In July of 1976, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Washington, D.C., for the American Bicentennial celebrations. They joined President and First Lady Betty Ford at the White House, where they were treated to a formal dinner that featured all the pomp and circumstance you’d expect of a diplomatic gala: important people, lavish food, good wine, and a song about mating rodents.
That last part wasn’t made up, as ludicrous as it sounds. At the royal event that included dinner in the Rose Garden, distinguished guests including Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and actor Cary Grant were served lobster, veal, and rice croquettes. They were also treated to an intimate performance of a song called “Muskrat Love.”
The Captain, Tennille, and a couple of passionate muskrats
“Muskrat Love” was written and originally recorded by songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey (under the title “Muskrat Candlelight”) and later covered by The Captain and Tennille. One of the most popular music acts in the U.S. at the time with their 1975 hit “Love Will Keep Us Together,” the married soft-rock duo consisted of the sailor cap-wearing keyboardist “Captain” Daryl Dragon and singer Toni Tennille.
They covered the song as a zany addition to their nightclub act and included it in their 1976 album Song of Joy. The Captain and Tennille’s cutesy rendition was a commercial success, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Narrating the tale of a physical romance between two muskrats, the song features some weirdly suggestive lyrics:
Now, he’s ticklin’ her fancy
Rubbin’ her toes
Muzzle to muzzle now
Anything goes
As they wriggle
Sue starts to giggle
Due in large part to its sexualization of rodents, “Muskrat Love” has earned a place on many “worst song” roundups over the years. It received a notable entry in the book Touch Me, I’m Sick, in which author Tom Reynolds calls it a “barf banquet.”
So how did it end up being performed for the Queen of England??
Choosing the evening’s songs
Thanks to their popularity at the time, including a recent Grammy win for Record of the Year, it made sense for the Captain and Tennille to represent American music to the royal guests.
In a 2016 People interview, Tennille explained how the unlikely song was chosen. She decided on “Muskrat Love” in response to Mrs. Ford’s selection of another hit of theirs, “The Way I Want to Touch You.” The singer hadn’t considered that one, thinking it far too suggestive for the venue. But after the first lady requested it, Tennille figured she’d also be safe to add “Muskrat Love” to their setlist, saying “I thought everyone would get a kick out of it. I thought they seemed like a fun group!”
During the White House performance, the Captain’s synthesizer mimicked the sounds that two amorous rodents might make in a fit of passion. And Tennille said the volume was “high” in the East Room that evening, giving the muskrat noises extra emphasis.
Reaction to the song
The silly song clashes loudly with perceived notions of British propriety, especially for such a formal diplomatic event, and two notable attendees weren’t pleased with the music selection.
Toni Tennille was near Henry Kissinger as she sang, and “could see this just dour look on his face,” she recalled to the Houston Chronicle. “Then Daryl started making these muskrat sounds on his keyboard, and I knew it was over!”
After that evening, Tennille dedicated “Muskrat Love” to Kissinger each time they performed it.
Queen Elizabeth didn’t seem to mind the song choice as much as Kissinger. Tennille said she appeared to doze through most of the performance. However, one of her attendants found it pretty distasteful. “Lady Jane Keith, the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, was thoroughly scandalized by C&T’s rendition of ‘Muskrat Love,”’ reported New York’s The Advance News and other outlets. Lady Keith was said to be “greatly outraged” at the song, which she thought was “’very poor taste’ and excessively sexual.”
Other diplomatic awkwardness
The “Muskrat Love” incident wasn’t the only potentially awkward moment during the royals’ time in the Ford White House.
After Queen Elizabeth’s death in 2022, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation director shared another amusing story about her Bicentennial visit.
Betty Ford took the queen on a tour of the home, and the two women chatted while waiting for the elevator. It arrived, and the doors opened to reveal the Fords’ young son Jack standing there wearing nothing but his boxer shorts.
Instead of reacting with shock, the queen “nudged” Mrs. Ford and said, “I have one of those too,” referring to her own sons.
Where are the Captain and Tennille today?
Despite becoming famous for performing “Love Will Keep Us Together,” Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille divorced in 2014 after 39 years of marriage. Tennille spoke candidly of the split in her 2016 autobiography, in which she claimed the couple had always been romantically distant, maintaining separate bedrooms for most of their years together.
The two remained close after divorcing, and Tennille moved to be near Dragon in Arizona in 2017 while he coped with health issues. Sadly, Daryl Dragon passed away due to kidney failure on January 2, 2019. Tennille was by his side when he died. “He was a brilliant musician with many friends who loved him greatly,” she said in a statement. “I was at my most creative in my life when I was with him.”
Today, Tennille lives in Prescott, Arizona. In 2022 she came out of retirement to star in a local production of Hello, Dolly!, which she said was a lifelong dream. “But after this, I’m not doing any more shows,” she told Fox News Digital. “This is it. Once it’s over, I’ll go back to being a regular person.”
Book cited
Reynolds, T. (2007). Touch me, I’m sick: The 52 Creepiest Love Songs You’ve Ever Heard. Random House Australia.
