Born:
Captain (Daryl Dragon) - August 27, 1942, Los Angeles, California
Toni Tennille - May 8, 1940, Montgomery, Alabama
Claim to Fame:
The singing duo will always be known for their mega-pop hit, "Love Will Keep
Us Together."
Family Life: Captain and Toni have been married since 1975... I guess
love has kept them together!
Prior to marrying Daryl, Toni was married before in 1962 but I don't know how
long the marriage ended. She was married to Kenneth Shearer.
Daryl's father was the legendary Los Angeles Symphony conductor, Carmen Dragon.
Daryl's younger brother, Dennis Dragon, was the founder of the popular 1980s
band, the Surf Punks.
Info: Toni married Daryl at her parents' urging, when they were about to go
on tour together and her parents worried about their public image. ("Living
together" was still largely frowned upon in America during the early 1970s.)
Neither Toni nor Daryl took the marriage seriously at the
time, but came to value it more and more as the years went by.
Trivia: Keyboardist for The Beach Boys in the early 1970s, Daryl was given
the nickname "Captain Keyboard" by singer Mike Love, and has been known ever
since as the Captain
Daryl's father is legendary composer Carmen Dragon.
Toni sang background vocals on Pink Floyd "The Wall".
Toni's was also a backup singer for The Beach Boys in the early 1970s, making
her arguably the first "Beach Girl".
They met in 1971 in San Francisco, when Toni was staging a musical she had
written called Mother Earth at the Marines Memorial Theatre. Toni hired Daryl as
a musician for the production after which, in turn, he helped Toni get a job
with The Beach Boys.
Toni performed backup on a number of Elton John albums most notably (and
prominently) on the classic "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". She also appeared
as a backup vocalist on tracks by Art Garfunkel.
The singing duo have been referenced several times on the popular show The
Simpsons. In "Mommie Beerest", Homer and Marge appear dressed as Captain and
Tennille, respectively.
Homer, in a captain costume, plays the piano to a lyrically different version of
"Love Will Keep Us Together". In "Simpson Tide", Homer is assigned to a nuclear
submarine under the command of "Captain Tennille". Also, in "Trash of the
Titans", the Simpsons celebrate the made-up holiday of "Love Day" by decorating
their front yard with a mechanized string quartet (made to look like the Care
Bears) that played "Love Will Keep Us Together".
Where
are They Now: Throughout the '90s, they continued to perform various
concert dates at venues around the world, frequently at Harrah's Lake Tahoe
At the same time throughout the 1980s and '90s, Toni enjoyed a second career as
a big band and pop standards singer, not unlike pop colleague Linda Ronstadt.
She released several albums and performs with orchestras throughout the country.
She also enjoyed a year as the star of the Broadway tour of 'Victor/Victoria'.
At the end of that project, she and Daryl were to have embarked on a
twenty-fifth anniversary tour; however, the stresses of the road proved too
demanding and the Captain & Tennille instead put a hold on their career as a
performing duo.
In November 2003, Tennille performed a benefit concert for the Reno, Nevada
Chamber Orchestra, where her surprise guest was none other than Daryl Dragon.
This was the first time they had publicly performed as Captain & Tennille in
many years. As a result, their first live recording, 'An Intimate Evening' with
Toni Tennille, was released to commemorate the event.
2005 marked a resurgence for Captain & Tennille when Brant Berry, the vice
president of a small Portland, Oregon-based entertainment company, Respond 2
Entertainment (R2), an avowed fan, signed an agreement with Dragon & Tennille to
release projects.
The first, and most anticipated, was the home video release of Captain &
Tennille's 1976 variety series, on a three-disc DVD set containing eleven
complete episodes with lots of bonus
musical tracks.
A new direction for the Captain & Tennille began in October 2006 with the
release of Cartoon Network's animated special Casper's Scare School. Not only
did the duo record two songs for the movie, they voiced the dialogue for the
characters who sang the songs. Tennille portrayed Aunt Belle and Dragon was
Uncle Murray, who together formed a two-head-on-one-body being known as the
Ankle. The two songs they performed, "Why Does Love Make Me Feel So Good" and
"World Without Fear", were written by Magnus Fiennes, younger brother of popular
motion-picture stars Ralph and Joseph Fiennes
The two recently moved to Prescott, Arizona and have been busy getting
acclimated to the quiet and beautiful surroundings as well as building their new
home. They broke ground in May 2007.
In October the two will be flying to New York to appear at Avery Fisher Hall in
Lincoln Center in a tribute to Neil Sedaka’s Fifty Years of Songwriting.
DISCOGRAPHY: 1975: Love Will Keep Us Together - U.S. #2
1976: Song Of Joy - U.S. #9
1977: Come In From The Rain - U.S. #18
1978: Dream - U.S. #131
1979: Make Your Move - U.S. #23
1980: Keeping Our Love Warm
1982: More Than Dancing [Australia only]
1995: Twenty Years Of Romance
2002: More Than Dancing...Much More
2006: The Secret Of Christmas
Singles: Chart positions are from the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary
charts.
April 1975: "Love Will Keep Us Together" - #1 Pop (4 weeks)/#1 AC (2 weeks)
August 1975: "Por Amor Viviremos" - #49 Pop (Spanish version of "Love Will Keep
Us Together")
September 1975: "The Way I Want to Touch You" - #4 Pop/#1 AC (2 weeks)
January 1976: "Lonely Night (Angel Face)" - #3 Pop/#1 AC (1 week)
May 1976: "Shop Around" - #4 Pop/#1 AC (1 week)
September 1976: "Muskrat Love" - #4 Pop/#1 AC (4 weeks)
March 1977: "Can't Stop Dancin" - #13 Pop/#12 AC
June 1977: "Come in from the Rain" - #61 Pop/#8 AC
September 1977: "Circles" - #9 AC
April 1978: "I'm on My Way" - #74 Pop/#6 AC (also #97 Country)
August 1978: "You Never Done It Like That" - #10 Pop/#14 AC
December 1978: "You Need a Woman Tonight" - #40 Pop/#17 AC
October 1979: "Do That to Me One More Time" - #1 Pop (1 week)/#4 AC
March 1980: "Love on a Shoestring" - #55 Pop
May 1980: "Happy Together (A Fantasy)" - #53 Pop/#27 AC
CREDITS:
TONI: Casper's Scare School (2006) (TV) (voice) (as Tennille) .... Belle
"Ellen" .... Tennille (1 episode, 1996)
- Splitsville, Man (1996) TV Episode (uncredited) .... Tennille
"The Love Boat" .... Lynn Mitchell / ... (2 episodes, 1978-1981)
- Separate Beds/America's Sweetheart (1981) .... Lynn Mitchell
- The Kissing Bandit, The/Mike and Ike/Witness (1978) .... Susan
"Fantasy Island" .... Betty Foster / ... (3 episodes, 1979-1980)
- Crescendo/Three Feathers (1980) TV Episode .... Susan Lohman
- Nobody's There/The Dancer (1979) TV Episode .... Betty Foster
- The Comic/The Golden Hour (1979) TV Episode .... Sandy Larson
DARYL: Casper's Scare School (2006) (TV) (voice) (as Captain) .... Murray
"Space Ghost Coast to Coast" .... The Captain (1 episode, 1999)
- Sequel (1999) TV Episode .... The Captain
"Ellen" .... Captain (1 episode, 1996)
- Splitsville, Man (1996) TV Episode (uncredited) .... Captain
Updated:
9/14/2007
