1 of 1

Write now Article Tools

The Partridge Family released only ten albums - but one of them was a fun collection of Christmas songs. Like nearly every Partridge Family album, "Christmas Card," had exactly eleven songs, but this one was different. Ultimately the producers were faced with an interesting problem. How exactly would they modernize traditional Christmas tunes to match the sound of a 1970s band?

Sometimes the producers would inject an original (an entirely different) melody before the vocals came in with the familiar Christmas tune. "Jingle Bells" begins with a hip, easy back-up vocal over a modern bass line - "Hey jingle bell, jangle-jingle ringing away" - while "Winter Wonderland" opens with a laid back chorus of light "doo-doo-doos." The song "White Christmas" opens with an acoustic guitar gently strumming through a shifting arpeggio, eventually coming to resemble "Everybody's Talking (at Me)" and suggesting the falling of snow. Instead of singing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," the song opens with an entirely different melody ("Merry Merry Christmas to you and your family.") It's as though the song's original melody is just a verse leading to the new song's chorus. And even for a relatively modern tune, there's a slow electric guitar/bass duet before Cassidy's vocals come in for "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

The album opens with an original Christmas song written just for the Partridge Family. "My Christmas Card To You" begins with a traditional sound - harpsichord, flute, oboe, and muted trumpets, until David Cassidy's voice joins the mix. The first lyrics suggest the inscription on a Christmas card ("To you and all your family, your neighbors and your friends..."), wishing happiness, joy, peace, and love, before switching to a first-person account of Cassidy strumming his guitar while watching falling snow, and feeling cheery enough to deliver his card as a song. Continuing the gimmick, the original album even came with a red envelope which actually contained a Christmas card with the signatures of everyone in the TV family.

When the album was re-issued on CD in 1993, the Christmas card premise was eliminated. The original cover's pattern - green with white dots - appears only across the top, and the CD now sports a photo of the entire family. (David Cassidy intently decorates the tree while Shirley Jones smiles at the camera.) Young "Chris" from the show also looks over eagerly as "Tracy" examines a present in her lap, and "Danny" (Bonaduce) has his mouth open, presumably making a smart allecky remark to his on-looking sister, Laurie. It's surprisingly important to establishing the "family" feel of the album - since the only members of the TV family who appear on the album are David Cassidy and Shirley Jones.

Fortunately, Cassidy is a genuinely good singer. His delivery of "Winter Wonderland" is slow and even a little intense, and he turns in a remarkable version of "Frosty the Snowman." (It's the slowest song of all, opening with a complicated orchestral arrangement including guitar, xylophone, oboe, and flute.) Cassidy gives it a sad, laid back vocal, distracting from the fact that the song tells a stilly story about a snowman who ignores a traffic cop. Ultimately the 21-year-old singer delivered just what this album promised - Christmas carols sung in the breezy modern style of the Partridge Family.

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Album reviews: Christmas Card, by The Partridge Family?
We want to hear your view. Write now!