🎵 AotW AOTW: Captain & Tennille - SONG OF JOY (SP-4570)

[LPJim]

Captain & Tennille
SONG OF JOY
A&M SP-4570

TRACKS:

Song of Joy 3:16/ Lonely Nights (Angel Face) 3:18 - a Number 3 single/ Mind Your Love 3:01/ Smile For Me One More Time 3:19/ Shop Around 3:30 - # 4/

Going Bananas 2:12/ Butterscotch Castle 3:20/ Muskrat Love 3:49 #4/ Thank You Baby 3:39/ Wedding Song (There is Love) 3:20/ 1954 Boogie Blues 4:56.

SONG OF JOY entered the Billboard Top 200 on March 20, 1976 and reached Number Nine, remaining in the charts for 61 weeks.

For more information see:

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,61117,00.html

JB

 

[Dave]

"Lonely Nights (Angel Face)" is actually penned by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield and of course is a staple at Sedaka's concerts and available on his 1975 Comeback album, The Hungry Years... Ray Conniff Singers covered it as well...

The version by Captain & Tennille gets radio airplay to this day and is available on their Greatest Hits LP, along with "Muskrat Love", (also heard a lot on the radio; remember being suprised when I first heard it after being introduced to it being done by America on my B-Side of my "Ventura Highway" single) "Shop Around" (The Smokey Robinson & The Miracles song, also a radio-staple), "Thank You Baby" (by Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and covered by Claudine and later by Andy Williams, as well as its original composer) and "Wedding Song (There Is Love)" (Though a traditional "Wedding Song", credited to Public Domain, it was most-notably done by Paul of Peter, Paul & Mary-fame)...

These two are slightly a lil' more listenable on this album... But better hold out for Come In From The Rain, though...



Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I jumped all over C&T's debut album because I really liked the title song, but I was disappointed in that album because I thought it contained too many sappy ballads. So I held out high hopes for their second effort, feeling certain they'd learn from their hit single and create a new album full of effervescent pop music.

Well this album was definitely an improvement on the first one, and it contains one of the great overlooked singles of the '70s ("Shop Around," which in my opinion is the best version out there). And "Lonely Night" is a terrific single too. "Going Bananas" is a cool mostly-instrumental and a much better tune than "Broddy Bounce" from the first record. But there are still too many sappy ballads - they clog up more than half the album. The bottom of the barrel is "Muskrat Love." I don't care if it was a top-5 single.

 

[no1kandrfan]

I'm with Mike on this one - Muskrat Love is my least favorite C&T song! To be honest the song isn't too bad but the 'muskrat' noises drive me nuts.

Overall this album was far better then the one that preceded it. The standouts for me are "Lonely Nights..."; "The Wedding Song"; "Mind Your Love" (great track) and my most favorite C&T tune "Song of Joy" - Toni's vocal is incredible - and the back-up 'choir' always gives me chills.

Mike
Glendale, CA

 

[Dave]

"Song Of Joy" is not the Classical song "modernized" by Michael De Los Rios either...

Here it is actually a Bill Preston song...



Dave

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I bought this LP from the Columbia Music House program I was in, just because I really liked "Lonely Nights (Angel Face)". "Shop Around" was okay, but it made me want to look for Smokey Robinson's version, which led me to start getting into the Motown stuff. I wasn't too fond of "Muskrat Love", either, since I was used to Lani Hall's "Sundown Lady" (same song, different title).

The absolute worst song on this LP was the saccharine "Wedding Song". I just want to barf everytime I hear this song - no matter who sings it.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Dave]

"Muskrat Love", originally written and recorded by country folkie Willis Allen Ramsey started off as "Muskrat Love (Muskrat Candlelight)" and somehow Lani Hall's version got titled "Sundown Lady", the title of the album she made...

America was most-famous for their version, which I discovered as the B-Side of the "Ventura Highway" '45' I bought (great soundtrack music for riding my bike to)...

The Captain & Tennielle version with the synthesizer-effects to symbolize "Muskrats Courting" played by The Captain, Darryl Dragon is very much like the instrumental version by Country keyboardist Hargus "Pig" Robbins on which steel guitarist Buddy Emmons uses a few steel-guitar effects to also evoke the sound of "Suzie" and "Sam"...!

Russ Giguere of The Association also recorded a version of "Shop Around", very much unlike the way Smokey Robinson & The Miracles did... (It's the next-to-last track on his solo LP, Hexagram XIV, and in the key it's played and phrased in, it's quite good...) So the Capt. & Tennielle "bring the original back"...!


Dave