One Night Stand
The Partridge Family
As a wee lass, I would watch the Partridge Family with my family. For those who don’t know about it, it was an early 70s tv show about a mother and her 5 children touring around as a band, loosely based on a real life band, the Cowsills. It starred Shirley Jones (the producers built it as a vehicle for her) and it also featured Laugh-In regular Dave Madden as their manager Ruben.
David Cassidy, playing the oldest, was the first boy I ever had a crush on. He was so dreamy! I wasn’t the only one who noticed and he shot to a level of heartthrob stardom never seen before, thanks to merchandising. (That he spent years unable to go anywhere without being mobbed and yet saw almost none of the money made off him is tragic.)
Partridge Family music is my happy place so thought I’d share some of those vibes for a Monday morning. The recorded songs featured David Cassidy on lead vocals and the rest of the singers and musicians on the tracks were part of the famed group of LA session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew. The songs were quickly recorded on weekends when Cassidy wasn’t shooting the show.
This video was the song’s premiere on the show. The recorded version has an outro I quite like that doesn’t appear here. However, you get to see David Cassidy going in and out of light during the song. (The framing is that guy who buys out the house at the top of the clip has a thing for the mom.)
This track is my personal fave and when I get a band it’s going in my setlist. Written by Paul Anka and Wes Ferrell , it was a b-side to the hit It's One of Those Nights (Yes Love). The song talks about the crazy touring life as a young man, something Anka was intimately familiar with. Listening to Cassidy’s vocals, you can feel how much he’s connected to it. That’s what draws me to it, the plaintiveness and passion.
Enjoy your song of the day!