50 years ago — The summer of 'Love Will Keep Us Together'

You're only 16 once, which I guess is why "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille resonated with me in 1975 nearly as much as "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles, "American Pie" by Don McLean and "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees among U.S. blockbuster Top 40 hits of my youth.

While still a catchy tune today, "Love Will Keep Us Together" doesn't have near the staying power of those maga-hits as a pop culture icon. But 50 years ago it came out of nowhere to dominate the summer of '75 on the radio, just as "Jaws" was dominating to an even greater degree at the box office. It was a great summer to be 16.

And dominate that summer it did. In Chicago, "Love Will Keep Us Together" entered WCFL's Top 40 chart at No. 27 as summer began. It peaked at No. 1 for three weeks in July and had impressive staying power — staying in the Top 40 through the week of Sept. 20. It ended up the No. 1 song of 1975 not only in WCFL's annual year-end survey, but in Billboard Magazine's national survey as well. And it won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

"Love Will Keep Us Together" was a breakthrough for The Captain & Tennille, the wife-and-husband team of perky singer Toni Tennille and laconic keyboardist Daryl Dragon. Both were backup performers on tour with the Beach Boys. Dragon, in fact, was nicknamed "The Captain" by one of the Beach Boys, for his signature sailor captain's hat.)

And "Love Will Keep Us Together" heralded — literally — the comeback of popular '60s singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka ("Breaking Up Is Hard To Do," "Calendar Girl"), who wrote "Love Will Keep Us Together with Howard Greenfield. Sedaka, who had faded from the pop scene with the British Invasion in the mid-'60s, already had a comeback hit in 1975 with "Laughter In The Rain" — and "Bad Blood" (with Elton John) entered the charts as "Love Will Keep Us Together" was ending its Top-40 run. Toni Tennille, in fact, added "Sedaka is back" in the outro to "Love Will Keep Us Together" as a nice tip of the cap.

Fun Fact: "Love Will Keep Us Together" also featured legendary sessions drummer Hal Blaine — one of 39 songs Blaine played on that hit No. 1 and one of seven that won a Grammy for Record of the Year from 1966-71 ("A Taste of Honey," "Strangers In The Night," "Up, Up And Away," "Mrs. Robinson," "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In," and "Bridge Over Troubled Water").

Sedaka's comeback was part of a wave of nostalgia in the 1970s. Frankie Valli returned to the Top 40 with "My Eyes Adored You" in 1975, and followed that up with two hits with a new group of Four Seasons — "Who Loves You" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night.") The Beach Boys themselves were riding a new wave of popularity after the release of the greatest hits album, "Endless Summer." In 1976, the Beatles were in the Top 10 with the re-release of "Got To Get You Into My Life" (from 1966's "Revolver" — what an album!).

The Captain & Tennille followed up "Love Will Keep Us Together" with other hit songs, including a cover of the Miracles "Shop Around," the forgettable "Muskrat Love," and another No. 1 hit in 1980 with "Do That To Me One More Time." And they parlayed their success and Tennille's popularity into a television variety show, "The Captain and Tennille" on ABC that lasted one season in 1976-77.

Ultimately, love did not keep them together. Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon divorced in 2014 after 39 years of marriage. Dragon died of kidney failure in 2019 at 76. But Captain & Tennille left an indelible legacy — especially if you were in high school in 1975. I don't know what it is about that song that made it more than just a No. 1 hit. I guess you had to be there. In pop culture as in anything else, timing is everything.

THE SUMMER OF '75