Eldergays, tell me about the Captain & Tennille

It was the 70s.

You had to be there

A lot of these 1970s pop singers could sing but had trouble trying to get good material that was new.

They had the trifecta of gay hookup songs:

"(I Never Wanted To Touch A Man) The Way That I Want To Touch You"

"You Never Done It Like That"

"Do That To Me One More Time"

At this point in life, most of us grab a Viagra and pop on 'Do That to Me One More Time.'

They were actually brothers who were supposed to do a drag routine, but "captain" couldn't tuck.

To quote a memorable DL phrase, Tenille is munching on another lady's muskrat now!

In a time when Shields & Yarnell could capture the public imagination, anything could happen.

I stil love Love LOVE the Captain & Tenille and I'm breathlessly waiting for their next album to drop.

[quote]I stil love Love LOVE the Captain & Tenille and I'm breathlessly waiting for their next album to drop.

Well, if the Captain handles it, it's sure to drop any moment now!

Blame Elton John and Niel Sedaka. C&T sang backup on a number of EJ songs - Crazy Water and Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me. And it was Sedaka's "Love Will Keep Us Together" that put them on the map.

LOVE. LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHAAAAH.

And she had the Ann Romano mushroom do.

You'll be humming it for the rest of the day.

Lovely Toni, she has a mouth only Julia Roberts could love.

I remember my parents bought me their album for Christmas, the year it came out, thinking it, 'hip', bless their hearts. I was mortified.

Not AGAIN!

(& the elder gay thing is beyond annoying)

...and again

Love didn't keep them together.

Yarnell is dead.

He wasn't really a captain.

Toni has a beautiful voice.

I never knew a Shields and Yarnell divorced. Of course, I never knew why they were famous to begin with.

She had a great voice

Cocaine.

He seemed to be catatonic or autistic.

I thought they represented to worst of 70s music and culture. They were so contrived and uninteresting

R16, it looks like those threads were started 6 and 7 years ago. I think we're past the statute of limitations on a new C&T thread.

They did a catchy cover of a Neil Sedaka song, and got a TV variety show out of it.

Some exec at ABC thought they could be the answer to The Sonny and Cher Show on CBS.

LOL!

They may have looked like cornballs, but they were super talented musicians. Not only was Toni Tennille an excellent keyboard player in her own right, but she could sing the hell out of ANYTHING handed to her. Pop, Jazz, Showtunes, Dance/Disco & R&B.

My favorite Cap & Tennille song is this Disco Era "Sleaze" number 'No Love In The Morning' from 1979. It should have been a hit single!

This was probably my favorite.

Toni tries a musical comedy---

[quote]r28 she could sing the hell out of ANYTHING handed to her. Pop, Jazz, Showtunes, Dance/Disco & R&B.

True. She did have a pretty glorious voice, when you took the kitsch away.

[quote] she could sing the hell out of ANYTHING handed to her. Pop, Jazz, Showtunes, Dance/Disco & R&B.

I loved most of their stuff but the one problem was that she COULD sing the hell out of songs....she didn't seem to have a grip on a more subtle approach

oh my

[italic]She still inspires us!

The Captain died a couple of years ago.

She actually looks quite beautiful and glamorous in the photos where she has platinum blonde hair.

Now Now, R33. I don't want the BabyGays to see the cheese you posted and get the wrong impression about the song 'Dance'. When it's writer Paul Jabara recorded the original it was a dancefloor hit early in the Disco Era. But when the band Paradise Express & The Weather Girls (Two Ton's O' Fun) remade it in 1978 it was Disco Magic and an instant floor filler!

I still remember one music review that made me laugh by stating something like, “When Linda Ronstadt did her album of American Standards it was great, but nobody said,[italic] ‘Why haven’t you been doing this all along?’ [/italic] Well, that’s exactly what you want to ask Toni Tennille after hearing her current release.”

In their heyday you had Shields and Yarnell AND Mummenschanz!

I love the story about their very uncomfortable performance of "Muskrat Love" to the Queen and a very irritated Henry Kissinger.

Toni turned 80 last year, it hardly seems possible. I'm unsure where she's living these days, perhaps spending time in Florida where she moved after she divorced Daryl or in Prescott AZ where she returned when he was on his death bed. Nice lady, who sings occasionally with a college choir group and visits nursing homes with her dogs.

Funniest comment at Youtube for the "Dance" video at R33:

[quote] The Captain didn't have to worry about any of those 'dancers'😅 stealing his Hot Woman😍 when he wasn't around.

How very dare they!

Another YouTube comment:

[quote]The Juul Haalmeyer Dancers were much better. And the male dancers here and with Juul were NOT GAY!

Love did not keep them together.

Maybe love made them realize they were better apart r44. it appears they remained friendly over the years.

[quote] Maybe love made them realize they were better apart [R44]. it appears they remained friendly over the years.

R45, she left & divorced him after 40 years of marriage while he was sick and on his death bed. He was good enough to use as the other half of their act, as long as the gigs were rolling in. But when he became ill, suddenly he was dead weight that she needed to get rid of ASAP. No loyalty whatsoever after 40 plus years together!

What's "Love" Got To Do With It?

Isn't she a lesbian?

Didn't she turn lesbionic late in !ife?

R47 & R48, I wondered that myself. It would explain A LOT about her "marriage". It may have been just a business arrangement all along. It's possible that she never lived with him during those years. Which is how she was able to coldly go forward with divorce proceedings as The Cap was dying.

r46 i bow to your obvious superior knowledge of C & T history; i didn't realize that. You totally win. Bitch is CANCELED.

I confess I thought the Captain was very sexy, and I undressed him with my teenaged mind when I discovered stroking my dick led to something.

Apparently they were advised it was much better for them , tax wise, to remain wed after the marriage had really ended. They had always had separate bedrooms.

First off Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon Dragon didn't marry until 1974 as their act began to take off. The couple had been living together which many including Toni's mother and the couples agents, handlers, etc.. didn't approve of at all. Suits minded because they thought if word got out the couple were "living in sin" it would hurt their career. So the couple got married....

Thing is when people marry for all the wrong reasons it never really works out. Daryl Dragon loved Toni Tennille in his own way, but the man came with tons of emotional baggage that meant he just wasn't the loving and affectionate sort of husband that Toni Tennille wanted. Their marriage lasted nearly 40 years largely because Toni Tennille kept trying to get through to her husband and make things work. That and of course they had their career......

If the couple hadn't found that early success and stardom they likely would have continued living together for a while, then drifted apart.

Toni was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay men were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles, and she theirs.

R8 oh God I forgot about them. They were great of what they do

First of all, it was neither a Bonnie Franklin hairdo nor an Ann Romano cut.

It was a Dorothy Hamill.

Actually - It was Dot Romano from Minot, North Dakota R56. But nobody ever gave me any credit for it.

R56. No, Dorothy Hamill had "The Wedge" Toni and Bonnie had "The Modified Little Lord Fauntleroy"

R7 She's gay now?

RIP all the guys at r33

I just started reading her Memoir, can’t wait for the revelation that Daryl never fucked her.

r37, if you have more records like that, post them! I found the one you posted on Spotify.

One of my favorite stories is that the Captain had many tics and neuroses, one of which was a pathological fear of earthquakes. Apparently, they somehow kept a hot air balloon at the ready nearby in the event there was an earthquake that they could jump into and float away to safety. How this could actually work is a mystery to me?

He must have been gay.

Who's been eating Toni's snatch?

It was Anne Murray All Along!

Wasn't there also some weird duo called Penn and Teller around that time? Comedy/magic? I remember them along with shields and yarnell on carol burnett.

Penn and Teller really became more famous later. I'm sure they made appearances then, though

Muskrat Love is my go-to karaoke song. Toni Tennille was a background singer on Pink Floyd's The Wall album!

Toni Tennille Touched My Ladyham!

Here ya go, R62. Several excellent Disco records coming out of the San Francisco Area & released on Fantasy Records in the late 70s had that same synth-driven sound. Patrick Cowley was the synth genius behind most of those classics. It's a direct precursor to the High-NRG sound that took over Dance Music by 1982/83. I'll share a few.

First up is Two Tons O' Fun's 'I Got The Feeling'. It was originally released in 1979 with the weak mix you'll find on the commercial 12" & the album. But the ONLY way to listen to this is the hard-hitting "Patrick Cowley Megamix" that was released on a promo 12" in 1981. It was another floor filler!

R62, another Patrick Cowley project on Fantasy Records was the studio project Fever, released in 1979. The album was basically 6 Synth-Disco songs split into two 15 minute or so length mixes/medleys. Side 1 (This Side) & Side 2 (That Side). DJs loved it because not only did the songs kick ass, but they were able to take a bathroom break during the 15 minutes. LOL. This is REAL Disco Music that filled dance floors!

Although every song was great, my personal favorites out of the 6 tracks were 'Treat Me Right' on Side 1 & 'The Fever Rock' on Side 2. I don't think this is available on streaming platforms & no one has uploaded the full LP in it's entirety in one YouTube post yet. But here's Side 1 ('Beat Of The Night', 'Work Me' & 'Treat Me Right').

R62, here's 'The Fever Rock', my favorite song on Side 2 of the Fever project.

Now back to Captain & Tennille. Sorry to hijack guys!

I can recreate my mother slamming open my bedroom door, scratching the album off & yelling "You CANNOT listen to this muskrat love shit all day long".......

I wanted them to do “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” as a cover, but unlike Elton and Kiki there was no sexual tension between them to hold the song together.

That song would've been right up their alley.

If you want a no sexual tension cover of DGBMH R74 - Tennille duets with John Travolta on it during an episode of their old variety show. It’s on the DVD box set.

Toni’s sister Jane passed away this week. Jane along with the other 2 Tennille sisters, Melissa & Louisa, sang background vocals on Love Will Keep Us Together.

They actually had a weekly variety show in 1976 that was supposed to become the next "Sonny and Cher Show" but only lasted about six months.