Search - Captain & Tennille :: Song of Joy

Don't Miss This Gem!

NHgboy | Newport, NH United States | 11/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Captain & Tennille's follow-up to their first album (Love Will Keep Us Together). Released in 1976, this album featured 3 top-10 singles: "Lonely Night (Angel Face", "Shop Around", and the love-it-or-loathe-it "Muskrat Love".



Also included is the glorious title track that is brimming with soul; your hair will stand on its end at the conclusion of this song. "Mind Your Love" is a frenetic song with a swing & big band feel to it. "Smile For Me One More Time" is a simple, elegant and sweeping vocal performance that was written by Toni as a tribute to Daryl. Two more gorgeous melodies on this album are: "Wedding Song (There Is Love)" and "Thank You, Baby".



This album shows the versatility and true muscal talents of Daryl and Toni and is a delightful mixture of original songs and those written by others. Toni (and Daryl) wrote 4 of the songs on this album.



Although I bought this album on vinyl when I was 12 years old, all of the songs "hold up today" and aren't really dated with the 70's sound. "Lonely Night (Angel Face)", one of my favorite songs of the 1970's, could still be a hit today if it were re-released.



Highly recommended!"

The Captain & Tennille's second album builds on the success

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 07/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the album that makes me most grateful that we now live in the age of the compact disc rather than suffering with the technological limitations of the album and the record player. First off, I freely admit that I loathe rather than love the version of "Muskrat Love" done by the Captain & Tennille. You probably remember first hearing the song done by America, but it is actually the first song that group did that they did not write themselves. The song that is so sweet it goes beyond saccharine to the pure syrup tapped right from the tree, was written by Willis Ramsey and made it to #67 on the singles chart for America in 1973, but the Captain & Tennille made it all the way to #4 in 1977. When you played the LP the only way to skip the song was to get up, go over to the record player, pick up the arm, and move it ahead to "Thank You, Baby." Of course you did get some exercise racing over to do that. With a CD player you can program it to skip the song.



The other great thing about CD players is that you can program it to repeat. From time to time a song will get stuck in your head (right now I keep finding Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of "Over the Rainbow" being the default sound in my brain), and the only way to purge that puppy is to listen to it a couple of dozen times in a row. One night back in the late 1970s I was unable to sleep because "Lonely Nights (Angel Face)" was stuck in my mind (hey, the chorus even insists "I can't get you outta my mind"). I could set up the record player to play all night (move the arm holding the records off to the side and it will just go back and play the album again), which meant I could listen to the song every sixth one, laying there awake, waiting for the side to end so that it would go back to the beginning where all I had to do was listen to "Song of Joy" and then get to the song I needed to hear. Today you just program your CD player to repeat the song and you can begin your exorcism program knowing it will be successful sooner or later.



The Captain and Tennille exploded on the music scene in the last half of the Seventies in the same sort of way that the Carpenters did at the start of the decade. The similarities were obvious, with Toni Tennille doing the singing while spousal unit Daryl Dragon, who had played keyboards with the Beach Boys, playing anything with a keyboard. The big differences, of course, were that Tennille played piano instead of the drums and the couple were married instead of siblings. Musically the signature sound of the Captain and Tennille were their vibrant harmonies, courtesy of background vocals that usually include sisters Melissa and Louisa Tennille. Their first album, "Love Will Keep Us Together" included a cover of Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield's title song, which went to #1 and won the 1975 Grammy for Best Song. Their second album, "Song of Joy," continued to build on this initial success. "Lonely Night (Angel Face)," another Sedaka song, was released before the album and gave the duo their third gold single in a row (#3). The streak would make it to five with two other songs with another pair of covers, "Shop Around" (#4) by the Miracles and the aforementioned so let us hear no more about it "Muskrat Love." Like the two hit singles off their first album, all three of these songs also made it to #1 on the Adult Contemporary Billboard chart.



However, the best song on the album is arguably one that was never released as a single, but should have been. The song is listed as being "public domain" on the liner notes, but Paul Stookey is the one that wrote "The Wedding Song (There is Love)," and it features Dragon and Tennille playing keyboard and piano respectively in a nice duet (I saw them do it live on television doing it that way too). I know this song was fairly popular as wedding music, quite appropriately so, but if this had been a single it probably would have exploded. The "Song of Joy" album made it to #9 on the Billboard chart, so that is decent enough exposure, but it could have been bigger.



Dragon is once again playing every time of keyboard he can get his hands on, while Tennille and her sisters do the vocals, and Hal Blaine handles drums and percussion. There are some horn players on a few tracks, most noticeably "1954 Boogie Blues," one of two original tracks by the couple along with "Butterscotch Castle." Toni Tennille's voice combines tenderness and maturity, with a touch of southern sultriness that obviously contrasted with the more cynical rock `n' roll singers of the time. If you have followed her career at all during the last two decades then you know the woman can sing just about anything. Daryl Dragon was never compared to Elton John, but his keyboard playing always added a nice musical contrast to his wife's voice."

Another Winner from C & T

Music Lover | Rhode Island, USA | 07/23/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Song of Joy" is Captain and Tennille's second album, released in 1976, a year after they exploded onto the music scene with "Love Will Keep Us Together." Three of their big radio hits are included on this album: "Lonely Night", "Shop Around" (both pop-perfect masterpieces) and "Muskrat Love" (a song you either love or hate). As with all C & T albums, the best songs are the cuts that never made it to the radio. "Song of Joy" features a big production with pipe organ and layered vocals. Toni's big voice is perfect here. "Smile for Me One More Time", a Tennille penned ballad, is just Toni and her paino. It's a sweet song and Toni nails the vocals. "Mind Your Love" and "1954 Boogie Blues" are boogie-inspired tunes that fit Darly Dragon's arrangement style to a tee and "Wedding Song" is pure perfection. This is a great adult-pop record and would have been even greater had the odd ball "Going Bananas", a bizzare ditty that comes out of left field, and "Muskrat Love", which is just too corny, been left off. Just skip those two songs and you have a classic record in your hands."