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It's easy to dismiss the Partridge Family - a band which never really existed, except as characters on a TV show. But albums were released with real musicians backing stars David Cassidy and Shirley Jones, using the best studio musicians that money could buy, and backed by the best song-writing talent. Their third album, "Sound Magazine," reveals the band's surprising secret: their music was surprisingly good. Audiences were slightly more sophisticated by the 1970s, and ultimately the songs tried to answer the question: what would it take to impress America's teenagers?

The album opens with "One Night Stand," which sets the tone of loneliness for a series of strangely personal songs that follow. The song, co-authored by Paul Anka, uses serious lyrics to describe the isolated life of a professional musician, and it's followed by "Brown Eyes," a longing love song which now takes on an added meaning. "Echo Valley 2-6809" describes trying to track down a lost love from earlier days. (It was written by Rupert Holmes, who eight years later would write "Escape - the Pina Colada Song"). And "Rainmaker" describes being left behind by a woman "who has to be free," using another fast tune in a minor key with smart, almost abstract lyrics. After these sad songs, the album seems to have earned the happy moment in the final song on side one - "On My Way Back Home."

David Cassidy had real singing ability, more than most teen idols in the 1970s. He belts out the emotional lyrics, giving them an intensely-controlled vibrato at key moments, and he didn't rely on studio "sweetening" of his vocals. Even when required to deliver the token romantic numbers, he approaches them with a cool, almost jaded detachment. Cassidy was an intelligent performer, trying to deliver the meaning behind the lyrics, and he exercises some actual showmanship that the music complements. Producer Wes Farrell provided him a good set of selections to work with, mixing some rambunctiously rocking tunes with some slower songs that were more sentimental.

Farrell also assembled a top notch sound for the backing band. Partridge Family arrangements were always heavy on the bass and keyboards, giving them an "open" sound, like a family of musicians jamming. Trumpets and violins would creep in when necessary, but Farrell tries to keep them unobtrusive. Ironically, the album's hit single - "I Woke Up in Love This Morning" - is one of its least sophisticated, both musically and lyrically, but other songs offer more thoughtful productions. The album's final track opens with nothing but a genuinely funky bass, leading into the fatalistically descending chords for a song that describes "movin' from town to town" in a song called "Love Is All That I Ever Needed."

Its melody suggests that this isn't a love song as much as a plea of desperation. ("How did it feel, well it felt so unreal, to not know where you're gonna be or what you'll see...") It's a good example of what makes "Sound Magazine" an interesting listen. Instead of offering just love songs for teenagers, the producers found something a little more thoughtful.

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
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