Husband and wife duo Cathryn Antoinette (“Toni”) Tennille and Daryl Dragon had both worked as session artists before forming a musical partnership, and marrying in February 1975.
Dragon was the son of a classical conductor and film scorer and had worked with The Beach Boys – where he became known as “Captain Keyboards” – while Tennille had worked as a session singer.
The duo flourished through the second half of the 1970s, topping the charts with their cover of the Neil Sedaka song Love Will Keep Us Together (the biggest selling single of 1975) and the mildly salacious Do That To Me One More Time, which returned them to #1 in 1979.
Crossing over to television in 1976 the duo hosted a prime-time variety series, The Captain and Tennille Show, that held its own in the ratings for two seasons despite dull-witted writing and direction.
On the side, Tennille sang backup on Elton John‘s Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me and, of all things, Pink Floyd‘s album The Wall.
The good times came to an abrupt end in 1980 when their label, Casablanca, shuffled some corporate personnel and dumped the duo.
With their recording career on hold, Tennille returned to the tube, hosting a syndicated daytime talk show, while Dragon designed and supervised Rumbo Recorders, a $2.5 million recording studio in California’s San Fernando Valley.
While they continued to perform as the Captain and Tennille at nightclubs and resorts, Tennille also sand big-band standards as a solo act. She recorded her first solo album, More Than You Know, in 1984.
Tennille filed for divorce from Dragon in January 2014, after 39 years of marriage. The two remain on speaking terms.
Toni Tennille
Vocals
Daryl Dragon
Keyboards
