Did Tony Romeo write kick-ass songs, or what?!

And no one sang them better than David Cassidy.

Don't know how I managed to miss this version but here are The Lettermen covering "It's One of Those Nights (Yes, Love)". It's an amazing song full of evocative imagery and they render it beautifully...but it all sounds fake next to The Partridge Family's version, doesn't it? Hard to beat the warmth and sincerity in young David Cassidy's delivery.

I specify "young David Cassidy" because he redid the song almost thirty years later for his "Then & Now" album and...well, he shouldn't have. It sucks. Wish I had the terminology to express how awful it is but whoever has the album could probably chime in. If I could find it on YT, I'd share it with you. What happened to his singing during all those years? Can't say it's his voice that sounds different (that's normal with age), it's his phrasing. There's no vulnerability in his delivery. Sorry, I know I've bitched about it before but I was just listening to that "Now" track and the difference between the two never fails to hit me.

Vroom, Vroom - The Perfect Vehicle?

(Resurrected this entry from a draft written in January, so please excuse any anachronisms.)

In this post's comments, an anonymous reader wondered what vehicle could help David Cassidy expand his audience base since "Ruby & The Rockits" wasn't renewed. What would help him reconnect with his audience or reach a new one?

Cultural references to David Cassidy's heyday ("ITILY" in the Lipton Sparkling Tea commercial, his posters in the recent "The Lovely Bones" movie, for example) are always positive because they prompt "whatever happened to him?" Googling from curious former fans and expose a younger generation to his work. I was thinking along these lines when the ultimate pop culture vehicle du jour appeared to me like that sweet ride DC got during his Partridge Family contract re-negotiations.

Glee.

If you know to what I'm referring, skip the next couple of paragraphs. If you don't, here goes: "Glee" is a Fox TV series about a Spanish high school teacher who decides to revive the school's Glee Club (singing group) and renew its former competition glory. Think "Fame" ("I'm going to live forever!") but replace the pretense with snark and add a dash of convoluted, satiric, plots. It's an hour long cartwheel of drama, comedy and music created by "Nip/Tuck"'s Ryan Murphy.

The show won the Golden Globe for "Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy". It appeals to both kids and adults because the music is varied and story lines revolve around both teachers and students. The cast is brilliant and manages to improve the songs they cover. Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" actually sounds inspirational when sung by a conflicted high school student. "Glee" is enjoying major buzz right now: Madonna granted FREE use of her catalog to the producers for the All-Madonna season-opener episode (which I haven't seen yet, so, please, no spoilers); Olivia Newton-John and Jennifer Lopez are set to guest star; Clint Eastwood watches the show. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, for those who do watch the show, imagine these scenes:

-Mr. Shue introducing The Partridge Family or David Cassidy to the gang with lines like "bubblegum pop that stood the test of time" and "a teen idol who could actually sing"
-Finn singing "Brown Eyes" to Quinn
-Kurt leading the group with "I Woke Up in Love This Morning" after meeting a potential love interest. And he is set to get a boyfriend in the second-half of the season (or is it the second season?).
-Artie playing that rockin' opening bass line in "Love is All That I Ever Needed"

So many good pop songs the cast could cover - "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat", "Summer Days", "Every Little Bit of You"...- they don't even need to touch "ITILY" or "C'mon Get Happy" with a sky-high Cheerios pyramid. It would be amazing if David Cassidy's solo stuff could be featured. These songs still sound current (or am I biased because of the PF/DC bubble I've been living in these past few months?):

-Rock Me Baby
-Mae
-Daydreamer
-I Never Saw You Coming
-Fix of Your Love
-Common Thief
-Damned if this ain't Love
-Run and Hide
-Warm My Soul

What could make David Cassidy fans giddier than seeing his music acknowledged on a cool show?

Here's Bran Van 3000's "Drinking in L.A.". Just because it's from their 1997 debut album, Glee, and I love to plug Canadian talent :-)



And here's DC's "Oh No (No Way)" in the event my idea is loonier than a Canadian dollar coin. (His voice is so very perfectly sexy in this track.)

"Put on Your Red Dress Baby..."

When I heard David Cassidy's eponymous release of 1990, one song stood out: "Hi-Heel Sneakers". I liked the sound of it but thought the lyrics daft. Well, turns out that it's the only song on the album that wasn't co-written by Sue Shifrin. It's actually an old R&B tune by Robert Higginbotham who scored a Billboard Hot 100 hit with it in 1964 as Tommy Tucker. The song has been covered by over 200 artists, so chances are good that I was the only one in the dark about it. Here is the original version by Tucker (Higginbotham), Jerry Lee Lewis' cover and David's, of course. Also found a version by Elvis Presley but can't embed the video. The link is at the bottom of this post - it's worth a listen.

Hearing the song performed in its original R&B style, the butchery it suffered at the beat of those drum machines is even more evident. It would be cool to hear DC perform it today without the electronic trappings that saddle his comeback album and indelibly time stamp it 1990. Someone should remind him of this classic.







Elvis's version.

His Sexiest Song?

In celebration of Valentine's Day, Billboard compiled their list of the Top 50 songs about sex. Notice I did not say "sexiest songs". No. These songs made the list because their lyrics are about sex and they charted highly. That's all. These are not necessarily sexy songs. Billboard explains the list:

"...the 50 most popular songs about sex ever, as based on each song's performance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (from August 4, 1958 -- the inception of the Hot 100 chart -- through the Jan. 16, 2010 issue)."

"Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years."

Now, here's one song that made Billboard's list. It also made a VH-1 countdown at some point and guess who introduced it on that show? ;-)



So, to paraphrase Salt-n-Pepa, let's talk about sex in songs. What do you think is David Cassidy's sexiest song? My choice: "Rock Me Baby" - perhaps the most obvious choice, but what can I say, his voice could prompt deals with the devil. Here's a live clip of him singing it on a European music show back then (don't mention the show please - this clip has been removed from YT in the past). Only found one clip of the 1972 recorded version of the song and it's the one of him in his shiny pink suit on "Top of the Pops".

Happy Valentine's Day!

Replace "girl" with boy and that first verse couldn't better describe how most young fans felt when they crushed on David Cassidy:

"I can't start my day, girl, without thinkin' about ya
I wake up in the mornin' and you're there on my mind
I've been dreamin' about ya
You start feelings runnin' through my head that need no explanation
And the sweetness of your smile has captured my heart
It's such a crazy sensation"

-"Girl, You Make My Day", The Partridge Family on "Shopping Bag" album, written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart

The rest of the song is even lovelier - who wouldn't be wooed by these lyrics?:

"You're the sunshine that I hold deep inside me when I'm cold"
"You're my forever and after"

Complete song lyrics on the David Cassidy Downunder Fansite. And what's not to love about Cassidy's vocals here? He gives "dreaming", "sweetness", "girl" and "day" just the right "punch" to make the song irresistible. He really sang those tunes perfectly, didn't he?

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine's Day, whether you're crushin' or lovin'.

Sure Looks Sincere, Doesn't He?

Guess they underestimated his acting talent.



Can anyone tell me what the frig John Lennon had to do with the question? Aside from the random "John Lennon was my BFF, now do you believe I'm cool?!" factor.

Who else is hoping the über-fan dinner guest regales the DC fandom with her meeting come Sunday morning? Who doesn't give a flying fig?

And here's my open letter to David Cassidy, because, well, you saw the video too:

David, I'm so, so, sorry I lost track of you all these years. You hate me because I dropped you like a hot potato, but what did I know? I was twelve. Your show had already been off the air for over four years - I discovered you through reruns, for pete's sake! There were no Partridge Family albums left in the stores when my mother did her Christmas shopping - all she could find for me was "The World of the Partridge Family". But you could have tried harder to reach us, no? You had these great RCA albums you could have hawked. (I was still too young to watch "Police Story".) I'm so sorry I was a fair weather fan. I'm back now. I have seen the light: your voice was unparalleled (no offense but I have trouble saying "is" - you have to admit, it has declined in some respects) and I hate - not as much as you do, of course - that people don't credit your talent beyond being a heart throb. And we know that's not talent, that's genetics. So I'm doing what I can to right my wrongs: I'm blogging my little heart out to get the word out that you are talented and all that mania was deserved. It wasn't just hype. It was your talent and your charisma that shone through and touched us. I've been re-discovering your career for the past ten months now and have yet to tire of your albums (well, not all of them - a couple were crap on a disc, sorry).

But please, you have to do your part. You have to respect your fans enough to realize that we know how conflicted you are about that teen idol business. Don't pander to this overblown fake nostalgia bit and go on about how you love your fans for what they've given you (you went this route to promote "Ruby" and we all know how that turned out...wince.) The majority of us abandoned you! We gave you heartache. We made it so that casting agents didn't give you the time of day. We thought we were too cool for you. I'll even admit to some eye rolling when a friend reminded my teenage self of my young crush on you. "The Harder They Fall" indeed.

But now, I've seen the errors of my ways and I won't stand for anyone disrespecting you or The Partridge Family. Today, I am unapologetic in my stance: "the guy has his issues but he had one of the most beautiful male voices in popular music and he's recorded a sublime version of "Ain't No Sunshine"". I can rattle off your accomplishments almost as well as your hundreds of loyal fans who never abandoned you throughout the decades. I am a born again believer. I'm not alone either. Please. Trust us. No more of these uncomfortable interviews with fake fawning from "on-air personalities". We are above that.

While I'm at it, might as well ask you: can you make your records easier to obtain? I'm trying my darnedest to buy some of your albums but they are OUT OF PRINT. The online store showed stock, I clicked "buy" and waited and waited and waited and finally, I received an email advising me it was OUT OF PRINT and I was out of luck. And how about all those unreleased Partridge Family songs tucked away in vaults? Wouldn't it just be the bees' knees to release those gems for the 40th anniversary of the PF? One last thing: that movie coming up? Once it's wrapped and you're actively promoting it, can you NOT say it's the best work you've ever done? Cause that line is getting, like all of us, kind of old.

"Come on baby, let's start anew..."

New Song from David Cassidy...

Well, for me at least. Perhaps if I had been actively following him in the late eighties and early nineties, I might have heard this at one point? Thanks to CherishDavid for sharing it via that great fandom meeting place in cyberspace. His phrasing sounds "lazy" here, for lack of a better word, but his voice is still bloody sexy. The song ain't half bad either. Could still be a hit...

"Raindrops"

R&B singer Dee Clark scored a huge hit with his song "Raindrops" in 1961. David Cassidy, not so much. You can hear DC's version of "Raindrops" on his 1992 album "Didn't You Used to Be...". Anyone know what could have prompted Cassidy to cover this particular song? Anyone care to guess? Anyone even care?

A Song for You?

Read some comments on YT that likened David Cassidy's voice to Karen Carpenter's. Here's "A Song for You" which both The Carpenters and David Cassidy recorded. Leon Russell wrote this song and it's one of the loveliest and most timeless songs EVER. Karen Carpenter's voice is a heavenly match for it and I'll forever hear it in her voice. I found a video of Mr. Russell singing his composition and I wonder if DC took cues from him for his version on his 2003 "A Touch of Blue" CD.

So, embedded here for your listening pleasure (or displeasure) are three versions of "A Song for You": DC's, The Carpenters' and Leon Russell's. I've linked to three other versions as well: Helen Reddy's rendition - a new discovery for me - because it's simple and her tone lovely. Simply Red's because it's the second cover I found that they have in common with DC (see "Go Now" for the first). Again, Simply Red put their personal stamp on the song but I'm not moved by singer Hucknall here.

The third version is from Michael Bublé, crooner du jour. What is special about Bublé? He looks good, sings some of the most beautiful songs of the last century and backs himself with a top notch band. But please, I beg you MB fans, enough with the "greatest singer" accolades. He garbles and lisps. Not begrudging him his success - after all he's making these beautiful songs mainstream again (what pop music radio station today would have played "Sway" before his version came out?) - I just want young people to realize he's not the crème de la crème of singers. I'll be honest, I have not listened to his performance here past the 1:40 mark. If you manage, tell me if it gets better.

Bottom line for me: the song belongs to Karen Carpenter. She delivered a slice of music heaven. And yes, I've heard Donny Hathaway, American Idol's Elliott Yamin (seriously distracting poor breath control there), Ray Charles and Whitney Houston sing it. No, I haven't heard Christina Aguilera, Cher, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin or anyone else sing it. Hardly see the point of it.







Helen Reddy
Simply Red
Michael Bublé

"Go Now"

Here's another song that David Cassidy and a myriad of other acts have covered. The most familiar version is The Moody Blues' but Bessie Banks sang it first in the mid-sixties. David's version dates from his second album "Rock Me Baby", released in 1972. Recently, the British group Simply Red put their modern spin on it before bidding each other au revoir. I can't find any fault with David's version and his voice in that first line is irresistible. So often, it's the first line he sings that hooks me. His version is my favorite of the four (very nice pics in this slideshow, btw). I also enjoy Simply Red's version though the emphasis is on the beat. The Moody Blues' voices annoy me and Banks' interpretation sounds forced.

"I Am a Clown"

Here's another DC clip from the eighties - the whole decade was a bad dream, à la Dallas, ok? - thanks to Catgil2 for sharing. From his debut solo album "Cherish", "I am a Clown" could veer dangerously close to maudlin territory but Cassidy usually reins it in with his sincere delivery, no doubt accepting how accurately songwriter Tony Romeo described him with those lyrics. Even casual DC fans can recognize the bitter truth in the portrayal. In the 1973 concert performance captured in the "Weekend at Wembley" documentary, the line "Tell me you love me, make me real" gives me goosebumps. Here, his rendition is serviceable, hardly goosebump-inducing and I wonder if the pianist is playing at the right tempo or if it's a YT synchronization issue. The live clip from 1973 is embedded below - thanks to Scarpett for sharing.

Embarassingly Craptastic

There is just no way that I can get into this song. And this performance with the ghost of Romance past floating in the background is so embarrassing that I have to look away. The Romance album is dance/pop dreck of the highest order and I shall continue to skip over it as I appreciate David Cassidy's discography.

Any Objections to this Song?

In this not-so-recent post, I wondered how well David Cassidy would render the timeless "Sunny" and someone brought up that he's never really sung much with a Motown or Rhythm and Blues feel to it. Not an expert on musical genres here but I think "It Should Have Been Me" might qualify. Both Kim Weston and Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded this song in the sixties and then Yvonne Fair made it a hit in the mid-seventies. Besides David Cassidy's version, I haven't found any other versions by male vocalists. Ray Charles' "It Should Have Been Me" is a different song entirely.

Cassidy sings these lyrics with too much resignation and not enough indignation but in the first thirty seconds, his honeyed voice beckons with just enough soul and passion for us to give his rendition a chance. You can listen to DC's "It Should Have Been Me" here - apologies for the abrupt ending. The song can be found on "The Best of David Cassidy", the album released in 1991 by Curb Records in Japan, consisting of songs recorded and rejected for an album back in 1979. Embedded below are versions from Kim Weston, Gladys Knight & the Pips and Yvonne Fair.

A Young Daydreamer

Here's a treat for you all. Clodyne, yet another eagle-eyed reader, shared this recently uploaded YT clip with me. Paying it forward, as a good fan should.

Is it me or is his disdain for the the song showing here? Brace yourself, for all is forgiven with that killer dimpled smile at 1:00. Yes, the show mucked up the title of the song as "Daydreaming" instead of "Daydreamer" and no, I have no flipping clue where this was filmed. On a ship at night? In a truck yard? As for that white suit, this clip is from 1974, so it is possible that this is the same suit he wore in that Partridge Family/My Three Sons Thanksgiving Special. And from the oohs and aahs at the end, I wouldn't be surprised if he were singing this live.

Sweet!

Here's "Sweetness", the other David Cassidy-penned Partridge Family song that never made it onto the show. It can also be found on DC's Partridge Family Favorites album. You can buy the album as part of the "Old Trick, New Dog" package on DC's website.

I'm not crystal clear on the meaning of the lyrics but the song's beginning reminds me of "Stephanie" in that PF episode with Bobby Sherman. Lots of rare 80s pics as well in this YT video by inthe11thhour. Fashion tip everyone: large prints on jackets are rarely a good idea, in any decade (2:05). Were there ever some fugly clothes back then! I was a teenager in the mid-eighties and I remember being quite excited with my first trendy fashion purchase: a puffy cotton concoction by Naf Naf - in pink no less! It looked like pajamas. My mother, bless her soul, made me return it before I ever wore it out in public.

Be My Ba-bay

Just discovered the Partridge Family's "Mystical Lady" on YT. Thanks to david41250 for posting it and creating a slideshow with seldom-seen images (it includes that great shot Henry Diltz took of him with Schwarzenegger at 0:33).

The song is no great shakes - don't think it was ever featured in an episode either - but David Cassidy's voice still makes it listenable for me. Actually, the chorus hints at a pretty rockin' tune if the song could be let loose. For anyone interested, it's on "David Cassidy's Partridge Family Favorites", an album released in 1998 on Slamajamma, DC's own record label at the time. If you have a copy of the album, could you share any available songwriting credits?

"January"

Not predictable. Timely. ;-)



The original version by Pilot, sung by another David.



Love the Scottish accent, Mr. Paton, but I prefer David Cassidy's sultry vocals. What say YOU, dear blog readers? Is there a verse missing in DC's version? The lyrics seem different between the two. Oh and if anyone can explain the lyrics to me, I'd be much obliged.

(How long before Disney gets one of its current teen idols to cover this song? It's just as catchy as "Magic", another Pilot hit, which Selena Gomez covered last year. Don't know who Selena Gomez is? You ARE old ;-))

"Hold on Me"

Whatever made me type "David Cassidy" in Google's search engine box almost a year ago never prepared me for his hold on me since.

From his "Dreams Are Nuthin' More than Wishes" album, here's the haunting "Hold on Me", composed by Michael McDonald. Oh, honey...

"The Christmas Song"

David NOW. Wish he'd enunciated better but I quibble. He still has a smoooooth voice. And dang, that "you" at the end? Consider yourself warned.



Merry Christmas! I wish you all Happy Holidays with your loved ones.

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"...

Love the bells at the beginning of this Partridge Family version. LOVE the way David sings "feeling" (0:48). Who wouldn't try to stop under the mistletoe* with him?!




*For those unfamiliar with the tradition: a couple standing under hanging mistletoe must kiss. For those interested in the history of the tradition, some info here.