(Courtesy of tonitennille.net)
Toni Tennille was born May 8, 1943, in Montgomery, Alabama. Singing was in her blood, it seems, as her father was big band singer Clark Randall (aka Frank Tennille). She attended Auburn University in Alabama, earning her way through college by singing the great standards of the ‘30s and ‘40s.
In 1971 in San Francisco, Tennille met future husband Daryl Dragon, a keyboardist for The Beach Boys. Dragon helped Tennille land a gig as a touring keyboardist with The Beach Boys and the two soon began to team up as a duo.
After a successful period playing small clubs in Southern California, Dragon & Tennille released a single on their own label as Captain & Tennille.
Their first single, a cover version of Neil Sedaka's "Love Will Keep Us Together" spent four weeks at number one in the US in 1975 and became the top selling single of the year. They also received a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for this recording, which also gave Sedaka his first Grammy.
The next few years saw a string of hit singles including "The Way I Want To Touch You", "Lonely Night (Angel Face)", "Shop Around", "Muskrat Love", and "You Never Done It Like That" and culminated in a television variety show.
After reaching number one again with their single "Do That To Me One More Time", subsequent efforts achieved only moderate success, and when their record company went bankrupt, they weren’t able to find a niche with another.
Tennille began a new career as a big band and pop standards singer in the 80s and 90s. She also spent a year as the star of the Broadway tour of Victor/Victoria, released several albums and performed with orchestras throughout the country, which she still does to this day.
Over the course of her career, Tennille has worked with such varied musicians as Art Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and Elton John.
Tennille and Dragon reside in Northern Nevada, where in the 1990s Tennille was appointed "Ambassador For The Arts" by Governor Bob Miller.
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