By Randal C. Hill
In early 1975, Toni Tennille and Darryl Dragon sat in the Los Angeles office of A&M Records. Company executive Kip Cohen played them a track from the latest Neil Sedaka album, a bouncy ditty called “Love Will Keep Us Together.” “The minute I heard it,” Tennille remembered later, “I knew we would do a number on it.”
In San Francisco a few years earlier, Tennille had co-written songs for an ecology-based rock musical called “Mother Earth” (the first Earth Day was in 1970). The show was about to move south to Los Angeles, and the troupe’s pianist couldn’t make the move. Tennille ran an ad seeking a replacement keyboardist.
Enter Daryl Dragon, the son of orchestra leader Carmen Dragon. Dragon was known in the industry as “the Captain.” Beach Boy Mike Love had often teased keyboardist Dragon about wearing a yachting cap onstage during tours. “The Captain” was in between gigs, so he jetted to the Bay Area, met with Tennille and was hired. Neither musician realized that they would spend the rest of their careers together.
Related: Music Flashback: “You Are So Beautiful”
“Love Will Keep Us Together” hit the top of the Hot 100 chart, where it stayed for four weeks. It became Captain and Tennille’s signature song and was named Record of the Year at the 1976 Grammy Awards ceremony. The remaining days of the 70s brought the hitmaking pair half a dozen more hits.
In 2009, Neil Sedaka recorded a children’s CD which included the track “Lunch Will Keep Us Together.” Funny, huh? Before you laugh, though, be aware that that disc earned a whopping 86% approval rating on Amazon!
