The Captain & Tennille

Captain & Tennille
Captain and Tennille, 1976
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Pop, soft rock
Years active	1974–2013
Labels	A&M, Casablanca, Mirage
Website	captainandtennille.net
Past members	Daryl Dragon Toni Tennille

Captain & Tennille were American recording artists whose primary success occurred in the 1970s. The husband-and-wife duo were "Captain" Daryl Dragon (born August 27, 1942) and Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille (born May 8, 1940). They have five albums certified gold or platinum and scored numerous hits on the US singles charts, the most enduring of which included "Love Will Keep Us Together", "Do That to Me One More Time", and "Muskrat Love". They hosted their own television variety series on ABC in 1976–77.

In 1972, Toni Tennille was the co-writer of an ecology-themed musical, Mother Earth. At that time, Daryl Dragon (son of composer Carmen Dragon) was working as a keyboardist for the Beach Boys. When Tennille's show was preparing to move from San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatre to Southern California's South Coast Repertory, a call was put out for a replacement keyboardist. Dragon was between tours when he heard about the opening, met Tennille in San Francisco to audition, and landed the gig.

Dragon later reciprocated by recommending Tennille to the Beach Boys when the band needed an additional keyboardist, and they hired her. She toured with them for a year, and has since been known as The Beach Boys' one and only "Beach Girl".

When the tour was over, and realizing their collaborative potential, Tennille and Dragon began performing as a duo at the now-defunct Smokehouse Restaurant in Encino, California. They started to become popular in the Los Angeles area, and their early version of the Tennille-penned "The Way I Want to Touch You" became popular on a local radio station. This led to a recording contract with A&M Records.