We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago….
It was the #1 Christmas album of the 1971 holiday season. It included one original song and a host of Christmas standards. It was “A Partridge Family Christmas Card”.
The Partridge Family was a tv sitcom that loosely told the story of the Cowsills…a real-life family singing group. The TV version starred Shirley Jones , David Cassidy, Susan Dey and Danny Bonaduce along with Suzanne Crough and a couple of different actors portraying the youngdrummer. Dave Madden played their manager. Only Cassidy and Jones sang on the records and none of the group actually played their instruments. That was The Wrecking Crew, the crack group of LA sudio hands including Hal Blaine, Max Bennett and (on this record) Dennis Budmir and Louie Shelton on guitars. The background vocals were from a quartet featuring brothers Tom & John Bahler, Ron Hicklin and Jackie Ward.
Here is the original tune on the record….
What makes this not your run of the mill Christmas album are the arrangements of Wes Farrell who worked on most of their hits as well. He took the classic songs we all know and did them differently. White Christmas is faster than you remember…Rockin Around The Christmas Tree slower. They do Santa Claus is Coming To Town as a mid-tempo tune and Frosty The Snowman as a slow, bluesy piano ballad.
Cassidy sings most but Jones gets her turn on The Christmas Song and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, a song that was featured on the TV show in 1971….
For those of a certain age, the Partridge Family was must viewing. To ogle David Cassidy if you were a girl…or Susan Dey if you were a guy…And its amazing how many stars and future stars had guest roles on the show.
So, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas…..the next musical blog will be on Monday!
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