(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Captain & Tennille - "Love Will Keep Us Together"
Hit Number 1: June 21. 1975
Stay at Number 1: 4 Weeks
1975 turned out to be a pretty damn good year for Neil Sedaka, especially considering where he came from. I already said some of this in the "Laughter in the Rain" review, but Sedaka, who was one of the most successful singers in the pre-Beatles era, fell on some tough times after the British Invasion arrived. Like many other pre-Beatles stars, Sedaka's popularity took a nose dive after the British Invasion, and hits were impossible to achieve. But then suddenly, Sedaka got help from none other than Elton John, who signed him to his Rocket Records label. Again, there's more on the success story of Sedaka in the "Laughter in the Rain" review, but it was at Rocket Records where Sedaka released "Laughter in the Rain" among his other Sedaka's Back songs, and one of those songs on that album would become the biggest song of 1975. Except it wouldn't be Sedaka's version that accomplished that.
Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille were a married couple that both grew up with music families, and once they were married, they began making their own music. Before meeting and marrying Tennille, Dragon played the keyboards on some of the Beach Boys material in the late '60s and early '70s, and acquired the nickname "Captain Keyboard" from Mike Love. The nickname stuck, and ever since then Dragon would not only start wearing a Captain's hat to go along with the nickname, but he'd start going by Captain all together. Once he met Tennille, the captain persona would be a very big identity tag for them, along with Dragon's rapidly improving keyboard skills. See, Captain and Tennille were an interesting act; Dragon never sung a note in his life, but he'd become the mad man on the keyboards, while Tennille, a very good piano player in her own right, would stick to playing basic melodies and singing lead vocals. That was their formula for most of their songs, and it worked.
By the time 1975 rolled around, the two had just gotten married and were able to secure a record deal with A&M Records, a record company owned by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. One of the first songs the duo would record and release was a cover of Neil Sedaka's "Love Will Keep Us Together." Sedaka released his original version in France as a single, and it was on his Sedaka's Back album, but was never released as a single in the U.S. But Tennille happened to hear the song while listening to the Sedaka's Back album, and she loved it so much that she wanted Captain & Tennille to have their own version of it, and hopefully release it as a single. They would do just that, en route to 1975's biggest hit. Their version sounds like a weird, sci-fi experimental piece, with Dragon playing some improvised techy notes along with playing the bass sound on the keyboards as well. In fact, most of the instruments you hear on any Captain & Tennille record comes from Dragon's keyboards. The song sounds like an uplifting ode for both Captain and Tennille, and where Sedaka's original was about him leaving one of his good songwriting buddies that he became close friends with, Captain and Tennille are doing the song for each other. When the others turn them off, who will be turning them on? The other one will.
Most music reviewers don't like this song, and it's not that hard to see why. Dragon's exotic keyboard sound effects sound way too predated for their time, and the bass line does sound a little awkward too. I could also live without the "da da da das" that the backing singers put in, as I feel like those are just bland, and the song doesn't need it. But if there's one thing that the song has going for it, it's at least kind of fun. Tennille seems like she's really enjoying herself singing the song, and watching the music video that I posted above, it also looks like there's some cool chemistry between both Captain and Tennille. As the song's fading out, Tennille sings "Sedaka is back," followed by some applause from others around the studio. So yeah, there's a nice little hat tip to Sedaka too. All in all, this isn't a song I'd usually seek out in my free time, but I'm not annoyed by it like others seem to be. I think it's a pretty fun song that won't do much except leave my mind in a half hour from now. It can be worse than that, and unfortunately the next time Captain and Tennille appear in this blog, you'll see what I mean by "it can be worse." Until then, I'll give some respect to Captain and Tennille, and their fun little accident that turned out be 1975's most successful single.
GRADE: 5/10
JUST MISSED:
Linda Ronstadt's hard and bluesy cover of the Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved" peaked at #2 behind "Love Will Keep Us Together." It's a 7.
IN POP CULTURE:
There's a pretty ridiculous scene in the 2001 movie Get Over It, where Ben Foster's character was just dumped by his girlfriend and he starts walking down the street with a box carrying his things. Vitamin C also is in the movie, and she begins singing "Love Will Keep Us Together" (though in reality it's just a sped up version of the Captain & Tennille version) while following Foster, and eventually more and more people start joining Vitamin C which creates a street parade following Foster. It turns out to be a dream that Foster wakes up screaming from. Here's that scene:
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