Toni Tennille's memoir

He sounds...weird

Maybe the Captain was more on the spectrum, an autistic type who could never really be a husband.

Does Toni talk about her muff-diving?

I always found her to be....well...plastic.

I had the doll, r4!

She sang backup for Pink Floyd.

The Captain was fucking hot! I would have sucked his juicy ass dry!

Many of Toni's lyrics were about her loveless marriage.

"He drew a circle that shut me out He was afraid of what love was all about"

Easy listening music of the 1970's is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Toni was just too kitchy for words. She was just so tall and overstyled and bombastic. Tacky, really.

She is quite the highly trained pianist and sang great. Seriously.

Toni and the Captain were on A&M and their biggest rival on that label were the Carpenters.

Apparently the song should have been "Do That to Me At Least One Time (Dammit)."

The last time I saw them was when they did the opening credits for ELLEN on ABC

I remember watching their variety show when I was a little kid. The Captain had zero ability to talk on camera. Zero. How the fuck did they expect to build an entire show around two people when one of them couldn't even speak?

The Captain and Tenille could only have become stars in the 70s.

They were prescient about Frankie Grande.

Muskrat Love, anyone?

R12 Agreed... how did Penn and Teller swing it?

I guess love didn't keep them together after all.

The Captain was hot, I agree. Sexy man.

Trivia: his father was conductor & composer Carmen Dragon.

I had the hots for him until I found out he has a disease where his eyeballs keep growing bigger. Then that's all I saw were how huge his eyeballs were.

Toni's favorite performance from her TV show, Dionne Warwick & Toni Tennille - He's Gone

I always thought the Captain and Tennille were a second-rate version of the classier Carpenters.

r19 thanks for posting that vid, Toni and Dionne sounded great together.

"Maybe the Captain was more on the spectrum, an autistic type who could never really be a husband."

Why would you think he was "on the spectrum, and autistic type?" There are a lot of weird people in the world; the majority don't have autism.

Minute 11:someodd seconds to all you need to see

They were R20

Does she write of her Victor/Victoria tour?

They were bearding for each other. Toni Tenille is clearly a huge dyke.

The Captain and Tennille were on every single variety show that existed back in the seventies. You couldn't turn your tv on without seeing Toni Tennille, in her mushroom haircut and grinning like an idiot, warbling "LUV....LUV will keep us togethah!."

Streisand was once asked in an interview, what female singers she admired. She mentioned Edie Gorme and Toni Tennille.

[quote] They were bearding for each other. Toni Tenille is clearly a huge dyke.

“In my experience, Daryl was never an emotionally demonstrative man. In fact, I can say without exaggeration that he showed no physical affection for me during our very long marriage. Occasionally I would go up and hug him, and his body would grow stiff in my arms. He would only respond to my embrace by cupping his hand and giving me a little pat on my back; it was the same kind of awkward, tentative “hug” you would give to an old aunt that you hardly knew.”

They made one of the worst songs of all time "Muskrat Love." I can't believe that did that song. I would have been embarrassed to sing it. But the damn thing, as bad as it was, was a hit!

Why didn't they have kids? Toni had a near perfect breeders build and was really fucking tall. They were from a breeders generation.

They had the Trifecta of discovering-gay-sex songs...

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

Ohh, I Never Done It Like That

and then..

Do That To Me One More Time

Oh yeah, "Do That To Me One More Time"...another awful song. Boy, they sure put out a lot of crap.

I was more enthralled with Olivia as "Barbarella" R23.

[quote] There are a lot of weird people in the world; the majority don't have autism.

Link to statistics to back that up, please.

Toni performs in front of the Queen at the White House, and bombs:

“Later that evening after the audience had taken their seats in the East Room, Daryl and I took to the stage. I sat at my keyboard not eight feet away from the front row where the queen, Prince Philip, President and Mrs. Ford, and Henry and Nancy Kissinger all sat on little golden chairs. After the first two songs, I began to relax and enjoy myself, and I smiled out to the crowd as I sang. Queen Elizabeth was sort of dozing—her head listed a bit to the side (probably from jet lag and, maybe, boredom)— while her husband seemed to appreciate the performance as he smiled and tapped his foot to the beat. President and Mrs. Ford were also smiling and nodding along, clearly enjoying the show.

As we started into the notes of our second-to-last song, “Muskrat Love,” I was just beaming with joy at how well the whole experience had gone. Then my eyes settled on Dr. Henry Kissinger, who was seated directly in front of me. He’d been sitting stiff straight through the entire performance, stone-faced with his eyes half closed, but the moment he realized that I was singing a song about two muskrats in love his eyes shot wide open. I could see he was not amused, and it only got worse for poor Henry. When Daryl started in on his synthesized muskrat squeals and trills, I could see the man squirm in his chair from what appeared to be sheer disgust. There was no mistaking that Dr. Kissinger wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

At that moment I wanted to be anywhere but where I was too. Sweat beaded my brow but I couldn’t take my hands off the keys to wipe it away. “Chewing on bacon, nibbling on cheese. . . .” I watched as Dr. Kissinger turned around during the song to talk to someone behind him. What was he saying? Was he discussing an important matter of state, or was his contempt over being forced to listen to “Muskrat Love” so unbearable that he had to share it with someone? “Sam says to Susie, ‘Honey, Would you please be my missus?’” Henry turned back around and continued to scowl with his arms crossed. All I could do was just keep singing and smiling until I thought my lips would split. “Susie says yes with her kisses. . . .” The room filled with Daryl’s synthesizer solo of the muskrats squealing and warbling in ecstasy. I have never wanted a song to end more in my entire life.”

Excerpt From: Toni Tennille: A Memoir

Didn't "Bread" do Muskrat Love as well?

No, that was America, who wrote the song.

Hated the captain.....he looked so fucking creepy. Dead dark shark eyes. I thought Tenille was stunning and she has a deep rich voice which always lead me to wonder if she was mixed with black. Look of course she's mad, she probably wanted kids and well if he isn't touching her.....not gonna happen. A lot of white women are conditioned to "change him" "wait he'll change his mind"........and well next thing you know you're in your 70s. She should have left him in the mid 80s and find a rich man who wanted kids.

Thanks r37, you're right.

Wait, The Carpenters, brother and sister were fucking...

But, the Captain and Tennille, husband and wife, were not. Only in the 70's.

"Link to statistics to back that up, please."

Since you're too stupid to look it up yourself, here is some info from the Autism Society of America:

About 1 percent of the world population has autism spectrum disorder.

Prevalence in the United States is estimated at 1 in 68 births.

That doesn't constitute a huge majority, does it?

I also read Toni Tennille's memoir. The Captain wasn't gay - he was a musical genius who bordered on being asexual. Very little sex and no kids. It was Toni who turned to other women for comfort (she didn't say so in the book, but it's all over the internet). In one interview on T.V. about her book she was asked about her loveless/almost sexless marriage and she stated that "a lot of beautiful women helped her". You get it! A little gossip here. When the Captain and Tennille won the Grammy Award for Best Song of the year with "Love Will Keep Us Together" Toni said that Joan Baez was standing on the podium with them and looked at them with great disdain when their song won. Come on Joanie, it was really was a catchy, cut song and a huge super hit!

Re: kids. I'm sure I read somewhere that they did have a kid but they put up for adoption. Can anyone else confirm?

Huge majority of what r41? Do you even remember your own post? I never mentioned the word until now. You did, twice, in a different context each time.

My 80 year old Mother remembers when Toni was a TV weather girl in Montgomery Alabama.

Do That To Me One More Time was used to hilarious effect on 30 Rock when mother-and-daughter Jan Hooks and Jane Krakowski sang it as a duet. I tried to find a clip online, but no luck.

Joanie the Phonie was always insufferable R42. If she was at the Grammy Awards that year, she must have been working as one of the ushers.

'Huge majority of what [R41]? Do you even remember your own post? I never mentioned the word until now. You did, twice, in a different context each time.'

Huge majority of the population. Most people who are quirky or eccentric do not have autism. It's popular these days to label anyone like that as having autism, but the fact is that not everybody who behaves in socially awkward fashion has autism. The Captain behaved strangely and immediately it's assumed he was "on the spectrum." But in all likelihood he was not. NOW do you understand?

Here were the other nominees for Record Of The Year. Not sure who Joan expected to win.

The Captain and Tenille - Love Will Keep Us Together Barry Manilow - Mandy Glen Campbell - Rhinestone Cowboy Janis Ian - At Seventeen The Eagles - Lyin' Eyes

Joan Baez was never known for her sense of campy fun. No surprise she sneered at C&T.

R43 Nope. I read her book and The Captain and Tennille never had any children. The Captain channeled all of his energy into music, which he was very good at. Toni wanted a normal husband, marriage, kids, but the Captain was very eccentric and she was stuck in a hollow marriage. He even ate really weird food and insisted that she eat it most of the time as well.

When I was a kid I attended a concert of theirs and got an autograph. I'm was struck by how she wrote my name, which begins with a J. It was a tiny stick above the line and a giant wide loop below the line.

Years later I read about handwriting analysis and was reminded of her very distinct handwriting which is claimed to indicate a high sex drive (and not much interest in intellectual pursuits).

“But one of the first discoveries I made was that Daryl’s idea of an Italian vacation was far different from mine. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but if I had hoped that being in a city legendary for its fine cuisine would loosen Daryl’s draconian eating habits, I was sorely mistaken. He managed to find what was probably the only health-food restaurant in Rome, and that was where he insisted we eat all of our meals. He refused to eat pasta made with white flour—and here we were in Italy, where everything was made with white flour! While other couples dined on terraces overlooking the river or inside beautifully lit cafés, eating wonderful Italian food and drinking wine, we would trudge up dark, narrow stairs to the health-food place, located on the second floor of a dilapidated building, where Daryl could get his whole wheat pasta and bland, steamed vegetables. When I tried to coax him into trying something else he angrily refused, insisting that the food in other places wasn’t healthy enough. Daryl, always terrified about his health, was absolutely convinced that eating even a little bit of the “wrong” food would give him some terrible disease. And there was no convincing him otherwise. His irrational idea about food was just one of Daryl’s many eccentricities that made life with him so difficult for me. There was also the hat.”

“I remember standing outside the gates of Vatican City, with its gilded domes topped with their multi-colored flags visible over the stone walls, and realizing that Daryl was being absolutely serious when he said he wouldn’t take off his hat to visit the holy city. There we were, just steps away from some of the greatest museums and cathedrals in the world, including the Sistine Chapel, which I’d always dreamed of seeing with my own eyes. But, because Daryl absolutely refused to take off his hat for a few hours, I wasn’t able to go in. After another glum meal of brown rice at the dank health-food restaurant, we headed back to the hotel.”

Though I can admit it's schlock I love their music. There is one huge exception to the schlock part. That is The Way that I Want to Touch You. It's really a great song.

[quote]Joan Baez was never known for her sense of campy fun. No surprise she sneered at C&T.

She also was quite conflicted about lesbianism -- hers and others.

Toni Tennille denied being a lesbian. She wouldn't be the first to lie about it if true, though. Maybe she is bi. It would be nice to have her part of the family. She has a great voice.

Toni's put out several albums of "standards" (aka Great American Songbook) that really showcase her voice.

She is quite believable singing the lyrics to this classic:

[R47] - I ADORE you for keeping me in your memory bank!

Of course she did, because it's always the man's fault. It really doesn't even matter what you're talking about, they ALWAYS blame the man.

Toni/Tony needs to make up her mind.

Daryl sounds like a pain in the ass, but who knows how much is exaggerated. She could have been a harpy, too. They are one of the few '70s acts whose music I hate, in any case.

Her husband looks like he escaped from the Village People, kind of a gay Thurston Howell.

It takes two heels to click.

I always loved that commercial they did for Sprint. At about 3:10.

R62 Daryl the Captain was a closed off man who didn't communicate well. There may be 2 sides to the story but he is now in a nursing home so you're never going to get a memoir out of him.

Didn't she once say that he had an affair with someone he picked up on the beach?

GAY.

The Drew Carey version of "Do It to Me One More Time".

Oh, holy heck! Look at that! The nacreous layers of permacum are really obvious on that pink tile. I hope Miss Toni's towel doesn't have a hole in it because that right there is an open invitation for the clap to crawl right up into her little hoo-ha. It's true. I've seen it happen!

I have to go call her right now!

Kissinger being tormented by "Muskrat Love" is funny. We can only hope that when he dies and goes to Hell, he will have to listen to "Muskrat Love" over and over for eternity.

I never really believe the honest truth is being told in memoirs. It's kind of a hurry up and get your side of the story our first. Seriously, who is going to trash themselves in their version of the story?

R37:

No, that was Willis Alan Ramsey, who wrote the song.

(For those not in the know, WAR is an Americana music god, despite having recorded exactly one album during his 40-odd-year career. A true weirdo, but adored by his peers.)

I don't understand why she stayed with him all these years allowing his eccentricities to define her life.

Toni sang on Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me and encouraged Elton to keep the exagerrated American accent on the "don't discard me" line.

Hope mustaches never come back on men. On women too for that matter but I don't think that would bother me as much since I don't need to look at a woman.

Did she not have the guts to leave him? Sounds like she needed some assertiveness training.

I agree it's very curious that she waited until he had Alzheimer's to divorce him.

Remember when everyone first heard news of their divorce and blamed me? I forgive you.

She had the buck teeth. Bucky beaver.

Ok so Toni is very stupid and The Captain is VERY crazy. It's a good thing these 2 didn't breed. She basically has a lengthy family history of depression and he had a mother who was biploar and a sister who committed suicide (depression). I believe he is autistic. Seriously Toni had the white girl conditioning and really thought she could change him and "with love I could get him out of his shell".....yeah. She is very stupid and if she had just left him sooner she would have had a bigger career. Oh and he had a fuck ton of issues, food issues, money issues, hair obsession, and on and on and on. They weren't married until A&M records put out a statement saying they got married Valentines day 1975....so they rushed and got married. Personally I wouldn't have been married to this guy, creepy and very quiet. She's mad because she wasted her life with him.....but she is also very very stupid. They went to Italy and she thought she was going to eat some great food....NOPE. She had to food check EVERYTHING and eat with him in their hotel room.

She first said they had to divorce for insurance reasons - why lie about that?

Embellished with a touch of fiction to make it readable.

I never could understand why they quit their career in the early 80s. They could've done so much more. They never had a record deal after 1981 or so. But that bitch could sing: nobody belts out Come in From The Rain like Toni.

"Her husband looks like he escaped from the Village People, kind of a gayER Thurston Howell."

I fixted it for you! Fank you. You're welcome.

I read the book and it was interesting. She does talk about doing the Victor Victoria tour and how unprepared she was for it. She was kind of destroyed by that touring life and mentions getting a lovely letter of encouragement from Betty Buckley.

She sounds like 80% of married women who stay in marriages that don't work. You just stay and hope it might change. She made a decision to get out finally. She doesn't sound all that smart but she does sound fairly honest and self deprecating.

She and Daryl own one of the top recording studios in L A so she makes a good amount of money still.

I found the timing of her divorce filing a few years after he developed the career ending "essential tremor" diagnosis quite suspect. Daryl had no idea the divorce filing was coming, until he received the papers. I have to wonder if she just didn't want to deal with an old sick man who couldn't bring in any money any longer.

R75 Spoken like a true Trump troll or irate homosexual.

I always assumed the muskrats in Muskrat Love were references to her furburger and his huge bush. From what I heard when Toni took off her panties it looked like the Commodores were eating her out.

R86, I remember reading/hearing the reason for the divorce was so that his medical bills didn't bankrupt them. Something about him not being eligible for assistance because, as a married couple, their combined wealth made him ineligible. Something like that. Anyone else remember reading/hearing about this?

The muskrats sounded like farts being cut. Watery farts.

I love a good Captain and Tennille thread!

I don't get why she stayed with him for 39 years. Even if they stayed together as a musical act they still didn't have to remain married.

1961: John and Jacqueline Kennedy entertain the Governor of Puerto Rico at the White House with a performance of Mendelssohn by Pablo Casals. 1976: Gerald and Betty Ford entertain HM Queen Elizabeth II at the White House with a performance of "Muskrat Love" by the Captain and Tennille.

Cannot wait to see who will perform, when Chee-to and Melanoma entertain. Scott Baio perhaps?

What an uncomfortable album cover, OP!

I've always felt that before you write your memoir, you should maybe do something memorable.

[quote] Didn't "Bread" do Muskrat Love as well?

Lens Dunham does Muskrat love any time she's lucky enough to find someone to fuck her.

I remember at the time they said the Queen was repulsed by the song too.

Muskrat Love was written by Steve Bannon.

I feel I missed out on an important part of seventies pop culture due to never having heard "Muskrat Love." I like the idea of it, though.

That 70s mushroom bowl cut was one of the ugliest hairstyles in all of history, yet it was so popular at the time. Hideous!

She has such a tremendously aggressive overbite, I never felt comfortable watching her.

FTR - "Muskrat Love" was written by Willis Alan Ramsey. It's actually the best version.

I like Toni, she always seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about herself....like in this clip.

I'm just sorry she wasted all that time in a loveless marriage when she probably could have found a hot,sexy man who was crazy about her.

Wonder why they changed it from Muskrat Candlelight to Muskrat Love.

[quote]I'm just sorry she wasted all that time in a loveless marriage when she probably could have found a hot,sexy man who was crazy about her.

Toni didn't want a hot, sexy man. She wanted SNATCH.

I would not have eaten one meal with the captain in Italy.

I remember back in the day she was being interviewed by Rona Barrett and she said how surprised she was by the success of 'Do That to Me One More Time', because it was about an enema.

"Of course she did, because it's always the man's fault. It really doesn't even matter what you're talking about, they ALWAYS blame the man."

Here on the datalounge it's always the opposite - blame the woman.

I LOVE Toni. She's on her Facebook page often and posts some lovely comments.

He always reminded me of John Oates in that he seemed incredibly uncomfortable on stage.

From Toni's FB:

WONDERFUL NEWS FROM DARYL - Most of you know that I speak with Daryl on the phone at least once a week, and fly out to Prescott to check on him twice a year. Now that we are divorced and living 2500 miles apart, our relationship has changed in a surprising way. I have always cared about him, but I never realized that we would, over time, become true friends.

When I decided to write my Memoir with my niece, Caroline, I called Daryl to tell him about my decision. I also encouraged him at that time….almost three years ago…to write his own Memoirs, and I brought up the subject with him often since then, but he was not interested.

However, he has recently had a change of heart and is ready to write his own Memoir!!! We talked about it extensively the last few times I spoke with him, and he is excited to give it a try! He asked me to ask all of you what subjects you would like to have him write about!

I have agreed to help out as an editor to get his book ready for publication. Caroline, and Marie Cranmer, who worked on my book, will help also. The plan now is for him to write as much and as often as he can, and send me what he has written as he finishes a chapter or an essay. We will organize it all later. He asked me to submit some questions of my own to get him started. This is such a huge turn-around for Daryl, and I am thrilled. He truly is a fascinating man, and I am sure his Memoir will be a terrific read.

So submit your questions and suggestions, and I will make sure he sees them all. As I told Daryl, “this will take time, and you won’t get rich!!” But in the writing process, he might discover some long hidden things about himself, just as I did when I wrote my story. I hope you are as excited and happy for Daryl as I am.

GIANT. EYEBALLS.

Fuck a memoir. I want him to write a diet book.

[Quote] He always reminded me of John Oates in that he seemed incredibly uncomfortable on stage.

John Oates was so fucking beautiful back in the day. Plus, he ALWAYS had a HUGE bulge in pants whenever H&O were in concert. I remember finally being front row right in front on him at a concert maybe 1981? His cock was always to the side near his leg and he's defiantly cut. Big mushroom head. I was so in love will him. I love short guys.

That excerpt posted @ R35 is the funniest shit I've read all week. I can clearly imagine Kissinger's disdain for muskrats.

Did she write this book herself, or did she hire a ghost writer? I only ask because that excerpt read like something a gay man would write.

[Quote] front on him

* of him

But I would have loved to be on and in him.

More of Daryl's diet tips:

“But many other ideas were just plain bizarre. For example, Daryl decided one day that he wouldn’t eat any purple foods—even organic eggplant picked fresh from our garden—because he believed purple foods were “negative.” It was quite convenient for him that purple foods weren’t very common, or he very well might have starved to death.

As a result of his food paranoia, Daryl continued to seek out vegetarian health restaurants to the exclusion of all others, and those were hard to find in many of the cities we were playing. Dutifully, I continued to join him in the hotel room for meals of brown rice cooked over a portable hot plate while everyone else went out to the best restaurants in town—pizza in Chicago, seafood in Boston, or soul food in the smaller southern towns. Sometimes I would go out with our musicians and crew to have a somewhat “normal” meal after Daryl had retired for the night.

We always had our own hotel rooms because Daryl usually just wanted to be alone. He liked me to come to his room and visit with him for a while; we’d talk and listen to the radio or “eat the food he’d cooked on the hot plate. But I could always tell when he was ready for me to leave because a certain expression would come over his face . . . boredom maybe? Whatever it was, I’d take the hint that I was dismissed and go off to my own hotel room, where we’d end the night apart.”

Excerpt From: Toni Tennille.

I always thought Captain and Tennille were cheesy as fuck. I always liked America, though, and prefer their version of Muskrat Love. i hadn't heard it since I was a kid, though, so just listened to it online. I had a crappy stereo growing up, so it's really interesting to hear old songs that have been remastered, and through really good headphones. You hear things that you just didn't hear when the song was new. For instance: Holy fuck is one of the bass strings flat. It is painful to hear it. It might have been a fretless bass, which makes it harder to get the exact note, but, damn, they should have kept trying until they got it right.

I'm trying to decide if I think Daryl Dragon is cute or if he's just strange looking.

He reminds me of the robot Katherine Ross in "The Stepford Wives"

It's a shame that he grew up to look like a Stepford wife. He was so cute as a child.

R19, wow that clip was great. What fantastic harmony!

Her version of Rubber Band Man is absolutely sublime. This high riding bitch could sing anything.

Toni and Dionne should've done a duet album together. I'm serious. They sounded great together.

I met them in the '90's. She was lovely. He didn't really speak. A very odd couple. I didn't get any sexual vibe from him at all.

[quote] Toni and Dionne should've done a duet album together. I'm serious. They sounded great together.

More Toni/Dionne, 'SHOP AROUND':

I hate that Muskrat Love song. Hearing it always made me anxious. When I was a kid we had a family of huge rats in our garage and they found some way to get inside the wall frame and sheetrock of the wall separating the garage and dining room and you could hear them reproducing in there. They became loud right when we would sit down to dinner and afterwards they'd start chewing on something. My mom was beside herself with hearing those noises and trying to get them to eat poison.. We ended up moving and let the new owners deal with it. It's not a happy song to me.

R30, LOTS of infertile women before Roe v Wade, due to botched abortions.

What part of "I'm a bitch" did Toni not express correctly

I worked closely with Toni on the Victor/Victoria tour and brother, can I tell you some nutty stories…yes, big dyke IMO

No Dr. Demento fans?

I have several of their albums. Childhood favorites, now a guilty pleasure.

A few years back I discovered a great electronica song that samples some of Toni's vocals from "Love On A Shoestring." It was released a few years before that (2002-2003ish).

America (another childhood favorite) did a version too.....

R30, did you miss the "they barely had sex" part? Captain definitely seemed Aspie-ish and/or asexual.

Dionne and Toni must have totally lezzed it up back in the day.

There were three things about Toni that prevented me from considering her attempts to lavish herself on my licorice bits seriously.

1. She had terrible breath, like she lost a tampon somewhere in the basement and the stink found its way up her vent stack.

2. She had those big-white-girl teeth, like that Carly Simon. Like talking to two eyes peering over a picket fence.

3. She didn't have a cock. (Probably still doesn't.) I like my men friends to have a cock, and my women friends to sit at a discreet distance and admire my musical genius without wiggling their tongues at my pelvis. And I'm not greedy. Those cocks don't need to be big. Anything over eight inches is fine. About average in my old neighborhood in New Jersey.

Now fuck off and leave me alone. I'm rehearsing for a "Take Back America" tour.

yuuuuuuuuuuuum

[quote] I worked closely with Toni on the Victor/Victoria tour and brother, can I tell you some nutty stories…yes, big dyke IMO

Toni admits in the memoir she was hospitalized for depression and even extreme panic attacks during the tour. The crew likely did have to deal with very dramatic and nutty behavior.

Soooo, we believe her memoir desoite the fact that she lied about the divorce, and waited to write it until after he had Alzheimers and couldn't really defend himself?

You do know she's a big dyke, and they were mutually bearding?

I don't think the Captain is closeted, he's just asexual, for lack of a better term. There are some people who are just not interested in sexual intercourse with a person of either sex. This is much more common with women, but there are some men who are like this too.

LOL Miss W at R135

r132 , i absolutely love that version of muskrat love. but America was a very great band :)

R108 Well, she wrote a book blaming everything on him. A guy she dumped when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She's hardly a saint.

R102, meet R72.

I was a child in the seventies, so, naturally, I was a big fan of C&T.

I remember how crazy I was about LWKUT. I also had the Spanish version.

IN 1975, WLS AM in Chicago made a Spanglish (lyrics cut from English to Spanish throughout the song) version of LWKUT, which I always looked foward to hearing.

A few years ago, I found a clip of it on YouTube and, using computer audio software, was able to make my own Spanglish version exactly like the one they made in '75.

Yes, it's the little things, ya know...

I liked that as the record of LWKUT is winding down that amongst the "da da da da's" they throw in "Sedaka is back."

Neil had a small comeback of fame and good records for a while at that time and then faded away again.

[quote]This high riding bitch could sing anything.

Well...ALMOST anything.

She was a great vocalist with middling material.

[quote]She was a great vocalist with middling material.—Although I love her self penned "Do That to Me One More Time"

She isn't given enough credit for her excellent songwriting talent.

Another Tenille original, "The Way That I Want to Touch You" is sublime and the best thing they ever did.

"Do That To Me One More Time" is about anal intercourse.

“After we had been in our American Ranch home for a few years, we received an alarming call from our financial manager. He informed us that we were spending far too much money on the upkeep of our huge house, and if we didn’t make some changes, we’d be out of money in a few years. This was the first time I realized that, despite all our years of hard work, we could possibly lose everything. I was stunned.

I knew we had to sell the house immediately and downsize to something more manageable. But when we had bought our property and built the house, the real estate market had been on an upswing. Now it was down, and we had a very difficult time selling it, because the market for a house the size and price of ours was almost nil. We did finally sell it, but ended up taking a huge loss. Our next house in Prescott was still spacious, but not nearly as large as the one we’d sold. It had all the room Daryl required to store“all of his stuff, which, he explained to me, would save us money because we would not have to rent a storage space.

While we were settling into our new house, Daryl decided we needed a generator. He had begun to become increasingly paranoid about something he’d read on the Internet, a supposed “theory” that the government would end up stealing everyone’s electricity. Therefore, he told me, we needed to be prepared for when that time came. One rainy, cold night in January, Daryl called me to his room. “Here’s the generator we need,” he said, holding up his laptop to show me. This particular generator was strong enough to power a small city, and it cost almost $10,000. “Daryl, no.” I said. “Absolutely not. We can’t afford that . . . and we don’t need it!” “Too late!” he retorted, slamming the laptop shut. “I’ve already ordered it!” “We can’t afford this right now.” I said quietly, “You have to cancel the order.” “Get out, you fucking bitch!” Daryl screamed, pointing toward the hallway.

I was so stunned that I just stood there. Daryl and I had had our differences for many years, but he had never cursed at me with “such rage. Perhaps he had his own reasons to be angry, reasons I could never understand even though I had tried repeatedly. Maybe I had unwittingly done something to evoke this vitriolic response. But at that moment, I knew that I had no choice but to leave our marriage.”

Excerpt From: Toni Tennille: A Memoir

I have a feeling that the generator episode was the first signs of dementia or Alzheimer's. Sufferers become paranoid very quickly once it starts. My Mother had been one of the happiest and funniest ladies I knew until the Alzheimer's kicked in and she was only 53. It was steadily downhill from there and paranoia and fear ran rampant until the end in 1988. Very sad.

Hell, I would have bought the book if it was titled "Toni Tennille: Get Out You Fucking Bitch". Marketing, Toni, marketing.

She always seemed like such a vibrant, good natured person. I love how she would perform some of her material in Spanish. The Español version of DTTMOMT is especially sensuous. It makes me sad to hear that she was in a difficult marriage.

After reading Carly Simon's memoir last year I got on a music memoir kick and asked for and received Chrissy Hynde's, Elvis Costello's and Bruce Springsteen's memoirs for Xmas last year. I haven't started any of them yet and dammit it's the Toni Tennille book I really want to read but was too embarrassed to ask for.

"...dammit it's the Toni Tennille book I really want to read but was too embarrassed to ask for."

Why, Mary?

We already know you're a big queen, so what difference does it make now?

Love,

TONI = late discovered GAY. CAPTAIN = mentally disturbed

They tried to make Toni into Mike Douglas/Dinah Shore with a daytime talk show. It was very shot lived. Even John Davidson's show lasted longer.

I could cry from this interview. She says she just realized that she could never be happy with the Captain, so at 75 she hopes to find happiness for the next 15 years. Poor dear. She seems like a very nice lady.

I still think this a scam. If she's lez and he's asexual -both longstanding - why fix what ain't broke? They split for financial reasons.

I mean, she's midwifing his fucking memoirs now?!

Bigly

Geez why would she stay married to him all those years. Why couldn't she just go out and eat alone in Rome after he settled in for the night? Why did they even GET married? Nobody HAD to get married in 70s. And his behaviors sound exactly like Howard Hughes'. The whole thin is just just

Clip from Toni's talk show

Toni interviews Miss Ginger Rogers

R159, you old romantic.

[quote] But in the writing process, he might discover some long hidden things about himself, just as I did when I wrote my story. I hope you are as excited and happy for Daryl as I am.

Perhaps Toni's offer to "edit" the Captain's memoir will result in some new revelations.

Toni is in her 70s now, and would probably gain fans with a big announcement that someone in the marriage was gay.

Toni was amazingly good as a talk show host.

I wonder how tall she is. She looks like a linebacker when she's next to another woman.

“When the moment came to announce the winner of Record of the Year, I prepared to smile and clap graciously when the camera panned over us after we didn’t win. Stevie Wonder took the podium to announce the winner, opened the envelope, and ran his fingers over the braille imprinted inside. Then with a great big smile, he leaned to the microphone. “And the winner is . . . Captain and Tennille!”

For a moment we were both frozen in our seats as the audience burst into applause all around us. I looked at Daryl and saw that he was stunned too. As though in a dream, we rose and walked up the aisle to the stage toward an enthusiastically grinning and clapping Stevie. However, the folk singer Joan Baez—who was standing with Stevie at the podium—was not wearing a smile as she handed the Grammy to us. There was no doubting her obvious disapproval of a “hokey” pop couple like Captain and Tennille winning Record of the Year! The ungracious reception stung—but just for a second. Once I turned to the microphone, I completely forgot about it. On behalf of both Daryl and me, I thanked our fans, A&M, Neil Sedaka, and Howie Greenfield. I knew that my mother and three sisters sitting in the audience, and my father watching from home on television—all the people who had loved and believed in me since I was a little girl so small that my feet wouldn’t touch the piano pedals—were sharing in my proud moment.

“Love Will Keep Us Together” had been named Record of the Year for 1975. We couldn’t believe it, and neither, apparently, could our record label. For in the chaos after the event, as we shook hands and received congratulations and posed for pictures with our award, someone from A&M nervously approached to inform us that we were the guests of honor at the A&M Grammy party being held later that night. Guests of honor? We didn’t even know that A&M was throwing a party! It finally dawned on us that until we won the Grammy, we won the Grammy, we hadn’t actually been invited to our own label’s party.

It was a prime example of our how our squeaky-clean image had kept us isolated from much of the entertainment industry social scene. The Grammy was the biggest event of the year and the after-parties, which often lasted until dawn, ran freely and quite openly with champagne and cocaine alike. The A&M party would be no exception. But because the Captain and Tennille had unexpectedly won one of the top awards of the night, hasty arrangements were made to get us to the party. Daryl and I made an appearance to a barrage of applause and cheers, shook some hands, and went home with our Grammy, leaving the rest of the party to celebrate as outrageously as they wanted.”

Excerpt From: Toni Tennille: A Memoir

She sounds lovely and humble.

Joan Baez was likely upset as she has never won a real Grammy. She only received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Why was she even giving out such a big award?

Aaah, c'mon, Baez is only human. She probably WAS pissed that she'd been recording good-to-great records for 15 years by that point, without a single Grammy to show for it, and then along comes a cheesefest like C&T, and not only do they WIN a Grammy, but SHE has to present it to them.

Fun Fact: Like C&T, Baez at the time was signed to A&M Records. Bet that after-Grammy party was a doozy!

Has Toni tried Breath Assure?

Toni has a new face. Yikes!

He gives me the willies. So stiff and weird and it exudes from him even in still photos. Definitely Asperberger's. And the Alzheimers? A consequence of a vegetarian diet. No healthy fats, no animal fat (which was plentiful before all this farm raised, GMO corn and soy-fed, hormone laden meat we have today). Your brain NEEDS cholesterol. After seeing him, I need a visual palette cleanser.

Did she out Neil Sedaka or apologize for stealing his songs?

Who sang it better? Come in From the Rain

1. Liza in 1980

Toni:

Diana Ross:

Melissa Manchester:

Call her MISS Ross!

Linda Eder:

Shirley Bassey:

Was Come In From the Rain a hit in the 90s as well or is that a different song? A black lady sang it. Wendy Moten, maybe?

[quote] Definitely Asperberger's.

Oh, dear.

[quote]After seeing him, I need a visual palette cleanser.

And again.

That was Come In Out of the Rain. A different song, but excellent (very Whitney):

"Streisand was once asked in an interview, what female singers she admired. She mentioned Edie Gorme and Toni Tennille."

Bullshit. Streisand NEVER mentions female singers who she "admires" except for one forced line complementing Aretha Franklin in her 1977 Playboy interview. In Christmas album #2 she even appropriated an arrangement that belonged to Sarah Vaughan without giving Vaughan credit. The words Eydie Gorme (correct spelling) and Toni Tennille have never been spoken in public by Streisand.

Toni's big announcement:

And they whirl

And they twirl and they tango

Singing and jingling a jangle

Float like the heavens above

Looks like Mustache Looooove. Woo woo!

It's weird how many of you keep focusing on "Muskrat love," as if that were their only hit. They had many others that were much better:

And most famously:

Is it just me or did The Captain always look like he suffered from clinical depression?

He look sweet but always SO sad!

Sad - she should have left him much earlier and made a move for her own life. They all got divorced back in the day - why did she stay and suffer? We only get to go around once.

Toni is a proud alum of Auburn University

And she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta (Tri Delt) Sorority

They still had a big composite with her picture on the wall when I visited there in the 1980s. She had a big late 60s bouffant hairdo as I recall - I'm sorry I can't find that pic.

(And I'm sure they'd all be horrified by your scurrilous accusations of her Sapphic tendencies - while the sisters do engage, they NEVAH speak of such things.)

She wore that bowl cut hairdo better than anyone of her era....

R194 Bullshit!

bump

No self-respecting Tri-Delt would be caught dead in a photo (at r193) holding a cigarette. Pure trash I say.

She's a lesbian and he was on the spectrum.

R192 I had the same question. Did Toni think she could change him? Daryl was cold and odd and rigidly set in his eccentricities.

It just shows you how ignorant people were back in the day.

In all of those pictures, Daryl loooks completely expressionless and has no warmth at all towards Toni. She is smiling and full of enthusiasm, he looks like he has no relationship with her at all and she’s a stranger that rubs herself all over him at a bus stop.

I’m kind of surprised the record company didn’t make him smile on their album covers, but maybe they just couldn’t. In those days, there was a meme of husband and wife performers where the guy was a straight man, like Sonny and Cher, or Burns and Allen, but in both of those couples, the husband was an animated, slyly funny guy. Daryl is like a Stepford wife.

He’s obviously on the spectrum. But in those days, people had no idea what that meant and she and her friends probably just thought he was “eccentric.” Just another hard to live with husband. It’s a good thing they didn’t have kids, but I feel sorry for her.

R200 Not on the spectrum now. He died yesterday.

I remember her attempt at a TV talk show and Jane Fonda telling her what a good interviewer she was.

MY MOMMA TOLD ME...

This is the restaurant in Rome she's talking about. Back then it was heavy-duty macrobiotic. You can understand why she was pissed. I had a friend who had health problems and followed a macro diet. I ate there with him a couple of times.

Sshe wash jusht senshational in Victor/Victoria! And I shurely should know shomething about that!