977. “Can’t End Dancin’,” their disco-oriented brand-new single, made the very best 20, but broke their string of TOP, gold-selling singles, and CAN BE FOUND IN from the Rainfall, their third record, also proclaimed a drop in product sales, although it proceeded to go silver. The duo embarked on the four-month nationwide tour in-may 1977, playing 90 towns through Sept. In November, A&M released the profit-taking Captain & Tennille’s Greatest Strikes, suggesting the label felt their finest days were currently behind them. Desire, their fourth recording, released in July 1978, by no means reached the very best 100, though it remained in the graphs twice as lengthy as CAN BE FOUND IN from the Rainfall, buoyed by the very best Ten success from the Neil Sedaka structure “You By no means Done It LIKE THIS.” Captain & Tennille still left A&M for Casablanca Information, a move that ended up being unwise, because the previously trendy label (known for Donna Summer months and Kiss) was getting into a decline. Even so, their label debut, Make Your Move, released in nov 1979, returned these to silver record status, offering the chart-topping strike “DO THIS in my opinion ONCE MORE,” compiled by Tennille. By 1980, nevertheless, Casablanca was almost moribund and had not been in a position to promote Captain & Tennille’s 6th recording, Keeping Our Like Warm, which didn’t actually reach the graphs. Captain & Tennille briefly relocated to CBS, however the offer ended without the records released. In 1982, they documented an album known as More Than Dance for the small Australian label Wizard Information, which released it in Australia just in 1984. (It had been reissued in Australia by Raven in 2002 with reward tracks as A LOT MORE THAN Dancing…A LOT MORE). Thereafter, they essentially retired being a documenting action while still playing periodic shows. Tennille continued to a single career being a vocalist of traditional pop, executing with big rings and launching the albums A LOT MORE THAN YOU UNDERSTAND (1984), Most of Me (1987), REPEAT (1990), Never I WANT TO Go (1992), Factors Are Swingin’ (1994), Tennille Sings Big Music group (1998), and Incurably Intimate (2001), while Dragon created her information and went Rumbo Recorders, a saving studio he previously built in LA in 1979 that hosted main acts, including Weapons N’ Roses. (Dragon offered the studio room in 2003.) In 1995, both re-recorded a few of their strikes along with requirements like “Unchained Melody” for the Captain & Tennille reunion recording TWO DECADES of Love. In the next half from the 1990s, Tennille became progressively involved with stage musicals, starring, for instance, within a touring firm of Victor/Victoria in 1998, while Dragon became a member of ex-Beach Guy Al Jardine’s “Seaside Boys Relatives and buddies” troupe in 1999. More and more, nevertheless, the couple chosen to stay at their house in north Nevada instead of perform on the highway. In November 2003, Tennille provided a concert benefiting the Reno Chamber Orchestra. Dragon was her particular guest, and both performed six songs collectively, including many Captain & Tennille strikes. The display was documented, leading to the double-CD A ROMANTIC Evening with Toni Tennille, the initial record to feature Captain & Tennille live shows, released exclusively with the Reno Chamber Orchestra through its website, http://renochamberorchestra.org.