Chords for David Cassidy Story Behind the Music of The Partridge Family

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[D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [Gbm] _ _ [Bm] _ _ Screen Gems [E] specifically did not want to cast the show with musicians and singers.
The intent all along was to create a fake band and have all the actors lip sync.
[C] _ _ _
I remember somebody saying to me,
why doesn't the Partridge family play Las Vegas?
Why don't you go out on tour?
And I kept saying, you don't understand, there is no Partridge family.
You know, they were all studio singers [G] and musicians.
We were the sound of the Partridge family.
We were hired guns.
We were people, you [Bbm] knew you could get it [C] done well, on time, on budget.
And that means a lot.
Back then, if people sang for other people in any way,
they didn't want the public to know that.
Which is kind of silly, but that's the way they did it back then.
[Ab] Tom and John and Jackie were most successful, most talented [A] singers.
They taught me so much as [G] a young, [A]
impressionable musician.
We knew what the assignment was [Bm] going in,
because it's a family [Gb] show and families have a certain kind of blend and so [E] forth.
We just thought of ourselves as [Bm] the kids,
but since I was the only [E] girl in the group,
I had to sound like the young [E] girl.
[D] Jackie was the smallest child.
[Gbm] I was the next smallest.
Tom was Laurie.
It [E] would be more _ like Ron was Laurie and I was Danny,
[Bm] because I was singing the teenage bass.
Those are some of the best [Eb] musicians.
There was a bunch [D] of really feel-good music on the [C] Partridge family.
So I'm [G] on the road, [F] _ _ _ [C] _ _
traveling [G] free in D.C.
Traveling on, gotta [G] get on.
Oh, gotta [C] get on.
Gotta fill my [G] life in [C] living _
To tell [Em] everyone _ [C] I've gone [G] on the _ road
_ Screen Gems had that song, Let the Good Times In,
and we had done it with the Love [Ebm] Generation,
and that's [C] the kind of sound that they wanted, which [F] was us.
[Am] Nothing's so bad that it [F] can't be a-changing
[Gm] Start [F] rearranging [Gm] life on [C] a shelf
Life on a [Bbm] shelf
That [Eb] whole [Ab] genre of music grew [Bbm] out of the folk era.
[Eb] And then you had the [C] Beach Boys, it was harmonic [Dm] in structure.
The Mamas and Papas, it [Am] was more vocal-based
[B] because they used acoustic [G] instruments.
So that kind of played into our hands
[Am] because we were _ [Bb]
instrumentalists [C] and singers.
We [Ab] had to create the music [Eb] that this band ostensibly [Fm] created.
[Ab] We were impersonating a [Db] youth band, as it [Fm] were.
_ _ Shhh_
_ _ _ [Eb] _
And we did 2 or 3 songs for the pilot.
And [Db]
the next thing I knew is the pilot had gotten
[Eb] the highest rating since Mission Impossible.
And [Db] we're gonna fall
[Eb] And I'm not _ [Db] _ _
getting [Eb] it all
[G] _ Together _ _
_ [F] _ But that was really when Wes Terrell came in
to take over the production.
He had [D] had several hits in New York.
And he wrote Hang On Sloopy.
Wrote Hang On Sloopy.
And he came in and basically said,
_ Do you guys want hit records or not?
He was a very good pop writer,
and I learned a lot from Wes Terrell.
But I had to audition for him after the pilot sold. _ _
So I brought my guitar, _ and I played a Beatles song, I think.
And I evidently passed the audition
because they called me [C] the next day and said,
We're gonna start recording.
I remember the first time we heard him, we just went, [G]
yes.
[C] _ From that point on, it was David Fronting and the 4 of us.
And then we would crack ourselves to create that blendy sound.
Will there come a day
When you and I can say
We can finally [G] see each other
[F] _
[Em] _ _ [C] Because the sound of the Partridge to me [F] is led by David.
And he's [C] got such a distinctive sound.
[G] He had a great twinkle [F] in his voice.
I wasn't at all [C] surprised that he became the big [Dm] star. _ _
I'll meet [G] you halfway
_ [A] _ _
[C] _ That's better [F] than no way
_ _ [Dm] _ There must [G] be some way
To get [C] together _
I'd go in and do the vocal, _ [G] and what they would do
is they'd slow the track down a quarter [A] tone.
_ [Ab] I'd sing it in my voice, and then they'd bring it back to normal.
So [A] I sounded younger. _
[G] We can make it, girl, I know we [A] can
I know we can
I'll [Dm] be your _ umbrella [C] man
_ [Bb] _
Shower you with [A] all my [Dm] love
_ _ [C] Umbrella man
_ [Bb] _
Shelter you [Am] in my loving [C] arms
I was in all the recording [G] sessions, even though I didn't do most of the singing.
I was [Am] basically a background singer for [C] David most of the time.
I want to _ [G] look behind
_ _ _ [F] Shirley recorded after everything was done.
[C] _ _ _ _
We could [Am] mix her in so that when you saw her, you knew she was singing.
Secret _ world
Because for the television show, they had to [C] have her voice a little more in the [F] foreground.
But for the records, [C] they wanted to appeal to [G] the young kids that they were selling records [C] to,
so her voice was not really there.
[G] I [D] loved it, and I loved being associated with that kind of music at the time.
[Bb] Now and meet [Eb]
[Bb] everybody
_ And hear us singing
Ironically, the first song I ever recorded [Bb] _ was I Think I Love You.
Together _ _ when we're _ singing
_ _ [Eb] _ _
[Gm] Five of us [C] and Mom working [Eb] all day
It goes from nowhere [Bb] to number one in a week,
[G] and I get a [C] call from my record company saying,
[Eb]
Monster, _ [Bb] monster, monster.
As a matter of fact, it outsold the Beatles' Let It Be that year
and was the nation's number one selling single.
I don't think any of us had a clue that it would be the runaway success that it was.
For that matter, for the rest of the first album,
I don't think that we were involved in a phenomenon.
Come on now and meet everybody
[E] In the middle of an [Bb] episode, I walked over to the recording studio
to [Gm] do Come On, Get Happy, which was the theme for the Barges family.
They had already cut the track.
I listened to it once.
I read the lyric.
[Gm] I went in and sang it once.
_ Come on down and meet everybody
Come on, get happy
A whole lot of love in this world
That [Bb] was it.
Read it, sang it, was still in my makeup and the whole thing.
It was probably in the studio six minutes.
_ _ [C] The music was the key to the show, what [Bb] made it [F] different [C] from other shows.
[Bb] It was the [C] perfume of the show.
Somebody sent me the Partridge Family's greatest hits [G] or our Christmas album or something,
and I realized how good that music is, how enjoyable that music [G] is.
What we were [C] after was a sound and a style that was all their [Bb] own,
and I think we did that.
This might have been bubble gum, but it was [Ab]
very high-calorie, high-vitamin bubble gum.
It was [G] really a great marketing effort,
and they had a great [C] show, and it worked beautifully.
It [Bb] just was a mesh and a melding of all these elements [Ab] that really made a hit sound.
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