The Partridge Family - The Partridge Family Album

Yeah I got an album by The Partridge Family. They weren't the Monkees that's for sure, but dang it it was the early '70s and we didn't have cable - hardly anyone we knew had cable. It was for rich people. We got enough channels with an antenna to be able to keep up with the latest cartoons and the best shows on television. Like the Banana Splits, H.R. Pufnstuf and Star Trek ... when I could figure out when it was on. The world was full of variety shows, and music was everywhere.

Then one day a new family moved into my living room  - The Partridge Family. Good lord, it was enough having to watch The Osmonds with a prancing Donny, and the Jackson 5 with little Michael all the time.  At least the Brady Bunch weren't doing a song and dance act ... oh wait, they did. It was horrible.

Still, it was fun.

The music was terrible.

It was also catchy.

It was also incredibly safe for family consumption.

They also played Ovation guitars. This I remember distinctly, because my uncle had an Ovation. It never occurred to me that little Danny couldn't play ... at all. I also remember the Partridge Family trading cards. I remember being perplexed by the recasting of the drummer after the first season. I had the same reaction when Darrin suddenly looked different on Bewitched. I just filled it under things that can't be explained and moved on.

So here I have a copy of the first of what would be eight albums over a three year period, the first five went gold - which is pretty impressive. I got it because it had "I Think I Love You" on it. I'd also have picked anything up with "Come on Get Happy" but beggars can't be choosers.

As an aside, when I was a kid my dad bought a lot of soundtrack albums, mainly musicals and showtunes. I loved Paint Your Wagon as a kid. I had no idea Clint Eastwood was a spaghetti western guy until much later. I also remember singing along to songs from Oklahoma ... oh what a beautiful morning indeed. As fate would have it, this is where I first saw a young Shirley Jones. 

The Partridge Family Album is a bit of an odd assortment of fairly generic soft rock songs. They were impeccably performed by some of the best session aces at the time: The Wrecking Crew. Hal Blaine was on drums, and both Tommy Tedesco and Louie Shelton were on guitar. 

Musically this was rooted in the late '60s pop that was part and parcel of acts like The 5th Dimension or The First Edition. Here was a young David Cassidy who was all of twenty, and Shirley Jones who was still in her '30s top lining an album. It's interesting to read the back cover essay as The Partridge Family was starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy. Listening to the album it's David who is very much front and centre.

The songs are all passable, and generally went in one ear and out the other - except for the lone single pulled from the record. "I Think I Love You" which is an honest to goodness piece of pop magic. Goodness it's kind of embarrassing, but it really is a great song. It's also a bit of redemption for songwriter Tony Romeo who also wrote "Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque" a song that just made me think of Bugs Bunny poking his head out from a pile of dirt and exclaims he must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. 

Although there are eleven songs here, this is a short album, hardly thirty minutes in total. I was surprised at how much I got into this with repeated listens. Suddenly I'm seven years old, lying stretched out on the floor, way too close to the TV, watching Danny outsmart Reuben.

As a kid it was cool and fun to watch the show, but you weren't supposed to like the music. Here I am as an adult (fine, I'm old ... get off my lawn) and I have to admit this was more fun than I expected.

To quote Reuben Kincaid: Now that I understand, I wish I didn't understand. 

This is the weird super power of nostalgia. I hope I don't find an album by The Brady Bunch ... boy oh boy, they even tried to get Peter Brady to sing and dance.