"Love On a Shoestring" by the Captain & Tennille

Redux Spotlight Alert!

Song#:  0083
Date:  03/08/1980
Debut:  82
Peak:  55
Weeks:  7
Genre:  Pop, Adult Contemporary



Pop Bits:  C&T had a string of five Top 10 hits in 1975-76 and even had their own TV variety show for a season, but by the time they left A&M Records, the hits were drying up. A switch to Casablanca came with a shift in their sound to something much more adult-oriented than their previous work. The resulting album "Make Your Move" spurred the #1 song "Do That to Me One More Time" and, for a short time, revived their recording career. Half the songs on the album were written by Toni Tennille and gone were the innocent gestures of "Muskrat Love" and "Love Will Keep Us Together" and replaced with themes of one-night stands and sexual tension. It worked and it was the right album at the right time with several reviews saying it was their best outing. Unfortunately, they couldn't follow it up (in part due to lack of label support) and it would be their last album to hit the chart. This second single from the album is an uncharacteristically dark song from the ever-perky duo.

ReduxReview:  First, let me say I dearly love C&T. The first album I ever bought with my own money was their "Song of Joy" album. I still have it. Yes, they had some cornball fluff on their albums, but they also had some really great pop songs. Tennille is a wonderful vocalist and an underrated songwriter. More of her material should have been covered by other artists. This mysterious track is one of my favorite songs they did. It is so different from anything they previously recorded and it struck a mature sound that I don't think folks were expecting. I'm giving this a Spotlight reference because the song should have done much better than it did and it is kind of a lost treasure (in my opinion). However, it did make an appearance in the UK in 2003 (see below).

ReduxRating:  8/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) In the early 70s, Darryl Dragon (the Captain) was a keyboardist for the Beach Boys. He had previously met Toni Tennille doing a keyboard gig in a show she co-wrote called "Mother Earth." When the Beach Boys were looking for an additional keyboardist, Dragon recommended her and she toured that year with them. To this day she is still the one and only "Beach Girl."  2) This song was on the UK airwaves and in clubs in 2003 as the group Bent sampled it in their song "Magic Love."



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