Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, June 17th, '09

"The Way I Want to Touch You", written by Toni Tennille, was actually released the year before on a couple of independent labels as well as on A & M. Its first life was as released on the pair's own label, Butterscotch Castle Records (the name of the record company becoming a tune on their second lp), brought to the Joyce imprint by indie promoters, as mentioned on the www.CaptainandTennille.net website, and re-released for a third time by A & M prior to the "Love Will Keep Us Together" single and album. It became "Como Yo Quiero Sentirte" when its two minutes and forty-five seconds found themselves on the Spanish version of Captain & Tennille's smash lp. That's a total of six different releases of this song in the span of about a year - it showing up on four singles and two lps. The production by Morgan Cavett is a bit more dense than Daryl Dragon's, a decidedly different sound for this act, the percussion and synthesizers all blending nicely. Its certainly not as ostentatious as their renditions of "I Write The Songs" or "Shop Around" giving the couple a nice warm addition to their repertoire. Why it wasn't the break-out hit is the question as it is a solid song and wonderful performance.

Given the chance to follow-up the phenomenon that was "Love Will Keep Us Together" brought this tune Top 5 five months after the first hit, A & M single #1725 arriving around the time Melissa Manchester was singing about "Just Too Many People", though not reaching as many people as Tennille did with this title. Not only did Manchester's career parallel Captain & Tennille in regards to amount of hits and time span when those hits happened (though MM is eight years Tennille's junior), Melissa's "Come In From The Rain" was a big AC hit for Toni and Daryl. When one realizes that "Disney Girls" is Toni Tennille as a commercial Jane Oliver and then you add the majesty of this mini-masterpiece, the depth of the woman's talent becomes clear. Tucked inside the cute world of the husband and wife team, a bubble gum middle-of-the-road arena, the very thing that brought the singer's work to the world in some way held her back from being recognized as the multi-faceted craftswoman that she truly is. Would Toni Tennille have been viewed as a Carole King / Carole Bayer Sager in another setting? We don't know, but we do know that as a team they garnered a Grammy and a huge following. It's the perfection of this tune which begs those questions.