With A&M, the duo recorded a debut album, but were still short one upbeat song - until label A&R man Kip Cohen played them a song from ’60s hitmaker Neil Sedaka’s 1973 album The Tra-La Days Are Over, a jaunty ode to romantic commitment entitled “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Sedaka’s ’70s comeback was already beginning overseas, where several cuts from Tra-La would become U.K. Tennille was accepted, and when her “Beach Girl” tour of duty was finished, she and Dragon began a creative partnership as Captain & Tennille, and were signed to Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ legendary label A&M Records. Dragon subsequently recommended Tennille as a replacement keyboardist to the Beach Boys, with whom he had previously toured for several years - and whose Mike Love had dubbed him “Captain Keyboard,” ultimately inspiring his eventual nickname and persona as “The Captain,” including a distinctive captain’s hat in public appearances. Over an 18-month span from mid-1975 to late-1976, the duo notched an impressive five top five hits on the chart, including a cover of The Miracles’ “Shop Around” and the endearingly silly ballad “Muskrat Love.” Only one song from that bunch topped the listing, however: “Love Will Keep Us Together,” arguably the duo’s signature song, and certainly one of the defining pop hits of its era.Ĭaptain & Tennille had formed years earlier when Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille met in 1972 on the set of the ecology-themed musical Mother Earth, which Tennille was co-writing, and of which Dragon joined the production as a live keyboardist. Here Are the Lyrics to Nat King Cole's 'The Christmas Song'įor a few years in the mid-’70s, Captain & Tennille were about as powerful a force as existed on the Billboard Hot 100.
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