Captain & Tennille

The Captain and Tennille are a husband-and-wife pop duo who debuted on the pop charts with the top-selling single of 1975, a bouncy version of Neil Sedaka's "Love Will Keep Us Together." The single sold over 2.5 million copies and was awarded a Grammy for Record of the Year.

Toni Tennille began singing with her three sisters in their hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. Her father had sung professionally in the '30s, and her mother was a local television talk-show host. Tennille studied classical piano for nine years, and in 1964 she moved with her family to L.A., where she joined the South Coast Repertory Theater. There she cowrote a rock musical entitled Mother Earth, and during the play's run she met Daryl Dragon, a keyboard player in the house band. The son of conductor Carmen Dragon, Daryl plays synthesizer, organ, piano, and vibes, as well as bass. Before he met Tennille, he had also worked with the Beach Boys. When Tennille's play closed in 1971, after three performances, he hired her to tour as a keyboard player with the Beach Boys’ band. They were married on November 11, 1975.

In 1974 the two financed and produced a Tenille-penned single, “The Way I Want to Touch You,” which was first a regional hit. “Love Will Keep Us Together” followed, and upon its rerelease in 1975, “The Way I Want to Touch You” went to #4. Other hit singles included “Lonely Night (Angel Face)” (#3, 1976), “Muskrat Love” (#4, 1976), a cover version of Smokey Robinson’s “Shop Around” (#4, 1976), “Can’t Stop Dancin’” (#13, 1977), “You Never Done It Like That” (#10, 1978), and “Do That to Me One More Time” (#1, 1979). From mid-1977 on, the duo’s misses outnumbered their hits; still they managed to sell over 23 million records throughout their career. During that time Tennille provided backup vocals for Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

They hosted their own prime-time series on ABC in 1976–77, and in the early ’80s Tennille hosted a daytime talk show. The couple moved to Nevada, where Dragon works in his home studio, produces records and film scores, and works on an Internet enterprise. Tennille recorded four albums of standards, made guest appearances on television, and has performed on the musical stage. The duo occasionally performs as Captain and Tennille.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)