Would David Cassidy's career been different if he hadn't "actually" sung the Partridge songs

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Pizza, Jul 10, 2018.

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  1. twistandshout

    twistandshout Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    It is my understanding from books that I read that David Cassidy had enough of Partridge Family when he was 24 years old and was trying to play a teenager. He never wanted to be a "teen idol" and was embarrassed by that. Then he was traumatized by the death of a fan at one of his concerts and quit the business and went into a deep depression....and shortly after that, he attempted a comeback but the teenage girls who idolized him moved on and had grown up and he was way past the teen idol thing - and nobody was interested in him, which hurt him even further. Then the death of his father put him into a downward spiral along with several failed marriages. His life was very sad. I loved his singing voice and felt he was typecast as the bubblegum teeny bopper and he was so much more than that. He had a golden voice and one of the best looking faces I've ever seen. I loved his Partridge Family songs as well as songs he did after that show such as "Where Is The Morning" and his versions of "Cherish" and "How Can I Be Sure". He wanted to really branch out into being a rock and roller and when he realized that most people still associated him with Keith Partridge and wanted to hear Partridge Family songs - he decided to sing those as he aged. Although he dreaded that Partridge Family, teen idol thing, I think he sort of embraced it years later because people loved that music so much. However, he always said that he was the complete opposite of Keith Partridge and lost his identity cause people never wanted to know who David Cassidy was. Very sad story and I miss him a great deal.
     
  2. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    I always thought that Davy much better with his fans than David.

    Darryl
     
  3. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    According to Bonaduce, David was a hell of a guitar player. I think music was his love, not acting.
     
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  4. Keith V

    Keith V Forum Resident

    Location:
    Secaucus, NJ
    It’s like a Monkees what if.

    Lip syncing would have hurt more in my opinion.

    (And I agree with the OP. What a great voice. And the same thing goes for Nesmith, Jones, Dolenz, and Christmas)
     
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  5. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Yes, that voice and those songs were a knock out combo! Either one missing and things would not have gone supernova quite like they did. A hit show sure, but this was way out of the park type hit albums and singles.
     
  6. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    He did achieve what some would consider the ultimate in musical credibility - having one of his singles banned from airplay in many places!
     
  7. Khaki F

    Khaki F Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kenosha, WI. USA
    Is lip sync'ing to someone else's voice ever a good thing?
     
  8. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    David Cassidy had a career?
     
  9. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    He struggled. He got records out throughout his life. He did theater, some TV. He tried to distance himself from the teen idol stuff for a long time. In later years he realized it was his best shot at making a living and toured singing those PF songs, did a remix album of them and produced a TV movie about himself. (That last one was odd, especially when he appeared at the end and did a duet with the guy who played him.)
     
  10. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    Like Eve Plumb from the Brady Bunch, David's sour attitude towards what made him famous doesn't exactly win hearts and minds. I get that he felt boxed in by the David Cassidy of the Partridge Family image, but I don't think the argument that that image is what held him back later in life makes sense. Susan Dey had greater success as an actress later on. Another teen idol from the same era, Donny Osmond had a brief musical comeback in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

    What I do understand is the resentment some people from the first few decades of television have about the financial rewards they reaped. Sherwood Schwartz surely made boatloads (pun intended) of money from both Gilligan's Island and Brady Bunch reruns and home video releases; the actors, to my knowledge, received no residuals beyond the first 10 reruns. Imagine how many thousands of times both of those shows have been rerun over the past four decades.
     
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  11. Praveen

    Praveen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I used to watch a lot of old tv shows, but I never could get into the Partridge Family. it was just so boring. David Cassidy was supposedly pretty good guitar player. He probably should have recruited a good rock producer and done some pop rock. Hell, if Timberlake can outgrow Nsync, Cassidy could have easily done that too if he had better discipline and direction.
     
  12. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    Dolenz has (or had) the only truly great voice in this bunch as far as I'm concerned.
     
  13. BeatleStair

    BeatleStair Senior Member

    Location:
    Fort Wayne, IN
    The man sure could sing! I think his voice his really quite impressive, see below:

     
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  14. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    Unfortunately, SJ's movie career was pretty much over by the time TPF debuted in 1970. Most of her work in the 5 years or so leading up to TPF was in made-for-TV movies, plus the occasional TV series guest spot now & then. Though she was only 36 years old in 1970 — and a milfalicious 36 at that! — Hollywood was even harsher to actresses of a certain age than it is now.
     
  15. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    I think Dawn Wells actually gets residuals from Gilligan's Island.
     
  16. Andy Smith

    Andy Smith .....Like a good pinch of snuff......

    Dunno about 'shorter'. I do know that after the public heard the 'Rock Me Baby' LP he was garnering far more respect, in this country at least.
     
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  17. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    She actually recorded a song recently for the Over The Garden Wall soundtrack.
     
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  18. Ignatius

    Ignatius Forum Resident

    "Susan...! The Partridge girl...! Not really playin' the keyboards...! Not even plugged in..."
    [​IMG]
     
  19. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    An urban legend, unfortunately. Being an unknown who was always at or near the bottom of the bill on Gilligan, she was hardly in a position to demand anything more than standard residual payments — which were minimal or nonexistent when the original series was produced in the mid-1960s.

    Wells addressed the legend in an interview with Forbes magazine:

    Forbes: What’s one big myth about the show?

    DW: A misconception is that we must be wealthy, rolling in the dough, because we got residuals. We didn’t really get a dime. I think my salary – of course, I was low on the totem pole, Ginger [Tina Louise] and Thurston [Jim Backus] got more – was $750 a week. Sherwood Schwartz, our producer, reportedly made $90 million on the reruns alone!

    She also discussed the topic when she visited Australia in 2016 for a pop culture convention:

    “It’s a total lie,” Wells said. “I have no idea where that story came from, but I didn’t get a dime.”
     
  20. Jack Lord

    Jack Lord Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    David Cassidy needed to pull off a trick that is very difficult, but not impossible: Morph from teen idol to legit musical artist.

    The guy who most comes to mind is Ricky Nelson.

    Similar background: Like Cassidy, he had famous parents and was the star of a TV show which featured him singing. Handsome teen idol as well. Most sadly, he died prematurely as did Cassidy.

    Unlike Cassidy, his success ran straight into the juggernaut of the British Invasion.

    So he changed his image and his sound. Befriended the right people and formed a new band. He never replicated his early success, but he was his own man and a viable artist. While he too was haunted by his earlier image, he seemed to reconcile it with his new material. Not bad.

    Intentionally changing your sound and image can be tough- ask Brian Wilson or the Monkees. David had a tough task.
     
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  21. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    The thing is, with Nelson, his releases at the peak of his popularity were on a par with what Elvis or the Everlys were doing, and much better than Fabian. By the time of the Partridge Family rock had split into "serious" music and disposable pop. I think David wanted acceptance as a serious rocker, but his fanbase were the same people who were listening to The Archies, Cowsills and the Katzenbaum/Katz groups.

    I guess Rick Springfield managed to make a transition, but most of his teen idol stuff was limited to Australia and he had no qualms about reverting to acting when his chart run was done.
     
  22. Jack Lord

    Jack Lord Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    It's not an exact analogy, but both guys are in the same ballpark.

    David could have continued on doing serious rock, but he may well have performed in obscurity. And once you taste smash success- even that fueled by screaming girls- it is hard to accept less.
     
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  23. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA

    I read somewhere that Bob Denver was the only one who signed on for residuals when first asked, when the show was still on the air and the others scoffed. Denver signed on and got the last laugh, and became very wealthy when the show went into continual reruns all over the world.

    Then later I read only Wells ever got residuals. I dont know what to think now.
     
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  24. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    Are there ANY televisions teen idols that broke out of that and went on to have serious careers as a recording and performing musician?

    Ricky Nelson? OK Hannah Montana aka Miley Cyrus but I'm ashamed I even know that. I wouldnt count Britney or Justin or any of the latter day Disney things, they werent what I would call teen idols. Maybe just semantics but in my opinion, they werent household names like David Cassidy/partridge family.


    ooops I just read that y'all already mentioned Nelson. My bad.

    Anybody else?
     
  25. Jack Lord

    Jack Lord Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    The Wahlberg Brothers although it has been in acting, not music.
     
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