When the others turn you off, who'll be turning you on...

Trust me, there’s no way you can act cool with the Captain & Tennille blaring on the car stereo. I’ve tried. Twice. Unluckily relegated to novelty status due to the popularity and timelessness of the so-sweet-it-promotes cavities “Love Will Keep Us Together”, the duo of Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille, married in real life, rode the soft-rock/pop wave in the mid-70s, with a few hits, a television show, and endless guest-shots to make them a bigger presence then what people can remember them for. It seems everyone knows who the Captain & Tennille are, but besides “Love Will Keep Us Together” and Dragon’s “Captain” outfit, it’d be hard to find a majority that can say how. After a reissue of C&T’s Greatest Hits album, which left a couple omissions, Hip-O Records, the reissue label of Universal Music conglomerate, put out the Captain & Tennille: Ultimate Collection, which collects 22 tracks from both the A&M and Casablanca years. And believe me, this is all the Captain and Tennille you’ll ever need, and then some. Four or five songs are culled from their first three albums, three tunes from two more albums, and two tracks from their final “collaborative” album. Of course, the ringer in the beginning. I can’t ever get tired of “Love Will Keep Us Together”. With its trademark “I know that song in five notes” intro, if you really listen it’s not as simple a song as you think (“When the others turn you off, who’ll be turnin’ you on”), and Tennille’s voice is ten times more soulful than most of the “pop” records of the time. That’s even more apparent in the followup “The Way I Want To Touch You”, an adult yet classy “between-the-sheets” jam disguised as bubblegum pop. I just the chord progression in that tune. Also included from the debut Love Will Keep Us Together album are two songs penned by Beach Boy Bruce Johnston: “Disney Girls”, which succeeds over the BB original with Tennille’s delicate phrasing, and “I Write The Songs” which does the opposite, making worse than Barry Manilow’s. I not sure if it’s more the fact that neither of them wrote the song saying they “write the songs”, or the fact that it just over-the-top sucks, and only Manilow can carry off over-the-top suck. With their second LP, Song Of Joy, C&T again enlisted Neil Sedaka (who wrote “Love Will Keep Us Together”) for another big (at the time) hit “Lonely Night (Angel Face)”. Not as memorable as “Love..”, the song does have an interesting structure from pseudo-heartache tune to cheerful love ode. Two “cover” songs are on from the album as well, a bouncy version of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Shop Around” and a precious take on America’s “Muskrat Love” (both top-5 pop hits). This time, both succeed; while “Shop Around” by no means eclipses Smokey’s, it’s got a fun, not-forced groove to it, and “Muskrat Love” even betters that, since Tennille’s voice matches the over-cute lyrics. And while we’re on over-cute, there’s “Wedding Song (There Is Love)”, which befits their “Holiday Inn lounge-act” persona which otherwise would’ve sank an “artier” type of artist. I guess color me cynical – though for a “trying-to-be-a-standard” song, it’s done quite well. “Song Of Joy”, is a competent though unremarkable song. This was at the crest of Captain & Tennille’s arc, with a TV variety show bringing the duo to millions of living rooms in the US. Unfortunately, the next offering, “Can’t Stop Dancing”, catered too much to the disco fad, which is so not in their element, and in consequence seemed like a jump-the-shark moment, missing the top-10 (though not by much). It would have been much better to have come out first with the second single, “Come In From The Rain”, which showcased Tennille’s voice range in the best way, and which floundered trying to followup the disco sidetrack, and failed to even hit the top-40. However, that song and its followup, the dullish “Circles”, made the Adult Contemporary top-10. Also from the Come In From The Rain is the TV-show closing theme, “We Never Really Say Goodbye”, which compliments “Love Will….” quite nicely. The next album, Dreams, continued the rut, and Neil Sedaka couldn’t even save it totally – his subdued “You Never Done It Like That” made it into the top-10, but that was after a single that failed badly (“I’m On My Way” didn’t even make the top-half of the pop charts, though the plain song did make top-10 Adult Contemporary as well as inching on to the country chart). And third single “You Need A Woman Tonight” certainly didn’t convince me (like there’s a shot there). With both disco and punk/new-wave ruling the airwaves, it seemed like C&T’s career was waned out. Leaving A&M Records, the duo went over to disco powerhouse Casablanca, seemingly balancing the label from Kiss on the other side. This apparently did the trick, with “Do That To Me One More Time” a pure soft-rock concoction (just what specifically did she want me to do?) that brought them back to the top of the pop charts, only five years yet so long in terms of musical changes since “Love Will…”. However, that was a fluke, with the subsequent singles “Love On A Shoestring” and a watered-down psychedelic version of the Turtles’ “Happy Together” (subtitled “A Fantasy”) stalling in the lower half of charts. The writing has on the wall by that point. The musical landscape was changing, and although sterile soft-rock would still rule until about 1983, the acts of the 70s were being ritually dumped for the new decade. Their final album, Keeping Our Love Warm, didn’t apply to the charts, and only “Gentile Stranger” showed a small hint of the spark they had before. And appropriately book-ending the collection is the Spanish version of their biggest hit, “Por Amor Viviremos”, which managed to make it to the top half of the pop chart just on the Captain-&-Tennille-mania. Yo soy indeed!

The compilation is well-remastered, brightening the sound, and the booklet contains a thorough and interesting interview with the couple. Since this was released, there’s been a 6-CD box and the individual albums, but unless you’re rabid about C&T, I can’t imagine anyone needing any more than the 22 songs chosen here to represent their career. It’s got everything – all the singles, key album tracks (good or bad) and well-written notes. You may find yourself skipping a few songs after the first listen, but it’s worth the purchase.

Fun Fact: The most-sold recording Toni Tennille appeared on: Pink Floyd's The Wall. Honest.

Grade: B-
Best Cuts: “Love Will Keep Us Together”, “The Way That I Want To Touch You”, “Shop Around”, “Come In From The Rain”
Weakest Links: “I Write The Songs”, “Can’t Stop Dancing”

"Love Will Keep Us Together" hit #1 pop, #1 Adult Contemporary, and #32 in the UK.
"The Way I Want To Touch You" hit #4 Pop, #1 AC, and #28 in the UK.
"Lonely Night (Angel Face)" made #3 Pop and #1 AC.
"Shop Around" made #4 Pop and #1 AC.
"Muskrat Love" hit #4 Pop and #1 AC.
"Can't Stop Dancin'" made #12 Pop and #13 AC.
"Come In From The Rain" hit #61 Pop and #8 AC.
"Circles" hit #9 AC.
"I'm On My Way" made #74 Pop, #6 AC, and #97 Country.
"You Never Done It Like That" made #10 Pop, #14 AC, and #63 in the UK.
"You Need A Woman Tonight" hit #40 Pop and #17 AC.
"Do That To Me One More Time" hit #1 Pop, #4 AC, #59 R&B, and #7 in the UK.
"Love On A Shoestring" made #55 pop.
"Happy Together (A Fantasy)" made #53 pop and #27 AC.
"Por Amor Viviremos" hit #49 pop singles.

Listen: "Come In From The Rain" (click to link).

Buy: You can pick up a copy of Ultimate Collection - Captain & Tennille at websites like here and here.

And now for the videos....first up of course I have to include "Love Will Keep Us Together", here from her TV show.