Toni Tennille

Early life

Tennille was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and has three younger sisters. Her father Frank owned a furniture store and also served in the Alabama Legislature from 1951 to 1954. He had been a singer with Bob Crosby's Bob-Cats. Her mother Cathryn hosted a local television show.

Tennille graduated from Sidney Lanier High School then attended Auburn University in Alabama for two years where she studied classical piano and sang with the university's big band, the Auburn Knights.

In 1959, Tennille's family moved from Montgomery to Balboa, California, where she worked first as a file clerk and then as a statistical analyst for North American Rockwell Corporation.

Career

While living in Corona del Mar in Newport Beach, California, during the late 1960s, Tennille was a member of the South Coast Repertory. Ron Thronsen, one of the directors of the repertory, asked Tennille in 1969 to write the music for a new rock musical he was working on called Mother Earth. The musical was a success locally, went on the road to San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1971, and eventually made it to Broadway for a few dates at the Belasco Theatre in October 1972. Although Tennille was no longer associated with the musical by the time it reached Broadway, she was credited as the composer under her married name Shearer.

In 1971, Tennille met her future husband Daryl Dragon in San Francisco during auditions for Mother Earth. Dragon had previously toured with The Beach Boys and had recorded with them as a studio musician. After Mother Earth ended, Dragon returned to The Beach Boys and introduced Tennille to the band. Tennille played electric piano with the band during their 1972 tour. In 1973, Tennille and Dragon left to form Captain & Tennille and began performing at local clubs. They released their self-financed debut single "The Way I Want to Touch You" in September 1973, which was a local hit and helped them to get a record contract with A&M Records. The duo recorded a cover version of the Neil Sedaka song "Love Will Keep Us Together" in 1975 that became a huge success and eventually went on to win the 1975 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

In 1974, Tennille sang background vocals on Elton John's Caribou album. She also sang background vocals on Pink Floyd's The Wall in 1979.

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

From September 1980 to January 1981, Tennille hosted her own syndicated television talk show, The Toni Tennille Show.

From September 1998 to June 1999, Tennille performed as "Victoria Grant/Count Victor Grazinski" in the national tour of the play Victor Victoria.

In April 2016, Tennille released her memoir, Toni Tennille: A Memoir, and went on a book tour to promote it later that summer. An 'audiobook' of the memoir was also released on the audiobook service Audible.

Personal life

Tennille 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. The couple moved from Reno, Nevada, to Prescott, Arizona, in 2007. 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. The divorce was finalized in July 2014.

In 2015, Tennille moved to Florida at the suggestion of her sister Jane. During the promotion of her autobiography, on The Today Show in the spring of 2016, Tennille said the reason for their divorce was Dragon's "inability to be affectionate". However, she later implied that Daryl reacted positively to her memoir and the revelation; he said, "I saw you on The Today Show. I was proud of you."

Despite their divorce, Tennille and Dragon have remained friends. Dragon stated in a February 2017 interview with People that Tennille had returned to Arizona to assist him following a serious health-related incident he had experienced the previous year.

Studio albums