Okay, the singing and instrument playing was as fake as it gets on the TV show, but who could actually sing well and/or play an instrument well in real life?

David Cassidy could sing and so could Shirley Jones. David and Shirley's vocals were used but Shirley's were used very little. It was mainly David's vocals, some guitar of his and very talented studio musicians.

I believe what you're saying about David and Shirley's performance,but the other Partride kids could do better.Susan's keyboard playing seems real.So does Suzanne's tambourine playing.Danny's bass playing could stand for improvement. Brian's drumming is great,but i'm not so sure about Jeremy's though.

I believe what you're saying about David and Shirley's performance,but the other Partridge kids could do better.Susan's keyboard playing seems real.So does Suzanne's tambourine playing.Danny's bass playing could stand for improvement. Brian's drumming is great,but i'm not so sure about Jeremy's though.

Interesting comments, David Cassidy performed concerts during the 70s, so there is little question of his musical and vocal talents. Shirley Jones won a tony award for broadway, so there is no question on whether she could sing. But the rest of the characters, they were simply actors.

I play the piano and keyboard, and I can tell you that Susan Dey's playing is definitely not real. Also, there was something in the "C'mon Get Happy" book which described how Jeremy and Brian were taught to imitate a real drummer who played next to them, but was off-camera.

David, Shirley, and Brian (drummer) were the only real musicians as far as I know.

David was a good guitarist. But you only hear him jam once in the first episode. It's when they are practicing in the garage.

I never realised that was actually Brian playing the drums.

It's quite funny watching them playing the instruments in the early episodes becuase apart from Shirley and David they all looked completely clueless.

I don't know whether David played guitar on any PF recordings, or if Brian played drums on any. But they both could play well enough to fake it really well.

I agree that Danny did look like a good bass player, even though he couldn't play. But he said that when he started he used to strum the bass, which was wrong. They taught him to pluck it.

Danny also used a funky looking spiral guitar cable, like on a telephone. No professional musician would use a cable like that.

I seen Danny Bonaduce on a rare documentry clip, in which where he was singing and playing his guitar and performed "Blue Suede Shoes" with two other guys in the background. He really sounded like Chuck Berry when he was doing his act on "The Sun Records Story" which was aired on PBS.

Danny? Don't you mean DAVID.

David could sing and play guitar, though I've heard he could even play drums fairly well. Yet he's never credited in the albums on guitar, only vocals. Shirley recorded backup vocals, but the producers say her tracks were ramped up for the tv show versions of the song, and downplayed in the record versions. Danny obviously couldn't play a bass guitar, and judging from the only record he released, couldn't sing, either. Whether Susan could play a keyboard at all is a question of debate, but studio musician Mike Melvoin did so in the recording sessions. Studio musician Hal Blaine did all the drumming for both Jeremy and Brian. As for Suzanne's tamborine/triangle playing abilities....well, I guess sometimes she happened to be hitting them in sync with the music, and sometimes not....
Interesting that in the final number of "The Red Woodloe Story", since Red (William Shallert) is on guitar, David picks up the tambourine, and shows how a tambourine is supposed to be played. Poor little Tracy....

Hold on a sec. I remember looking through a book once of the worst celebrity albums, and Danny was in there. His LP came out around the time he was doing TPF, '73 I think. He sang on it. I'm curious about just how bad it actually was. Does anybody have the album?

Hold on a sec. I remember looking through a book once of the worst celebrity albums, and Danny was in there. His LP came out around the time he was doing TPF, '73 I think. He sang on it. I'm curious about just how bad it actually was. Does anybody have the album?

After the album came out in (I believe) 1973 our local DJ played several of the songs as a joke, just to show how bad a singer Danny was! (And to show how desperate Columbia Pictures Industries, owner of Screen Gems and Bell Records, was becoming in trying to keep the franchise going). I've seen it available from time to time on Ebay under the "Partridge Family" category; usually without any bids! So if you really wanted it, I bet if you kept checking Ebay you'd find it sooner or later, and be able to pick it up for a minimum bid ($5 or less!)

i'm surprised that Shirley only did a few BG vocals, after all, she'd been acting in movie musicals since the 1940s :eek:

What I never understood was why didn't they just get kids that could sing and play instruments in REAL life?? What ...were there were no talented kids around to hire?????:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

What I never understood was why didn't they just get kids that could sing and play instruments in REAL life?? What ...were there were no talented kids around to hire?????:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Well, the VON TRAPPE kids were all too busy ;)

Wonder why they didn't just use the Cowsills in the show?

Actually, the show was BASED on the Cowsills....but, maybe they couldnt ACT :confused:

Actually, the show was BASED on the Cowsills....but, maybe they couldnt ACT :confused:


I saw a documentry a few years ago, or maybe it was one of those "where are they now" shows on VH1, where they interviewed members of the Cowsills. It was SO sad but interesting. They said that the show was supposed to have been about the Cowsills but when the producers told the family that they wanted Shirley Jones to play the mom and NOT Barbara Cowsill, the family turned it down. (KUDOS to the kids for sticking up for their mom!) The writers even spent a few weeks living with the Cowsills and they had some of the scripts ready, but of course it got scrapped as you know the rest is history. It could have skyrocketed the Cowsills even further, but they wanted their mom to be included.
The sad part is that Barbara Cowsill never wanted to be in the group, she was a very shy woman according to her sons. Her husband made her sing with the kids.

Well, the VON TRAPPE kids were all too busy ;)
Or The Generation Gap?! (Wrestling tape traders will get that one) :happyface

Anyway, on The Partridge Family Christmas Album, "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts roasting...) was sung only by Shirley Jones! I never would've thought she sang solo until I heard that one.

David, Shirley, and Brian (drummer) were the only real musicians as far as I know.

David was a good guitarist. But you only hear him jam once in the first episode. It's when they are practicing in the garage.


Um..David could sing and play guitar and from what it says in his book "Could It Be Forever?" He used to play drums constantly when he was a young boy.
Shirley Jones could sing. I am not sure if she could play an instrument.

Brian was a rather obscure child actor in the greatest sense but it is a well known fact that he could not really play the drums and he never went on to even try.
As an adult he became a race car driver. I find that quite a transition.
He has an interesting background. His grandfather played "Alfred" the butler, it Batman, and Brian is the great great great grandson of Charles Dickens.
I don't know if Brian has children or siblings but it seems that some historian should keep track of any of the future generations of this family. It would be interesting if Brian's children, grandchildren or great nieces or nephews become actors or writers or race car drivers.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0286941/bio

David, Shirley, and Brian (drummer) were the only real musicians as far as I know.

David was a good guitarist. But you only hear him jam once in the first episode. It's when they are practicing in the garage.


Um..David could sing and play guitar and from what it says in his book "Could It Be Forever?" He used to play drums constantly when he was a young boy.
Shirley Jones could sing. I am not sure if she could play an instrument.

Brian was a rather obscure child actor in the greatest sense but it is a well known fact that he could not really play the drums and he never went on to even try.
As an adult he became a race car driver. I find that quite a transition.
He has an interesting background. His grandfather played "Alfred" the butler, it Batman, and Brian is the great great great grandson of Charles Dickens.
I don't know if Brian has children or siblings but it seems that some historian should keep track of any of the future generations of this family. It would be interesting if Brian's children, grandchildren or great nieces or nephews become actors or writers or race car drivers.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0286941/bio

David could sing and play guitar, though I've heard he could even play drums fairly well. Yet he's never credited in the albums on guitar, only vocals. Shirley recorded backup vocals, but the producers say her tracks were ramped up for the tv show versions of the song, and downplayed in the record versions. Danny obviously couldn't play a bass guitar, and judging from the only record he released, couldn't sing, either. Whether Susan could play a keyboard at all is a question of debate, but studio musician Mike Melvoin did so in the recording sessions. Studio musician Hal Blaine did all the drumming for both Jeremy and Brian. As for Suzanne's tamborine/triangle playing abilities....well, I guess sometimes she happened to be hitting them in sync with the music, and sometimes not....
Interesting that in the final number of "The Red Woodloe Story", since Red (William Shallert) is on guitar, David picks up the tambourine, and shows how a tambourine is supposed to be played. Poor little Tracy....


I think that Tracy was the most unfortunate character on the show and possibly in the history of TV characters.
She served no purpose. The family only put her to play the tambourine so as to humor her .
I guess if my family were a band of performers I would be just as useless.



By the way all of you out there, if you were one of the music making members of the Partridge Family which one do you think you would be and which one would you think you would want to be.

I think I would want to be the drummer . I would also like to be able to play keyboards.
(another BTW, did both Shirley and Lori both play organs or did one play organ and the other piano or did both play piano ?)

Wonder why they didn't just use the Cowsills in the show?

Perhaps that would have turned into a version of the Donny and Marie Show before The Donny and Marie Show ever existed.
There was only one female sibling in The Cowsills who consisted of mostly male singers and musicians (brothers).