Last Friday we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the debut of The Partridge Family on ABC.
The program created overnight teen idol status to actor / singer David Cassidy, who played Keith Partridge on the series. (David's real-life step-mom, Shirley Jones, portrayed his mother on the show!)
We found that we weren't the only ones celebrating this milestone ...
In fact, Ultimate Classic Rock ran a feature as well.
(Ultimate Classic Rock?!?!? And The Partridge Family?!?!?)
And it was quite good!
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/partridge-family/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=newsletter_4572276
The idea and inspiration for the program came from the success of the real-life musical family, The Cowsills who, between 1967 and 1969 scored four Top 20 Hits, including two #1's! ("The Rain, The Park And Other Things," #1, 1967; "We Can Fly," #17, 1968; "Indian Lake," #6, 1968 and "Hair," #1, 1969.)
In fact, in the truth is stranger than fiction department, The Cowsills actually did a screen test to essentially play themselves on TV ...
But producers "didn't find them believable" as a family (!!!), so actors were brought in instead! (Studio musicians, most often The Wrecking Crew, provided the music for the series ... and only David's and Shirley's voices were used on the records ... everything else was performed by "hired hands!")
The Partridge Family ran up a quick string of hits, too ... "I Think I Love You," #1, 1970; "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted," #1, 1971; "I'll Meet You Halfway," #2, 1971; "I Woke Up In Love This Morning," #9, 1971 and "It's One Of Those Nights (Yes Love)," #13, 1972. (In addition, David Cassidy scored three Top 20 solo hits during this time, too ... "Cherish," #3, 1971; "Could It Be Forever," #15, 1972 and "How Can I Be Sure," #15, 1972.)
When Tom Cuddy, a bigwig with the ABC Broadcasting Network saw our piece, he was inspired to share a couple of VERY special memories with our readers. (Man, I just LOVE stuff like this!!!)
I'll turn things over to Tom ...
Kent:
Reading today in FH about the success of
the Partridge Family and David Cassidy reminded me about my good fortune
of working with many of the teen idols in pop music, including Donny
Osmond, Bobby Sherman, the Monkees, Shaun Cassidy and David Cassidy.
Few
people on the planet have walked in the shoes of someone like David
Cassidy, with the adulation he received during the height of his
popularity.
I
got to know David pretty well. We did many radio promotions and concert
events over the years and then he moved to New York when I was
VP/Programming at ABC's flagship WPLJ-FM and we got to know each other
better.
He
co-starred on Broadway with his step brother Shaun and Petula Clark in
"Blood Brothers" and we met for dinner a few times after his
performances. I was backstage with my family after a matinee and who
walks in the backstage door but Mrs. Partridge herself, Shirley Jones,
to congratulate the two members of her family, headlining the production.
At
WPLJ we once hosted a "Teen Idol Cruise" on the Hudson River. It was a
huge cruise ship with multiple levels, and 300 excited, mostly female
fans who can came to see Donny Osmond and
David Cassidy.
I was told at the time that the two had never attended
the same radio promotion before. So knowing that, I asked David before
the autograph session started, if he'd like
to say hi to Donny and he replied "No thanks, I'm fine." I was never
sure how to interpret his response. However it surprised me because
Donny is one of the nicest guys I've ever met in the business. So
sadly, there is no picture of Donny and David together at that event.
In the limo headed to the hotel with Donny after the cruise, I was
expecting Donny to say something like ... "I can't believe I didn't run
across David tonight." But Donny, a true gentleman, never brought it up.
It's
hard to believe, but we had two of the biggest former teen idols ever
on one cruise ship in NYC and over the three hour cruise they never ran into
each other -- by design.
Donny was on one deck meeting fans and David
was on
the other deck. That night they
were both a delight to work with and I can assure you our listeners have
never forgotten that night.
On
another occasion, David had just released what turned out to be his
last Billboard chart hit, "Lying to Myself," in 1990. It hit the Top
30. At the time, I was on the committee planning entertainment for the
National Association of Broadcasters annual convention. It was going to
be held in Boston.
I had booked Bruce
Hornsby to headline a concert, who was very hot at the time. We did the
show at Symphony Hall for all the radio broadcasters in town. David
had offered to MC the concert so he could get in front of the Program
Directors and let them know he had a new release.
That
sounded fine to me, but when Bruce Hornsby was told that David was
going to be introducing him, he said "I'm uncomfortable with that." He
went on to tell me that David is not associated with the type of music
he (Hornsby) is known for.
So,
with only 30 mins before the concert, it put me in an uncomfortable
position. I knew I didn't want to hurt David's feelings, so I asked
Shadoe Stevens, who had just been named as
the new host of "American Top 40," to go out on stage and co-host with
David, but when the two of them had finished talking to the audience,
it needed to be Shadoe who introduced Bruce.
Crisis adverted and it went well. Plus Hornsby put on a super solid set for the SRO audience of broadcasters.
More teen idol stories at another time!!
-- Tom Cuddy
Backstage
at Boston’s Symphony Hall: David
Cassidy, Bruce Hornsby,
Tom Cuddy and ABC Radio Networks executives
L-R: Tom Cuddy, Donny Osmond and Micky Dolenz
And, finally, from FH Reader Ken Voss, who helps maintain The Illinois Rock And Roll Website, we got THIS tying in to both our Partridge Family piece ... and our on-going Favorite Television Theme Songs Poll ...
FYI, Susan Dey is from Illinois ... so I have to vote for that one!
Ken
"C'mon, Get Happy," the theme song from The Partridge Family, currently has 27 votes as we go to press this morning! I've got a hunch it'll earn a whole lot more! (kk)
A DAVID CASSIDY BONUS!!!
Here's a piece that first ran in Forgotten Hits back in 2004!!! (This was before we even had a website ... and everything was being done thru emails!)
We ran a very special TEEN IDOLS WEEK ... and asked the ladies on our list to share memories of their early crushes with these heartthrobs.
This is the piece that ran on DAVID CASSIDY way back when ...
'60's FLASHBACK:
We asked some of the women on the list to describe some of the memories surrounding their earliest teenage crushes. Let's face it, many of you were ten years old (or even younger!) when you plastered DAVID's or DONNY's or LEIF's or ANDY's posters on your bedroom walls ... yet there was something about them that turned you on ... musically and physically. I'm not really sure that you could have even understood the physical part of the reaction at such an early age ... most girls on the list said that they simply wanted to MARRY their heart-throb ... it wasn't really a sexual urge as much as a need to feel that he belonged to only you. (LOL)
Being a guy, I never really understood it ... we didn't have those same types of crushes. Sure, back then we debated many of the same things that we continue to debate in FH ... who was hotter: GINGER or MARY-ANN ... SAMANTHA or JEANNIE ... WILMA or BETTY ... and, I WILL admit to having a special fondness for NANCY SINATRA's SUGAR TOWN album cover ... and maybe HERB ALPERT's WHIPPED CREAM Cover, too. (We've certainly shown THAT one a time or two here in Forgotten Hits!)
It seemed different for you girls, 'though. I've had women tell me that they used to kiss their DAVID CASSIDY poster good night every night ... they'd make-out with their pillow, pretending it was DONNY OSMOND ... and, based on the cold harsh realities of life, these are girls who would have been about eight or nine years old at the time they were doing this! One woman said she spent her early adult years looking for someone who had "DAVID CASSIDY's lips" and a young black girl (who would have been about eight when THE BEATLES first hit our shores) was absolutely convinced that SHE would marry GEORGE HARRISON ... without any logical consideration of age, race or probability ... she truly, truly believed it.
So this week, we're going to try to dig a little deeper into just what fueled these urges ... and we hope that some of you will share your memories and crushes with us, too. Along the way, we'll look at some of the most popular teen idols of the time and hear some long-since overlooked bubblegum pop.
Today's feature was written by FH list member JACK'S TROPHY WIFE (Laura), who not only made it through the '70's TEEN IDOL craze and lived to tell about it but also buys, sells, trades and collects old 16 MAGAZINES ... and all OTHER types of rock-related magazines ... with her hubby, JACKJ13. Thanks for the inspiration ... we hope you'll enjoy some of the other comments as well!
David Cassidy, Rock Me Baby, circa October 1972.
THIS 45 spent a lot of time on my older sister's Close & Play, especially during our marathon dance sessions on the front porch. (We were too young to be embarrassed dancing on our front porch, after dark, with the porch light on, on the main highway of a small town. At least I was; perhaps she should have known better.) According to his autobiography (which I no longer own, because someone ran off with it, so I cannot give you an exact quote), David was horrified to learn that his vocals on Partridge Family songs were speeded up to make his voice higher and thus theoretically less threatening and more appealing to young girls. Fortunately for those of us dying to be threatened by our teen idols, David eventually released this solo (correct speed) number, a delicious shock. This wasn't the David of the old days who told us to come on and get happy. THIS David was a midnight man!
---Jack's Trophy Wife / Laura
DAVID CASSIDY was the consummate teen idol ... at one time, he was getting more fan mail than THE BEATLES at their peak. Between constant television exposure through THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY and solo concert tours on the weekends, he may have TRULY been the hardest-working-man-in-show-business, despite what JAMES BROWN says!
Between his hits with his stepmom SHIRLEY JONES and their fictitious PARTRIDGE FAMILY and his solo smashes, CASSIDY hit the Pop Top 40 a dozen times between 1970 and 1972, topping the charts with I THINK I LOVE (1970) and DOESN'T SOMEBODY WANT TO BE WANTED (1971) and scoring Top Ten Hits with I'LL MEET YOU HALFWAY (#2, 1971), I WOKE UP IN LOVE THIS MORNING (#9, 1971) and CHERISH (#3, 1971).
According to a "Fact Sheet" he filled out for 16 MAGAZINE back in January of 1970, his favorite singing group was THE BEATLES (he covered their PLEASE PLEASE ME and hit The British Top 20 with it), his favorite individual singer was ANTHONY NEWLEY, his favorite TV Show was LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE, his favorite actor was MARLON BRANDO and his favorite food was lobster. He likes "girls who are bright ... I can't stand dumb girls" and he dislikes "plastic people."
(And all this time you thought it was
DONNY who had the PUPPY LOVE!!!)
CASSIDY continues to wow them live in concert ... in fact, he finally c'mon and got happy a few years ago and now performs most of his solo and PARTRIDGE FAMILY hits in their original arrangements. A live concert DVD and Greatest Hits CD have both been released in the past year ... pretty amazing since DAVID spent nearly two decades denouncing the whole KEITH PARTRIDGE connection. (His infamous ROLLING STONE "Naked Lunchbox" cover pretty much told all his female fans, 13 and under, that he really was a "Rocker" and was having sex with any willing "of age" follower! He goes into much greater and graphic detail in his autobiography, C'MON, GET HAPPY ... listing many of his sexcapades)
The music that LAURA selected for today is CASSIDY's 1972 rocker-image attempt, ROCK ME BABY, a #26 pop hit in Cash Box Magazine. (Track posted above)
We've also added one of his prettier solo ballads as well ... COULD IT BE FOREVER went to #15 in Cash Box the same year ... and was a #5 smash here in Chicago.
ok you asked for it ...
In the early 70's, when I was no more than 4 or 5, it was David Cassidy, ALL the way! I had a real thing for the Partridge family ... used to pretend that they were my family ... I wanted Keith to be my older brother! I even begged my mom to buy me a corduroy maroon pant suit (couldn't find velvet) with a frilly blouse underneath the vest, so that I could dress like them.
Mary Ruth
