Toni Tennille

Toni Tennille

Toni Tennille 1976

Tennille in 1976.
Background information
Birth name Cathryn Antoinette Tennille
Born (1940-05-08) May 8, 1940
Montgomery, Alabama, USA
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter
Associated acts Captain & Tennille

Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille (born May 8, 1940) is an American singer-songwriter and keyboardist, best known as one-half of the 1970s duo Captain & Tennille with her former husband Daryl Dragon; their signature song being "Love Will Keep Us Together".[1] [2] Tennille has also done musical work independently of her husband, including solo albums and session work. Tennille has a contralto vocal range.[3]

Life and career

Tennille was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, as part of a family of entertainers. Her father, Frank Tennille, who used the pseudonym Clark Randall, was a big band singer with Bob Crosby and the Bobcats and her mother, Cathryn Tennille, was a local television pioneer, being the hostess of Montgomery’s first daytime TV talk show. Tennille's musical sisters, Jane, Louisa, and Melissa, all sang on her variety TV shows, as well as on the Captain & Tennille albums. Tennille began her career studying classical piano at Auburn University and singing with the university's big band, the Auburn Knights. Her sister, Louisa Tennille, is the background singer in her band. Her other sister, Melissa Tennille, is based on Melissa Reed, a GirlSense character and the older sister of Halle Reed.

Tennille is credited as singing backup vocals on Pink Floyd's The Wall.<ref name= A Complete Analysis of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'>Bret Urick (2010). "A Complete Analysis of Pink Floyd's The Wall". Retrieved December 21, 2013. </ref> She also did backup singing for Art Garfunkel on Breakaway as well as for Elton John on his albums Caribou, Blue Moves, 21 at 33 and most notably on the song, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" .

On July 8, 1980, Tennille sang the national anthem at the Major League Baseball All-Star game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.[4]

Tennille is 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) tall. She married her first husband Kenneth Shearer in June 1962 at the age of 22. They divorced in late 1972. She then married Daryl Dragon on November 11, 1975. Tennille toured with The Beach Boys during the 1970s with Daryl Dragon, both playing keyboards for the group.

In April 2016, Toni Tennille released her memoir, which she co-authored with her niece Caroline Tennille St. Clair since making her move to Florida in 2015, after her divorce from Daryl Dragon.[5][6] She recorded a complete 'audiobook' of the memoir, released on the audiobook service Audible.[7]

Education

Tennille graduated from Sidney Lanier High School then attended Auburn University in Alabama for two years.

Discography

Studio albums

Divorce

The couple moved from Reno, Nevada to Prescott, Arizona in 2007. Toni Tennille filed for divorce after 39 years of marriage on January 16, 2014. Dragon said he was unaware of any discontent until being served with the divorce papers.[8]

The divorce was finalized in July, 2014. In 2015, Tennille moved to Florida at the suggestion of her sister, Jane.[9]

In interviews about her autobiography, in the spring of 2016, Tennille said the reason for their divorce was Dragon's "inability to be affectionate."[10]

References

  1. ↑ "An MP misses a ‘million-dollar’ photo op, and ‘Captain’ Dragon and Toni Tennille call it quits". Maclean's. January 29, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Love Will Keep Us Together". Super Seventies.
  3. ↑ "Captain & Tennille - News / Latest & Archived". Captainandtennille.net. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
  4. ↑ World's Strangest Baseball Stories. Watermill Press. 1993. p. 42. ISBN 0-8167-2933-6.
  5. ↑ "Toni Tennille: A Memoir: Amazon UK". Amazon. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Tennille, Toni (23 October 2015). "Toni Tennille: A Memoir". tonitennille.net. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  7. ↑ "Behind the Scenes with Toni Tennille, Author and Narrator of "Toni Tennille: A Memoir"". youtube.com. Audible. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016. Go into the studio with Toni Tennille as she performs her memoir and shares stories of her life in music. Learn more at http://www.audible.com/ToniTennille
  8. ↑ "Captain & Tennille Divorce -- Love WON'T Keep Us Together". TMZ.com. January 22, 2014. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  9. ↑ Blog, Toni Tennille, http://www.tonitennille.net/blog/ Accessed October 7, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Toni Tennille Reveals Personal Reason Why She Divorced Daryl Dragon", 24 April 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.