The Seven Original Partridge Family Albums

The Partridge Family was a hit family television show from the seventies, which featured songs sung by the "family" in each and every episode.  Other than David Cassidy and Shirley Jones, who played eldest son Keith Partridge and Mrs. Shirley Partridge on the show, musically speaking, the rest of the actual vocal performances were provided by professional studio musicians.

But when you have a TV show that features a heartthrob lead singer, naturally you can sell some albums to go along with it.  Each record album cover had some sort of concept, to go along with its title.

The first album was titled "The Partridge Family Album," and the cover was designed to look like a traditional brick-red family photo album cover.  This album featured their first and biggest hit, "I Think I Love You."

The second album was titled "Up To Date" and was based on a colorful teenager's calendar. It depicted rows of 7 squares, and they managed to place the pictures of each family cast member in a date box.  This album contained the singles "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted" and "I'll Meet You Halfway."

The third album was called "Sound Magazine" and the cover resembled a teen magazine cover, which made it easy to contain images of the family cast members.  This album had the hit single, "I Woke Up In Love This Morning."

The fourth album was kind of a combination cover and item concept.  It was called "Shopping Bag," and while the cover had a graphical design that might be found on a fashionable shopping bag of its time, the original vinyl albums did actually contain a plastic bag inside, with the same print.  The ballad "It's One Of Those Nights (Yes Love)" appeared on this album.

By the time the fifth album rolled around, the Partridge Family was losing popularity, both on television and in record sales.  This album was titled "The Partridge Family Notebook," and resembled a sheet of white lined paper used for school writing assignments.

The sixth album was given the name "Crossword Puzzle," and contained an actual simple crossword puzzle of Partridge Family information on the cover.  This album didn't yield any high charting singles.  But a couple of my favorite songs from the TV show, the feel good sounds of "Sunshine" and "Together We're Better," were both released on this album.

The seventh and final Partridge Family album, released on vinyl back in the day, was "Bulletin Board."  And the cover contained a depiction of a cork bulletin board.  This album was not so easy to obtain, even when it was first released!

Actually, there were two more vinyl albums as well.  Between "Shopping Bag" and "Notebook," a greatest hits compilation was released, called "At Home With Their Greatest Hits."  It had a photo of the cast members with a rendering of a house around the photo.  It contained selected songs from the previous first four albums (including the ones I mentioned) as well as the single, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do."

And they released an obligatory Christmas music album, "A Partridge Family Christmas Card,"between their third and fourth album.  The cover was a green background with a white snowy design, and it was slotted.  Inside the slot was a red envelope.  If you opened the envelope, it contained an actual Christmas card from the Partridge Family.  The album contained the group's version of 10 traditional well-known holiday songs, such as "Jingle Bells," "Frosty The Snowman," "White Christmas," and "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (a version of which was used for the one Christmas TV episode for all four seasons of the show).  The album also contained an original song called "My Christmas Card To You."

All seven (plus two) albums were originally released on the Bell Records label, which had a silver background with black graphical images and lettering.  All of them contained 11 songs, 6 on side A and 5 on side B.  All of the records were credited to producer Wes Farrell, who was also the music producer for the television show.  And all contained at least 30 minutes of pop music goodness.

Finally, vinylly-speaking, there was a compilation released in 1974 called "The World Of The Partridge Family."  It was released on Bell Records and it contained two records, each with five songs per side, for a total of 20 songs.  19 of the songs were released on the seven original albums, and it contained "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do".  

A note regarding CDs:  Each of the original seven albums have been released in recent years in the CD format, beginning on the Arista label and later under the Buddah label.  The Christmas album was originally released as a CD on the Razor and Tie label.  There are compilations that contain some of the original Partridge Family hits, and there are at least three complete compilation CDs of Partridge Family songs, which contain a few David Cassidy solo hits.  This is where you can get a CD version of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do," as "At Home With..." nor ""The World Of..." were never released in CD format.  So if you want to "c'mon, get happy" reliving those "have a nice" days, here is where to start.  Enjoy!