Partridge Family

It's a qualified recommendation that begins with the phrase, "This isn't nearly as bad as you might think." But it's not - really! I would argue that The Partridge Family made some really great records - singles, at least, if not albums. Songs like "I Think I Love You," "I'll Meet You Halfway," and "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" sounded great on a transistor radio, and David Cassidy (aka Keith Partridge) was a powerful singer - and pretty easy in the eyes. If this fictional family also produced a lot of forgettable fluff, well, I was smack dab in the middle of the target demographic for their popular TV show (I was a pre-teen during its four-year run). So, gimme a break!

All the same, A Partridge Family Christmas Card (Bell, 1971) consists of solid, well-sung pop music throughout, if little else. Compared to many Christmas records - which tend to be worse than an artist's normal output - this one acquits itself nicely, applying the group's trademark harmonies and tasteful bubblegum sheen to ten standards and one original, Tony Romeo's "My Christmas Card To You."

The Partridges even rock a bit (check out "Jingle Bells"), while other songs ("White Christmas") have a folksy feel (sort of). The album only really drags when Shirley Jones (Cassidy's real-life stepmother, and Keith's TV mom) takes the spotlight - something she was never allowed to do on the group's regular records. Her near-operatic soprano be well suited to songs like "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," but it makes her tracks sound badly out of context - easy listening in a pop rock world.

On the other hand, some of the heaviest hitters in Hollywood back up Cassidy and company - I mean, they didn't let Danny Bonaduce and Susan Dey actually play on the records! The supporting cast ireads like a Wrecking Crew who's who including guitarist Tommy Tedesco, drummer Hal Blaine, keyboardist Larry Knechtel, and bass player Joe Osborne, as well as songwriting teams as distinguished as Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, Terry Cashman and Tommy West, and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

In the end, Christmas Card is just a good Partridge Family record - meaning that they didn't "phone it in" and it stands up well next to the rest of their catalog. If you like the group, you'll like the record. If you think Cassidy, Jones, and crew were musical wimps, well, at least they were wimps with quality control.

Christmas Card came at the close on 1971, the Partridge Family's biggest year on the charts (and their highest ranking season as a TV show). That year, they had already released two Top 10 albums and charted four hit singles, including two that breached the Top 10. Unsurprisingly, Christmas Card was also a success, hitting #1 on Billboard's Christmas Albums chart. Interestingly, however, Bell Records opted to not release a single from the album - at least in the United States. In some markets, "White Christmas" was pulled as a single, but it doesn't seem to have created much of a stir.

Finally, it's worth noting that 45 years later, David Cassidy recorded a little digital EP called simply Christmas (2016). My mother taught me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all - so I'll leave it that.

Consumer Notes

Big Partridge Family fans will want to chase down an original LP copy of Christmas Card (try eBay). The early pressings of the album had an actual, detachable Christmas card affixed to the cover. That's why many images of the album are just plain green - the card's been lost. Later LP pressings had a picture of the Christmas card with its envelope, and my copy, at least, also came with the card itself tucked inside the LP jacket. Most reissues in the digital era use the picture from the Christmas card as part of the cover art.