RIP David Cassidy

[jr/shotglass]

Not an RIP quite yet, but David Cassidy is on his deathbed.

David Cassidy 'critical but stable' in Fort Lauderdale-area hospital with multiple organ failure

Yes, it was pablum. But a 12-year-old me really liked the Partridge Family and Cassidy as a solo performer. He's had a pretty unhappy life. He hated the limelight of being a teen idol. He wanted to be looked upon as a serious artist instead. And he was deeply affected when a 14-year-old died during a gate crush at one of his concerts. As an adult, he has fought alcoholism and went through three marriages.

 

[CD Boogie]

Loved that show. My older sisters loved him and Shaun Cassidy. His parents both had dementia and he suffered from it as well. Yeah, beyond all the glitz, there was a lot of pain.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I keep seeing that David Cassidy is "surrounded by family" in his final days, and God help me, I'm picturing Susan Dey and Danny Bonaduce. Ruben Kincaid standing by the door.

 

[BTExpress]

With Danny trying to hawk the organs once he has passed.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Take the Partridge Family out of it. ... and "I Think I Love You" is not a bad pop song.

 

[BTExpress]

Neither is "I'll Meet You Halfway."

Heck, I'll take any Partridge song over what typically comes blasting out of some car window next to me a stoplight.

 

[jr/shotglass]

With the standards of that era, there were quite a few songs "performed" by the Partridge Family that were pretty good pop songs. Same as The Archies, same as the Monkees.

 

[lakefront]

Not an RIP quite yet, but David Cassidy is on his deathbed.

David Cassidy 'critical but stable' in Fort Lauderdale-area hospital with multiple organ failure

Yes, it was pablum. But a 12-year-old me really liked the Partridge Family and Cassidy as a solo performer. He's had a pretty unhappy life. He hated the limelight of being a teen idol. He wanted to be looked upon as a serious artist instead. And he was deeply affected when a 14-year-old died during a gate crush at one of his concerts. As an adult, he has fought alcoholism and went through three marriages.

Jack Cassidy was a terrible father to him, also.
I got their first album for Christmas. I knew what it was and every time my parents went out, I would unwrap it and look at it, then re-wrap. I remember when the show debuted, I was so psyched but that night we had a storm and power failure! Tons of magazine pics on my wall, along with Donny Osmond.
Great entertainment for its time.

 

[jr/shotglass]

By the way, David and his stepmother, Shirley Jones, were allowed to do the actual singing on their albums, a fight the Monkees lost and, of course, was never a consideration with the Archies.

They had a pretty heavyweight crew on background vocals.

 

[DanOregon]

Not true. Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz sang lead for the Monkees and they all contributed musically. But the Wrecking Crew did much of the heavy lifting. Met a guy who played guitar on "Sugar, Sugar" once. Good documentary on the Wrecking Crew out there if you are interested - they also handled the music for the Partridge Family. Backing vocals and leads on the first few episodes were done. by:The Ron Hicklin Singers - Wikipedia

Cassidy played the guitar, but not on the records.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Jones and Dolenz won the right to sing on later albums -- after the Monkees' peak. And Nesmith, who was a real SOB at times, led the fight for musical independence. But Boyce and Hart sang all the big hits. From Wikipedia:

• May 1966: Filming for the TV show starts, taking 12 hours a day for the cast of the Monkees. The public is informed in the beginning that the Monkees are "manufactured", as seen in this Washington Post report: "The series stars a fearsome foursome in the Monkees, a wholly manufactured singing group of attractive young men who come off as a combination of the Beatles, the Dead End Kids and the Marx Brothers. Critics will cry foul. Longhairs will demand, outraged, that they be removed from the air. But the kids will adore the Monkees [...] unlike other rock 'n' roll groups, the boys had never performed together before. Indeed, they'd never even met [...] they've been working to create their own sound." [23]

• June 1966: Although the producers want the Monkees to create their own music, they had not progressed enough by this point and still lacked the "upbeat, young, happy, driving, pulsating sound" that they desired.[23] Dolenz stated, "I'm sure that Rafelson and Schneider said in all honesty, 'Yeah, don't worry, when we start going you're gonna record your own tunes and it will be wonderful.' But the things get caught up in the inertia of the moment. NBC gets involved. RCA gets involved. Screen Gems gets involved. Millions and millions of dollars are on the line [...] people aren't as forthcoming. Mike's style was very distinct, country-western, Peter was very folk-rock, neither of which at the time would have been considered mainstream pop. Davy would have done all Broadway tunes [...] I ended up singing the leads [...] pop-rock was more my style." [106] However, they used selections of Nesmith's authorship and composition from the beginning.[107]

The Archies' main singer was Andy Kim, who had a couple of pretty major hits in his own right.

 

[Raiders]

Jones and Dolenz won the right to sing on later albums -- after the Monkees' peak. And Nesmith, who was a real SOB at times, led the fight for musical independence. But Boyce and Hart sang all the big hits. From Wikipedia:


The Archies' main singer was Andy Kim, who had a couple of pretty major hits in his own right.

Male vocals for the fictional Archies group were provided by The Cuff Links' lead singer Ron Dante and female duet vocals were provided by Toni Wine.

Andy Kim co-wrote "Sugar, Sugar."

 

[DanOregon]

The Monkees sang the theme song. They were too busy singing to put anybody down (or write and play on every song). I think what was linked was the plan to make them an "actual band" where they all sang and wrote and played their own stuff from the beginning. That didn't happen. But they did all participate musically from the beginning, augmented by songwriters and other musicians.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Male vocals for the fictional Archies group were provided by The Cuff Links' lead singer Ron Dante and female duet vocals were provided by Toni Wine.

Andy Kim co-wrote "Sugar, Sugar."

Thank you. You're right. Plus, Ron Dante looked more like Archie.

 

[jr/shotglass]

The Monkees sang the theme song. They were too busy singing to put anybody down (or write and play on every song). I think what was linked was the plan to make them an "actual band" where they all sang and wrote and played their own stuff from the beginning. That didn't happen. But they did all participate musically from the beginning, augmented by songwriters and other musicians.

So they were allowed to sing, just not to play their instruments. Good catch. That's not what my understanding had been. I had thought that not only they didn't sing, but that they sounded pretty awful once they finally were allowed to sing.

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

So they were allowed to sing, just not to play their instruments. Good catch. That's not what my understanding had been. I had thought that not only they didn't sing, but that they sounded pretty awful once they finally were allowed to sing.

You may be thinking of Mötley Crüe.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Threadjack:
-- A lot of people give the Monkees **** for not playing on their albums, but that was fairly common at the time. The Byrds (save McGuinn) didn't play on their first album, which is ironic because they famously mocked the Monkees with "Rock' n Roll Starr." The Beach Boys relied heavily on studio musicians by the mid -1960s.
-- Tork was a talented musician in his own right. He was also the one given the least to do on the early records.
-- The legend of Steven Stills being turned down for a spot because he was balding is mostly legend. According to him, he did go to an audition, but stood their playing his own songs and had no interest in actually being on the show.
-- That wasn't Mike's real hat.

 

[jr/shotglass]

We've mentioned David Cassidy wanted to be taken seriously as a musician ... it was an obsession with Nesmith. He couldn't stand being a pop idol.

 

[CD Boogie]

Never would have guessed that so many SJ posters would have that much knowledge to drop about the Monkees.

 

[DanOregon]

Nesmith wrote the Stone Ponys (feat. Linda Rondstadt) hit "Different Drum" prior to joining the Monkees.