The Partridge Family was an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who, in addition to their typical suburban family life, traveled around in a very colorful bus to different venues to perform songs. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until September 7, 1974 on the ABC television network, with many subsequent runs in syndication.
The show starred Shirley Jones as mother Shirley Partridge and David Cassidy as Keith Partridge. Susan Dey played Laurie, Danny Bonaduce played Danny, Jeremy Gelbwaks (later replaced by Brian Forster) played Chris and Suzanne Crough played Tracy Partridge. Dave Madden played Reuben Kincaid, who was their manager and booked all their tours. The story was loosely based around The Cowsills, who were a real singing family. The show was produced for ABC by Screen Gems television, which had also made The Monkees, another show about a fictional music group.
As it had with The Monkees, the production company capitalized on the success of the show by releasing a series of albums featuring the music of the "group". Even though the only singers were Shirley Jones and David Cassidy, and none of the television characters actually played their instruments, people did buy the albums and the Partridge Family became a phenomenon.
The Partridge Family's biggest recorded hit came in 1970 with the number one hit song "I Think I Love You" ( lyrics). The album which followed reached number four on the Billboard magazine album chart. The lead singer, actor David Cassidy, solidified his growing teen idol status with that recording. The second single, "I'll Meet You Halfway," also made the top ten. The follow-up single, "I Woke Up In Love This Morning", released in 1971, was a slower seller (eventually reaching the Top 20) but was still a very popular title.
