Here are the lyrics to both theme songs of "The Partridge Family".

"WHEN WERE SINGING"
(music by Wes Farrell.Lyrics by Diane Hilderbrand)

Come on now and meet everybody
And hear us singing
There's nothing better than being together
When we're singing

Five of us and Mom working all day
We knew we could help her if our music would pay
Danny got Reuben to sell our song
And it really came together when Mom sang along.

Come on now and meet everybody
And hear us singing
There's nothing better than being together
When we're singing!
When we're singing!
When we're singing!


"COME ON,GET HAPPY"
(Music by Wes Farrell.Lyrics by Danny Janseen)

Hello,world,there's a song that we're singing
Come on,get happy!
A whole lot of loving is what we'll be bringing
We'll make you happy!

We got a dream we go traveling together
We spread a little loving,and we'll keep moving on
Something always happens whenever we're together
We get a happy feeling when we're singing a song

Traveling along there's a song that we're singing
Come on,get happy!
A whole lot of loving is what we'll be bringing
We'll make you happy!
We'll make you happy!
We'll make you happy!

Is there a reason why these two themes sound
EXACTLY alike?

I guess the first theme song was telling about how they got started. Then the 2nd theme song was telling about their journeys.

There is a reason they sound similar. Because the music for both songs was composed by Records producer Wes Farrell. The Original lyrics were by Diane Hilderbrand and the lyrics were updated by Danny Jansenn from the Second Season.
Unfortunately in syndication, the original song is replaced with
the well known and more familiar tune from the second Season.

Unfortunately in syndication, the original song is replaced with the well known and more familiar tune from the second Season.

They only started doing this in the late 80s. When the show originally went into syndication in the 1970s, the first theme song was preserved. And when the show was running on Fox Family a few years ago, they restored the original theme.

TV Guy, here in Australia, Columbia/TriStar Television supplied our cable operator with Brand New video prints for every one of the 96 episodes in 1995. They show them in heavy rotation, although they are being rested at present. Episodes 2-25 have "When We're Singing" replaced with "Come On Get Happy" dubbed over the top. I agree -- the original should be left in tact. When I re-recorded the episodes I dubbed the original theme back in from a CD I have of it. This way it appears normal looking and sounding again.

What's really funny, Geoff, is that the first-season opening credits are a few seconds shorter than the other seasons. So when they attach the second theme to the first-season credits, they have to speed up the song a bit so that it ends on time. Check this out the next time it airs to see if you notice.

I'm jealous of the new prints, though. I suppose they were unedited, too.

Well TV Guy I pulled out my master recordings just to check how I did them back in96. You are right the original theme is shorter, but somehow it doesn't appear to have been sped up. However, when I dubbed the CD recording of WWS over the top it is like 5 seconds longer, so I have to insert edit a few seconds of blank (like you get on a pre-recorded video). [As a sidebar -- the Pilot episode starts without the original driving towards Hollywood footage and "Together" as the theme, replaced with the standard Series One theme song!!]
The Brand New Prints were supplied heavily edited although they screen them without commercial breaks - just straight through.
At least 2-3and half minutes is unceremoniously chopped out but being the perfectionist I am, I had all my original free-to-air recordings from the early 80s, so I had all the missing footage, and I became quite a good editor, putting it all back in seamlessly.
Some would say why, but I would say why not? You don't start reading "Gone With The Wind" from page 235 do you? So why do they air episodes with about 85% of what originally aired. To add more commercials obviously, after all TV is a business, and those ads pay for the programming we see. At least we do NOT get split screen credits like I hear you statesiders do.
The editing is a practice they have also done with other Screen Gems series like ""Bewitched","I Dream Of Jeannie" and "Gidget" etc.
There modus operandi is to start the show with the theme song (thereby deleting what I call the prologue or set up scene, which usually can be 2-3mins. long) and then keep going. Sometimes, minimal editing is just a few lines of dialogue here and there or even entire songs are cut out! It took quite a while to get into the swing of it all but I now believe my collection to be at least 98% representative of how they were originally shown.;)

Since they weren't being aired with commercials, I wonder why they didn't show them unedited? Commercial time is always the reason why reruns are edited in syndication or on cable.

I know what you mean about the pre-credits sequences for the old Screen Gems shows. In the early 80s, "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" were cleaned up and new prints were distributed. These prints would either delete that opening sequence, or sometimes would air it after the credits. Later in the 80s, the prints were recut again, and the opening sequences were either restored or placed before the opening credits again.

I really do believe that there is a market for a cable station that airs old TV shows restored and uncut, giving them the same treatment that movies get on Turner Classic Movies, complete with a host who could give some interesting trivia on each show.

The reason the episodes are edited but screened without commercials is that on Pay TV in Australia (the series hasn't been on free to air TV since 1990) it is shown at various times like 7am,4:00pm etc. They broadcast the edited episode, and because it is screened in what is considered a traditonal childrens or family time, a 6 or 7 minute cartoon is run straight after to fill up the half hour. At least all of the shows start at the advertised time, unlike free to air which can be anything up to ten minutes behind the advertised time in Prime Time.

I heard that the Partridge Family really did not sing the songs, and that they were mostly just lip synching. I know that David Cassidy and Shirley Jones are both accomplished singers. I think they used studio singers to do most of the songs, however David Cassidy sang along with the Studio Singers, so that it is his real voice heard on the recorded songs. With the exception of Cassidy, they were not real musicians either.

David Cassidy has also said that while Shirley's vocal track was recorded for some of the songs, that track was rarely mixed into the final songs. The few times you can really hear Shirley singing backup vocals are generally on the songs recorded before David was used as lead singer (this was way at the beginning of the series, before the producers found out that David could actually sing).

Actually Shirley does Background vocals on most of the PF songs.
It's just that most of them were mixed so low you can't hardly hear them. I guess they didn't want her vocals to more present than DC (that would be a :nonono: