Love Is All That I Ever Needed. Chapter 5. A New Direction. The Partridge Family
The origin of the TV show about a singing widow and her five children, called The Partridge
Family, after half a century has its own legend, mythology even.
Fans know those stories by
heart. About The Cowsills being an inspiration for the show creator, Bernard Slade. About a
great movie star, Shirley Jones who decided to accept a TV role even though everybody kept
telling her how risky it could have been for her career. But she wanted to spend more time
with her family.
And we heard many times she didn’t know until the last moment that her step-son, David, auditioned for a role of Keith Partridge, and that she had no idea he could sing. A
lot of fans believe in those stories.
Shirley Mae Jones was born March 31, 1934. In the 50s she appeared in a few popular musical
films such as ‘Oklahoma!’ (1955), ‘Carousel’ (1956), ‘The Music Man’ (1962). Beautiful,
charming, sweet and sexy, with a wonderful musically trained voice. Also a talented comedic
and dramatic actress, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a
prostitute in ‘Elmer Gantry’.
But it wasn’t easy to be a movie star and at the same time Jack
Cassidy’s wife, and a mother of three sons. In the 60s, she still performed in movies, but her
career slowed down.
She was considered for the role of Maria von Trapp in ‘The Sound of
Music’, but only appeared in stage productions of that musical.
In 1965 she tried her luck at
TV, but the pilot for a TV series called ‘Dream Wife’ with Shirley Jones in the title role didn’t
sell. The pilot wasn’t very interesting, Shirley looked like a younger version of Doris Day, and
it didn’t suit her at all.
Shirley and Jack hoped that ‘Maggie Flynn’, a Broadway musical in which both of them
appeared, would be a great success. Jack got a Tony nomination for it, but that expensive and
lavish production, opened on October 23, 1968 was closed nearly at the same time as ‘Fig
Leaves Are Falling’, on January 5, 1969, after 82 performances.
A role in a hit TV show,
steady money, working in LA, so being at home and taking care of her sons, was what Shirley
Jones really needed in 1969.
Screen Gems wanted to repeat the world success of ‘The Monkees’ (1966-1968). The
producers wanted Shirley Jones as the star of the new show.
The show was a musical situation
comedy about a single mother and her five talented kids. At first, it was called ‘The Family
Business’. More than 800 young actors auditioned for it. Ruth Aarons was Jack’s, Shirley’s
and David’s manager. She wanted David to try for the show too. She was sure David would
become a star if he got the role of the oldest son, Keith Partridge.
But he didn’t want it.
Of course, no one forced him. In the end, it was David’s decision. But Ruth Aarons, Jack
Cassidy, and there is no doubt that also Shirley, did everything to convince him.
We can read
in the David Cassidy autobiography,:
‘Ruth wanted me to try out for this show and I was deadly opposed to it. She saw this as an
opportunity for me to become a superstar and felt I was uniquely right for this role because I could sing and I could play. She went so far as to get my father to sit me down and tell
me to do it.’
He trusted Ruth, and he trusted his father. They were in the business for many years, and he
was just a beginner. It looked like a once in a lifetime chance to make really big money, to
become famous. He was 19 years old. Who at his age would not be tempted? Money, fame,
expensive cars, and beautiful women at your fingertips.
He wanted to be a serious, reliable,
and respected actor like his father, and Jack told him many times that it was a long way, a lot
of years of studying the craft, learning from the best. Now everybody wanted David to appear
in a sitcom for kids and play a pretty boy.
It was one of the reasons that David, who as a child
worshiped Jack, later lost respect for his father. He made it a point to make his own career
decisions. Trust his own instinct - not people.
David wrote in his books that he’d never read teen mags. Of course, he did. Even once when
he was 17 years old, his pictures had appeared in a picture story in one of the American teen
magazines.
He was aware that from 1966-1968, The Monkees were on every Tiger Beat
cover. There was also Tiger Beat’s Official Monkees Spectacular, board games, and comics.
He didn’t want to be Keith Partridge, but he agreed to an audition. The lines they told him to
read weren’t a real part. There was nothing for a serious actor and he told Ruth he wasn’t
interested in the show. She convinced him to do a screen test, and that day he met his step
mother, Shirley Jones, on the set.
He wrote in his autobiography: “Genuinely puzzled, I looked
at her and asked, ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘I’m playing your mother!’ she told me. And I
nearly fell over.”
It seems that David really didn’t know that Shirley was going to be the star of the show and
that she was chosen by the producers.
He was chosen, too.
Renee Valente (casting executive), ”Somebody had called to tell me about David Cassidy (..)
What made David the right choice was he had the look. When I looked into David’s eyes I saw
a young kid, who would look great on camera, who could act pretty good for his age.”
Paul
Junger Witt (producer/director), “This was a couple of years post Monkees. It was the Tiger
Beat world. If we could get a heartthrob.(..) The whole package walked in and read for us.
David was the guy. He could do it all.”
One of the reasons that David, in the end, decided to compete for the role in a TV musical
comedy was a chance to become a recording artist.
The pilot was filmed in December 1969
in Las Vegas. Even before the pilot was sold, David met with Wes Farrell.
Born in December 1939, at just 30 years old, Wes was a very experienced and successful
musician, songwriter and music producer. Wes was very sure of himself, and had a strong
personality. He knew what he wanted to achieve, what was expected of him and why he was
hired by Screen Gems and Bell Records. He was to repeat the Monkees’ success.
In 1968 Wes Farrell produced The Cowsills and three songs were written for the group by
Tony Romeo. Together the Cowsills, Wes and Tony had a great hit with ‘Indian Lake’. The
single, released in May 1968, reached # 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and sold more than
million copies.
Wes knew how to make a big pop hit, and, definitely for him, David could have been only a
singer, not a partner. Of course, if he was good enough. If not, David was just to pretend
singing on the set, just like the rest of actors hired as the Partridges, except for Shirley.
Instead,
known studio musicians were to sing and play, and record albums as ‘The Partridge Family.’
Even before David Cassidy was cast, some professional singers from The Ron Hicklin Group
and Love Generation were hired for the pilot. There were Ron Hicklin, Jackie Ward, Sally
Stevens, Tom and John Bahler and Stan Farber. A jazz musician, Shorty Rogers worked as
a musical director. It was planned their voices would be the real singing Partridge Family.
Everything changed when Wes came. He wanted only four singers and Stan Farber was fired.
He thanked Sally Stevens. And Shorty left. Wes was the boss. He saw the pilot, and he wanted
to audition David.
Wes and David met at Paul Witt’s office. David brought his guitar, and they talked about music.
David sang along with some records while playing the guitar. Wes was surprised. The boy had
a very pleasant, natural, strong voice. Of course David knew nothing about recording or
professional singing, but he had great potential. Not only to become a heartthrob, a teen idol,
but also a great pop singer. The question was if he could learn fast..
The pilot was sold. ABC bought it, and the date of the premiere was set for September 25,
1970. David was offered $600 a week, and he accepted it. He didn’t think much that if the
show would be successful, he was to play Keith Partridge for the next seven years. He didn’t
think that it would happen. According to the contract, the studio had the rights to his name,
voice and likeness. He had no idea that he was sold..
David (probably in February/March) rented, with his school friend Sam Hyman, a small house
in Laurel Canyon. It was a very good and happy time for him. It was great to be independent,
have his own money, and live in such a cool place. Their neighbors were famous musicians,
actors, and journalists. The never ending Summer of Love at Laurel Canyon.
David was very excited that he would cut a real album, with a group of very known
professionals - the creme de creme of the American studio musicians. The people who worked
with everybody and played on the most important albums of the 60s - Dennis Budimir, Louie
Shelton, Tommy Tedesco, Joe Osborne, Max Bennett, Larry Knechtel, Mike Melvoin, Billy
Strange, Don Peake and Hal Blaine.
At last, the day came to start recording the first album which would be released before the
show’s debut. 11 songs were recorded on May 11, May 16, June 11, August 4 and August
5.41 The total length, 30:02. The first song David Cassidy ever recorded was ‘I Think I Love
You’, written by Tony Romeo.
Just six days of recordings, but for David they were very stressful. He tried not to disappoint
anyone and did his best to concentrate. Since he was just a beginner, and the youngest in the
studio, sometimes he sang too fast or too slow. He had to learn a lot of new things about
working in a studio, professional jargon, just to understand what others were talking about.
There was very little time and work to be done, so because David couldn’t sing some parts,
Tom Bahler sang those instead of him - even on ‘I Think I Love You’. At the time David’s
voice wasn’t developed enough.
Great success was anticipated, and some money was spent. On June 27, 1970, a note
appeared on Billboard magazine : "Bell Records is launching a $100,000 promotion campaign,
combined with a nationwide tour to support not only the record product, but the new ABC-TV
series, ‘The Partridge Family’(..) Promotion tour starts August 17’.
It was also written that
David was the one who performed ‘with the group in the series’, and ‘with the real group that
recorded the music.’
Some articles appeared on CashBox Magazine, again about Bell Records and $100,000, but
also about the top songwriters who were invited by Wes Farrell to contribute original songs for
The Partridge Family.
The single ‘I Think I Love You’/ ‘Somebody Wants To Love You’ was released in August 1970.
It appeared first on the Cash Box pop charts on September 26, and on the Billboard Hot 100
on October 10. ‘I Think I Love You’ debuted at number 75 and the long way up started.
At first
not all DJ’s wanted to play the song, even if money was offered for it, everybody knew what
kind of band The Partridge Family was.
Publicity was very important. All teen mags started writing about David and the upcoming
show and ‘the newest star of the future’, David Cassidy. A lot of pics and info were published.
In Tiger Beat’s June’s issue everybody could read in an article called, ’The Face of 1970 :
David Cassidy’, that the show would be a hit and,: ‘ your eyes can’t help but notice (and sigh
over) his incredible long lashes that crown his striking hazel eyes’. His pic wasn’t on the
cover in June, appearing for the first time on the July’s issue. A very small one, but with each
month his pictures became bigger.
The first episodes were filmed in the spring and summer of 1970. Journalists were allowed on
the set of the show. One of them was Cecil Smith, a longtime Los Angeles Times TV critic
who covered the TV and entertainment scene for that newspaper since the 1950s. His article
was published at the beginning of August.
At that time Shirley Jones thought she would be the
biggest star of the show and that she would be a lead singer. She even told Smith that the
upcoming album would be called, ’Shirley Jones and The Partridge Family’. Not much was
written about David, only that he was handsome, and Shirley's remark was cited : ‘I never
knew David could sing. All boys pluck guitars around the house - but really sing..?’
It was a
strange observation. David wasn’t just a boy. He was a working actor since the fall of 1968,
and she knew he’d sung on Broadway.
When the album was released in September 1970, it was called, ‘The Partridge Family Album’.
Two songs were sung by the Love Generation’s singers, both songs were performed in the
aesthetic of the 60s and didn't sound contemporary. There was also another track sung by
them, called ‘To Be Lovers’, with a short contribution by David. This song showed his potential,
wonderful young, sincere voice, and the difference between him and those professionals. They
were very good, but it was David’s magical voice which made the difference.
He was the lead singer on the other eight songs. Two classics were written by Tony Romeo,
‘I Think I Love You’ and ‘Point Me In The Direction Of Albuquerque’, and two written by Wes
Farrell, Jim Cretecos and Mike Appel - ‘I Can Feel Your Heartbeat’ - which became David
Cassidy’s concert opener during his whole career, and ‘Somebody Wants To Love You’. Two
other songs Wes co-wrote with Eddie Singleton, ‘Bandala’ and ‘Brand New Me’, and one with
Diane Hildebrandt, ‘Singing My Song’. ‘Only a Moment Ago’ was written by Terry Cashman
and Tommy West.
David started appearing on TV programs as a guest star, to promote the show and The
Partridge Family’s music. Sometimes on his own, and sometimes with Shirley. In May 1970
he took part in the popular show “The Dating Game’. In August on ‘American Bandstand’, ‘The
Tubby and Lester Show’ and ‘Eye-Witness News Parade’. Unfortunately we have only a few
photos from those three programs. No tape has survived.
So everything was going according to the plan. David was really satisfied with those first
recordings. It was exciting giving interviews and receiving fan mail. Everything was new for
him. He earned good money and had great prospects for the future. He was only 20 and
already on the brink of becoming famous. Then one day something happened, and he almost
lost everything he'd achieved.
One summer day along with Sam Hyman, Steve Ross and 2 girls, David drove for the day out
to Tuna Canyon in Malibu. There were some joints and peyote buttons, but not much. It was
a perfect summer day. They were sunbathing, laughing, and having a great time. Even if they
had sex, it wasn’t the most important thing. They were alone up in the mountains. They just
felt free and happy.
However, David parked his Ford Mustang in an illegal place. Suddenly the
perfect day changed into a nightmare when police came. They pulled everything out of David's
car. They were looking for drugs. To the officers the boys were ‘some freaky hippie scum’ .
They found nothing, and David only got a ticket for illegal parking.
He was so shaken by that incident, he couldn’t drive home. It was a very scary and important experience, and he told
Elliot Mintz about it during their taped conversation in Hawaii in 1974. It was one of the few
moments in that interview that David was really moved. He also wrote about it many years
later in his autobiography.
He felt the responsibility that rested on him and remembered the contract he’d signed.
There was a morale clause in it. His irresponsible behavior could have had very serious
consequences. He could have lost the role and someone else would have played Keith
Partridge..
From that day there were two David Cassidy’s, the one everybody knew from the TV show
and press articles - the smiling, happy, sensitive, shy and sincere boy, and that other one.
Boyish but not a boy, very private, very aware and not so happy, who did a lot of things
undercover
David Cassidy,:’Could It Be Forever?’, 2007, p.67
39 David Cassidy,:’Could It Be Forever?’, 2007, p.68
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