The Partridge Family
They weren’t a real family. Except for the mom, perhaps, who was a real-life stepmother of the eldest son and lead singer. And they weren’t really musicians — other than the mom and again, her stepson.
But the actors who played a family that became pop stars would enjoy four seasons of their own sitcom on ABC and would be credited with three Top 10 hits and six gold albums.
The first of those singles — “I Think I Love You,” the only one that would hit No. 1 — was released Aug. 22, 1970: 55 years ago today.
The Birth of The Partridge Family
Screen Gems Television had a major hit on their hands in the mid-1960s with “The Monkees.” The idea in 1969 was to duplicate that success, but this time with a real singing group, the Cowsills.
The Cowsills was a group of six siblings and their mom from Newport, Rhode Island, who really did play instruments and sing their own songs — unlike the Monkees at their start. The Cowsills had pushed three singles into the Top-10: “The Rain, the Park & Other Things” was a No. 2 hit in 1967, “Indian Lake” hit No. 10 the next year and they hit No. 2 again in 1969 with the title song to the hit musical “Hair.”
But when Screen Gems producers met the Cowsills, they were disappointed to find the kids aging. They would be too old to present on television as a group of singing children.
In addition, Screen Gems had its heart set on casting Shirley Jones — a veteran of musical films like “Oklahoma!,” “Carousel” and “The Music Man” and who had won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for her role in “Elmer Gantry.” The year before, Jones had declined the role of the mother on “The Brady Bunch” because, she said, she didn’t want to become known for “pulling a pot roast out of the oven every week.”
Jones accepted the role and so did her stepson, David Cassidy. The plan was to have the TV family lip-sync to songs recorded by a studio band, but Cassidy argued he could sing lead well enough and impressed the show’s producers with an audition.
Therefore, when the recording crew went into the studio to create Partridge Family records, they’d bring in Cassidy and Jones to sing.
The lead single from the first Partridge Family album was released on Aug. 22, 1970, and would hit No. 1 on Nov. 21 . Nine more Partridge Family singles would chart over the next three years, with two of them making it to the top 10.
The Partridge Family was modeled on a real family of singers, the Cowsills. When they landed their first big hit single in 1967, the group ranged from ages 8 to 19.
Four Seasons on ABC
A widowed bank teller finds that her five children — thee of which are preteens — are talented musicians. So she quits her job, joins their band as a keyboard player and vocalist, hires a manager and takes them out on tour. The show aired just before “The Brady Bunch.” In 1973, ABC moved it to Saturdays. Ratings tanked, so ABC canceled the show.
The tour bus that Shirley Partridge buys for her family was a converted 1957 Chevrolet school bus. The Partridges repainted it in the style of Dutch impressionist Piet Mondrian. On the back, they painted a warning sign: “Careful: Nervous Mother Driving.” The original bus used on the show was sent to a junkyard in 1987.
Ten-year-old Danny Bonaduce had trouble memorizing his lines. He was later diagnosed as dyslexic. He also was abused at home, which caused him to sometimes act out while at the TV studio. Eventually, Jones and Dave Madden — who played the family’s manager, Reuben Kincaid — began inviting him into their own homes on the weekends.
Nine-year-old Jeremy Gelbwaks, right, played the drummer, Chris Partridge, for the show’s first season. However, he didn’t get along well with other cast members. When his father took a new job in West Virginia, producers replaced him with Brian Forster, who was a year younger. Fans did not make a big fuss about the change.
Cassidy became the huge breakout star of the show but while producers got rich using his name and likeness, Cassidy was making only $600 a week. His manager finally realized he had been only 19 — and underage — when he had signed his rights away. He finally began receiving royalties for singing lead on the records and for appearing on Partridge Family merch.
Producers originally wanted Olivia Newton-John for the role of Laurie Partridge but Susan Dey won the role. She nurtured a big crush on Cassidy, who’d tell her stories about all the groupies he had met on his solo tours. Finally, Jones sat Cassidy down and told him he was breaking Dey’s heart with such stories. The two dated for a while after the show was canceled.
The Partridge Family - And David Cassidy's - Single Chart History
“I Think I Love You” was released a month before the TV show debuted on ABC. It would spend 16 weeks on the chart and three weeks at No. 1, and selling more than 5 million copies — more than the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” earlier that year.
The song was written by Tony Romeo, who also wrote songs for the Seekers, the Everly Brothers and Richard Harris. He had also written “Indian Lake” for the Cowsills.
In 1971, the Partridge Family would be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist — nevermind the fact that they weren’t a real band.
