"SONGS OF JOY" - CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE LINER NOTES BY TONI TENNILLE November, 2005 _______________________ LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER What I remember most about recording LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER is the sheer thrill and exhilaration of recording music exactly the way we always dreamed we could. We had all the great facilities of A&M studios available to us, and the full support of the A&M staff. You cannot imagine how much that meant to us, after struggling along for years, performing in small clubs, hoping to get a break. Frankly, we were just floating along on a sea of music-making joy. I especially remember the day we first heard Neil Sedaka’s version of “Love Will Keep Us Together” from his album, “Sedaka is Back”. We were looking for an up-tempo tune to balance our new album, which was a bit ballad-heavy. Kip Cohen, the head of A&R at A&M at that time, played a few cuts for us from “Sedaka is Back”, which had only been released in England, as I recall. The minute Daryl and I heard “Love Will Keep Us Together”, we KNEW it was the tune we had been looking for! We couldn’t get in the studio fast enough! Daryl came up with the now-famous opening bass lick, and we finished the track in record time. I am quite sentimental about the album LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER, especially when I hear my sisters’ voices, singing the backgrounds, and remember how much fun Louisa, Melissa, Jane and I had singing them. Daryl even wrote a note or two for my MOTHER to sing! I hope that, as you listen to this CD, one of the songs will spark a special memory for you, too. _______________________ SONG OF JOY I don’t think there has ever been a recording arist who wasn’t worried about their second album. You always hope it will live up to the success of your first one, and that you won’t be a “one hit wonder”. Well, we were so lucky with SONG OF JOY. It gave us three big hits, including the infamous, love it or loathe it, “Muskrat Love”. It is really a miracle that “Muskrat Love” was ever released as a single. We had already had two hits from SONG OF JOY, and A&M was reluctant to release another single. They certainly didn’t think “Muskrat Love” had hit potential, and Daryl and I weren’t sure about that either. What we DID know, was that everytime we sang “Muskrat Love” in the Smokehouse in Encino, CA, where we played off and on from 1972 through 1974, the audience went nuts, demanding that we play it several times a night. I finally put a cap on it at twice a night. That was ENOUGH! However, a club audience’s enjoyment of a song didn’t mean it would translate into a national hit record. Enter WISM, a radio station in Madison, Wisconsin. Their Music Director called our record company, A&M, and told them they were missing a bet if they didn’t release “Muskrat Love” as a single. WISM had been playing it off the album, and the phones had been ringing off the wall with requests to hear “that muskrat song.” A&M released it, and it went on to become the third biggest selling single of our career. Humorist Dave Barry always includes it on his yearly list of Top Ten Worst Pop Singles. I laugh everytime I think about what a ruckus it has caused over the years. By the way, the Muskrats make a “hit and run” appearance on our Christmas single TAHOE SNOW. Thought you’d like to know! _______________________ COME IN FROM THE RAIN What I remember most about recording our album, COME IN FROM THE RAIN, was what a hectic and stressful time it was in our career. Our record company, A&M, was bitterly opposed to our television show, thinking it would cut into our record sales. They wanted us to stop doing the show ASAP, and we finally did, but not because of A&M. We stopped because it was just too hard on both of us, especially Daryl, who was never comfortable in front of the camera (and still isn’t). We were trying to do the TV show, tour, and record, all at the same time. I found I had little time to write new songs. In spite of all of this craziness, there are so many songs on this album that I really love. The title song was written by two wonderful songwriters, Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager. Over the years, it has become one of our fans’ favorites, and it became our “encore” song at every concert. Now, all these years later, I find its message of lasting love and true friendship means even more to me. I wrote two of the songs on this album, “Circles” and “We Never Really Say Goodbye.” Read the short poem called “Outwitted” by poet Edwin Markham, and you will understand where I got the idea for “Circles”, a favorite of our youngest fans. I wrote “We Never Really Say Goodbye” (with some inspired musical ideas by Daryl) as a closing song for our Captain and Tennille Variety show. The inspiration for “Goodbye” came from my feeling that, even though we may be physically separated from those we love by time or circumstance, we are never separated in our hearts. Many of you have written to tell me about what that song means to you. I thank you for that. That’s why I write. That’s why we make music. _______________________ DREAM The DREAM album gave us another hit single, “You Never Done It Like That”, written by Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield, who also wrote “Love Will Keep Us Together”, and many, many other songs we recorded over the years. Neil’s version of the tune was bright, peppy and terrific, but I really wanted a slightly darker, more sensual version for Captain and Tennille. It was really up to Daryl to come up with just the right sound. He disappeared in his studio, and tried all sorts of approaches to the song. Finally, after a couple of days he called me in and said, “What do you think?” BINGO!!!! He hit it right on the money....humorous, sexy, great rhythm track. My sister, Melissa, and I sang all the crazy, intricate background vocals Daryl came up with, and had a ball doing it. There are so many tunes I remember fondly on this album......”Dixie Hummingbird”, which we used to do in our concerts...SO much fun, Bruce Johnston’s exquisite “If There Were Time”, arranged for full orchestra by the legendary Gordon Jenkins, “Back to the Island”, which reminded me so much of our days as members of the Beach Boys band (even though it wasn’t a Beach Boys song), and a tune I always thought had great hit potential, but never got there for us, “You Need a Woman Tonight”. I LOVED that song. It has a country feel, and I guess we weren’t really considered “country”, so it fell through the cracks (except in the northwest, where it did very well). My sister, Jane, who was living in Nashville at the time, found the song for us. She used to hit all the Nashville publishing houses, looking for Captain and Tennille material. She had great “ears”...still does. And, of course, the title song, “Dream”, written by the great Johnny Mercer. I still sing that when I perform with symphony orchestras and big bands. As usual with Captain and Tennille, DREAM is a very eclectic collection of songs. I hope you enjoy it. _______________________ MAKE YOUR MOVE MAKE YOUR MOVE was our first album for Casablanca Records. We left A&M because we felt they thought we were not going to come up with another hit record. Neil Bogart, president of Casablanca Records, persuaded us to come over to his label with his unbounded enthusiasm and confidence that we could have more hits. Thank goodness he was right. “Do That To Me One More Time”, which I’m proud to say I wrote, became the second biggest-selling single of our career. And let me say right now, the lyric is “Do that to me one more time,” NOT “Do it to me”! Whatever you may think that song is about, I will tell you the truth right now. The first time Daryl ever kissed me, my very first thought was, “Wow! I sure would like him to do that again.” I wrote four songs for MAKE YOUR MOVE, all very different from each other. “Baby You Still Got It” is a song I wrote about Daryl, which still applies to him today, by the way. I always thought I’d love to hear a singer like Gladys Knight sing it. I consider “Deep In The Dark” one of my best songs, especially the lyric. It certainly isn’t C&T hit material, but I accomplished exactly what I was after with that song....a sense of awakening to sensual love. Whew! That’s pretty heavy for a proper southern gal. I will never forget recording our version of “Happy Together”. Daryl, famous for strange approaches to certain tunes (remember the jungle sounds in “Lonely Nights”?), created some kind of “disco middle-eastern desert” thing...I’m talking camels, palm trees, sand dunes. I have no idea where he came up with the concept, but it makes me laugh everytime I hear it. I’m sure The Turtles, who did the GREAT original recording, thought we were nuts. I hope you’ll get a kick out of MAKE YOUR MOVE! _______________________ KEEPING OUR LOVE WARM When Daryl and I were recording KEEPING OUR LOVE WARM, I was hosting the Toni Tennille Talk/Variety Show. I remember writing the title song while I was jogging around the reservoir in Central Park, NYC. I was there to promote the talk show, and Daryl was at home in California. I was missing him terribly, and the phrase “keeping our love warm” kept popping into my head. As I jogged along, the rest of the lyrics and a melody popped into my head, and I wrote it all down when I got back to the hotel. It is still one of my favorites. I always wanted to write songs for other artists, but the usual response was, “if it is so good, why doesn’t SHE record it?” Well, our fans always expected songs I wrote to reflect my relationship with Daryl, so the songs had to have a positive slant. But, as a songwriter, I don’t like to be put in a creative box. I wrote “Don’t Forget Me” about a couple going their separate ways. I think it is a lovely song, and I always hoped another artist would record it, but it never happened. I wrote “This is Not the First Time” with Cher in mind, but never sent it to her. “But I Think It’s a Dream” is about falling fast and hard for someone, before you have time to give it a sensible thought...while you are still in a dream-like trance of love (or lust). We re-visited one of the first songs I ever wrote, “Gentle Stranger”. Many people have asked me who the “gentle stranger” was, and the answer is....whoever you think it is. This was our last album for Casablanca, sad to say. Neil Bogart, president of the label, died at the age of 39. Casablanca went under, and was taken over by CBS, which wasn’t very excited about us, so that was that. But we had a wonderful, long run, and we are very proud of all we have accomplished. Many, many thanks to all of you who have written to us over the years to tell us how much our music meant to you. You are the reason we make the music.