Captain & Tennille - "Can’t Stop Dancin’"
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Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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Topic: Captain & Tennille - "Can’t Stop Dancin’"
Posted By: Scanner
Subject: Captain & Tennille - "Can’t Stop Dancin’"
Date Posted: 24 February 2022 at 11:09am
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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? |
Replies:
Posted By: ChicagoBill
Date Posted: 24 February 2022 at 11:55am
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I gave it a listen and thought, "I don't remember it". I looked in our archives, and found that
we only sold 4 copies of it in 1977. Their next single, 'Come In From The Rain' hit only #61 on Billboard, yet we sold 34 copies of it which would qualify for a Top 30 if not Top 20! I looked in my WLS Chicago Top 40 book and 'Can't Stop Dancin' peaked at #7, and 'Come In From The Rain' peaked at #24. My thought is that 'Come In From The Rain' was more of a Captain & Tennille sounding record, but suffered from the lack of sales of 'Can't Stop Dancin'' Of course I'm looking at this from a retail point of view and not a radio point of view. -Bill. |
Posted By: ChicagoBill
Date Posted: 24 February 2022 at 12:07pm
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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. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 24 February 2022 at 1:52pm
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Nowadays, those sales would be attributed to streams and not
radio play. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 24 February 2022 at 2:31pm
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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. |
Posted By: MMathews
Date Posted: 24 February 2022 at 9:32pm
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And you know what always blew my mind, was that they signed
with Casablanca right after, and delivered them a #1 hit in 1980 with "Do That To Me One More Time" (written by Toni!) ... and the following year got dropped from that label without so much as a "how do you do." My assumption is that the new "powers that be" with Polygram taking over the label thought they would not fit the new "80s style" of music. MM |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 25 February 2022 at 4:39am
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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. |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 25 February 2022 at 5:23am
Exactly. When Neil Bogart, who signed them to Casablanca, was forced out by Polygram in 1980, it was pretty much over for them, as the new management wasn't interested in them at all, according to Daryl and Toni. They signed with Columbia immediately after that but were only there briefly and didn't release anything. An album they'd recorded in 1982 at their own Rumbo Recorders studio was released only by Wizard Records in Australia (but has since been released on CD). It's incredible to think that just three years after having a number one hit single, they couldn't get a recording contract in America. |
MMathews wrote:Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 25 February 2022 at 4:09pm
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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. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 25 February 2022 at 5:32pm
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I remember working at a small radio station in Corry, PA when
this song came out in 1977. I know we played Come In From The Rain and we played Can't Stop Dancin'. I don't think we played Can't Stop Dancin' very long and it's not a song I think of right away when I think of the Captain & Tennille. It's just an OK song I guess. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: VWestlife
Date Posted: 25 February 2022 at 11:37pm
| Never having heard any of these before, to me "Can't Stop Dancin'" sounds like a too-obvious attempt to hop on the Disco bandwagon, but doesn't have enough of a groove to pull it off; "Come in From the Rain" sounds like a Barry Manilow song; and "Circles" sounds like a Carpenters song. |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 26 February 2022 at 2:32am
As popular as "Muskrat Love" was at the time, plenty of people also found it too "cutesy" and "un-cool". I was 10 years-old in 1976 and remember my older brothers giving me a hard time for actually buying (and liking) the 45. It certainly hasn't aged well at all. |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 26 February 2022 at 7:00am
Keep in mind that none of their follow-up singles on Casablanca made it into the top 40. Can't really blame the label for dropping them.
Ain't that the truth! Hated that one from the first time I heard it. When that one was out I was on hiatus from my radio gig (conflicts with my "day job"), so I was spared having to play it every 90 minutes.
Agree on all points, especially #4. Personally, I lost interest in them with their cover of "Shop Around". |
Posted By: jono
Date Posted: 26 February 2022 at 10:00am
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I remember hearing “Can’t Stop Dancin’” on the radio at the time
and not liking the song at all. Of course, to a teenage boy the Captain & Tennille were uncool (having liked them at age 10 when I first heard them, by age 15 they were now “kids’ stuff”, or at least something my little sister would like). So the young kids that they partially appealed to had grown up and moved on. Plus their show probably did overexpose them. Even as a youngster, I remember thinking “Muskrat Love” was one of the dumbest songs ever, so yeah, there was that. (Until I heard America’s version, which I liked better but still thought was dumb.) Even now I’m not a big fan of the C&T later years. I agree with Steve - once “Shop Around” came out, I checked out as well (although now I do like “Do That To Me One More Time”…except for the instrumental solo part). Jon O. |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 04 March 2022 at 3:40am
I'm just the opposite... that's the song that made me like them, back in 1976. |
Posted By: sriv94
Date Posted: 04 March 2022 at 3:00pm
Considering it was written by Melissa Manchester (Barry's "angel of [his] lifetime") and Carole Bayer Sager, that's a pretty good comp. ------------- Doug --------------- All of the good signatures have been taken. |
Posted By: Steve Carras
Date Posted: 06 March 2022 at 10:04pm
I have always thought Toni was cute..,as for their output more fokr ykour younger sister..yeah..The muskrat song would apply,though I've harbored a special amusement..but they have had a lot of lunbge fans..certainly "The way that I want to touch to "Do that to me.." would suit that..don't really see them as wit some others being "juvemile" entirely.. ------------- You know you're really older when you think that younger singer Jesse McCartney's related in anyway to former Beatle Paul McCartney. |