Captain & Tennille

Hip-O's Ultimate Collection: The Complete Hits will likely be too much music for most audiences, simply because most listeners don't remember much more than "Love Will Keep Us Together," "Muskrat Love," and "Do That to Me One More Time" from Captain & Tennille. They actually had many more hits than that – 11 more, four of which hit the Top Ten, actually (for the record, they are "The Way I Want to Touch You," "Lonely Night (Angel Face)," "Shop Around," and "You Never Done It Like That"). All of them are here, along with several other singles and album tracks on this generous 22-track collection. To be frank, Captain & Tennille weren't quite varied or deep enough to make this collection not lose steam toward the middle, but the highlights – the three Neil Sedaka-penned tunes ("Love Will Keep Us Together," "Lonely Night (Angel Face)," "You Never Done It Like That,") plus "Do That to Me One More Time" – are all very good, standing proudly amongst soft rock hits of the time.

Soft rock duo Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille definitely didn't fit everybody's notions of cool. "Muskrat Love" is a quintessential slice of novelty cheese that could only have scored during the '70s. But it's unfair to judge them by something they didn't write and isn't representative of their career. (However, Dragon's bare-chested poses on the original gatefold sleeve definitely fell into the "what were they thinking?" file.) Otherwise, there aren't any blemishes on this roundup of their first three A&M albums – a commercial coup accorded to few acts so early in their careers. The buoyant "Love Will Keep Us Together" is the natural opener – and set the template for a style centered around Dragon's lush, baroque keyboards and Tennille's breathy, intimate vocals.

The latest in a long line of greatest-hits compilations and anthologies for the Captain (aka Daryl Dragon) and his lovely partner in crime Toni Tennille, this 20th Century Masters collection gathers all of their most well-known hits and a few fan favorites in one economically sensible disc. Starting off with one of their most popular tunes, "Love Will Keep Us Together," the disc also includes the curiously titled "Muskrat Love," the less-curiously titled "The Way I Want to Touch You" and its apparent sequel, the soft rock smash hit "Do That to Me One More Time."