Captain & Tennille - "Can’t Stop Dancin’"

After five consecutive Top 5 singles, the lead single,
"Can't Stop Dancin'," from the Captain & Tennille's third
album, "Come in From The Rain," faltered peaking at only
No. 13 on the Hot 100. Many A/C leaning acts from this era
such as John Denver and Olivia Newton-John also had a run
of hits for 2-3 years before cooling off. Why did this
particular song fall short? Was it simply C&T
burnout/overkill or did radio reject them doing something
more uptempo?

That posed the next question to me, how about the next single? It was called 'Circles' A&M 1970.
Written by Toni Tennille and released on 8/23/77. We sold 25 copies of it and it didn't chart at all!
So I don't think the public was tiring of C & T, but it might have had a different perception at radio.
-Bill.

Yeah, I thought it was odd that Toni Tennille said in her
autobiography that the "Come in From the Rain" album
"produced no hit singles." Maybe she meant no "big" hits.

She also said that they knew A&M was planning on dropping
them when they released a "Greatest Hits" compilation after
they'd only done three albums -- Daryl was convinced A&M
was trying to fulfill their contract faster. She also said
that A&M was NOT happy when they signed to do their
television show, considering it a conflict of interest.

I think there were a few factors going against that particular record.

1) It deviated too far from C&T's usual sound.

2) The act's over exposure. People were just getting a bit tired of them.

3) Perhaps a little "Muskrat Love" backlash?

4) The record's just not that good. I was a HUGE fan of their previous hits and this one just didn't do much for me.

Even the most popular artists don't maintain chart dominance with every record.

Thanks for your insights! It always stunned me how
swiftly their career declined with this single and album.
When Olivia Newton-John's career cooled off in late 1975,
she may have slowed down at Pop, but could at least
continue to reach the Top 10 at Country and AC. In fact,
she still racked up five more AC #1's between "Please Mr.
Please" and her "Grease" resurgence. With C&T, though,
even the AC #1's stopped...and so quickly. I still
marvel how both "Come In From The Rain" and "Circles"
never even charted anywhere in either Cashbox or Record
World after their successful chart runs in both less than
one year prior.

The "Dancin'" 45 times this song as 3:43 versus 3:50 on
the albums this has appeared on. Was that just an early
fade or a misprint?

P.S. Interesting comment about a possible "Muskrat Love"
backlash. I wonder when people began to perceive
"Muskrat" not as a #4 Pop/#1 AC hit, but as a song that
often appears on lists as one of the worst songs of the
'70's.