Bulletin Board (album)

Last updated
Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board - The Partridge Family.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 1973
Genre Rock, pop
Length30:42
Label Bell
Producer Wes Farrell
The Partridge Family chronology
Crossword Puzzle
(1973)
Bulletin Board
(1973)
The World of the Partridge Family
(1974)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Bulletin Board is the eighth and final studio album by The Partridge Family, released by Bell Records (catalog number 1137) [2] in October 1973. The album was recorded between July and September 1973. [3] Bulletin Board was the first Partridge Family album to fail to chart on Billboard's Top LP's chart. [4] "Looking for a Good Time" b/w "Money Money" was released as a single in November 1973 (catalog number Bell 45-414), but failed to chart. This was the last regular U.S. Partridge Family single. [5]

Contents

The album cover featured a handwritten track listing pinned to a bulletin board, as well as a "family" photograph and a memo detailing the show's new Saturday night time slot. According to the liner notes for the CD release, the album cover was created within only a few hours due to time constraints. While Wes Farrell is credited as producer on the album, in fact it was produced and arranged by John Bahler (also spelled as Bähler), a member of late-1960 pop group the Love Generation and, later, the Ron Hicklin Singers, several members of whom provided backing vocals on all of the Partridge Family albums. Bulletin Board is the only Partridge Family album recorded in a studio different from the preceding albums (which had all been recorded at Western Recorders, Studio 2 in Los Angeles). [6]

Reviewer Dave Thompson of AllMusic gave the album a rating of 3½ stars out of 5, claiming it was more representative of David Cassidy's solo material than the typical Partridge Family album: "the performances all lean a lot closer towards the Cassidy solo ideal – soft ballads, tight rockers – than the all-for-one harmonies and joy that characterized the Partridges' earlier releases." [7] Howard Pattow, a member of the Partridge Family tribute band Sound Magazine, states that "the music here is groovy and funky, a definite reflection of pop music's embrace of disco ... overall, the music on Bulletin Board is quite different from previous Partridge Family efforts ... [and] features musicians that had previously not appeared on a Partridge record." [3]

In September 2008 Collectors' Choice Music reissued the album on CD. Initially the disc was available exclusively through the company's website. The disc contains two bonus tracks: both sides of the Bones Howe-produced Shirley Jones single "Ain't Love Easy"/"Roses in the Snow", originally released in October 1972. [8]

Track listing

All tracks from the original album, except "Where Do We Go From Here", were featured in the fourth and final season of the TV show

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Money Money"
2:31
2."Roller Coaster" Mark James 2:22
3."Lookin' for a Good Time"
  • Wes Farrell
  • Danny Janssen
  • Bobby Hart
2:12
4."Oh No Not My Baby"2:38
5."I Wouldn't Put Nothin' over on You"
  • Wes Farrell
  • Danny Janssen
  • Bobby Hart
2:51
6."Where Do We Go From Here?"Mark James2:36
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."How Long Is Too Long"3:41
2."I'll Never Get over You" Tony Romeo 2:59
3."Alone Too Long"
3:10
4."I Heard You Singing Your Song" Barry Mann 2:38
5."That's The Way It Is with You" Harriet Schock 3:04
Total length:30:42
CD bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Ain't Love Easy" (solo track by Shirley Jones)Carol Hall3:13
2."Roses in the Snow" (solo track by Shirley Jones)Randy McNeill2:57
Total length:36:52

Personnel

Produced by Wes Farrell for Coral Rock Productions, Inc.

Bonus tracks produced by Bones Howe.

Recording dates

July 25, 1973:

July 26, 1973:

September 4, 1973:

September 5, 1973:

Notes

  1. Thompson, Dave. Review at AllMusic. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  2. Bulletin Board Archived February 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at David Cassidy Downunder fansite.
  3. 1 2 3 Bulletin Board review by Howard Pattow from C'mon Get Happy, The Unofficial Website of The Partridge Family.
  4. Billboard.com
  5. Singles Archived September 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at David Cassidy Downunder fansite.
  6. Partridge Family Release Dates
  7. Allmusic
  8. Amazon.com Editorial Review
  9. The Partridge Family Recording Sessions

Related Research Articles

<i>The Partridge Family</i> American musical sitcom

The Partridge Family is an American musical sitcom created by Bernard Slade, which was broadcast in the United States from September 25, 1970, to August 24, 1974, on ABC.

<i>The Partridge Family Album</i> 1970 studio album by The Partridge Family

The Partridge Family Album is the first of eight studio albums by The Partridge Family. The LP was released in October 1970, a month after the debut of the ABC-TV musical sitcom The Partridge Family starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy, both of whom feature on the album, as do studio backing vocalists and session musicians. The success of the album – which in early January 1971 reached no. 4 on Billboard's Top LP's chart – was bolstered not only by the hit TV show but by the album's one single release, the massive hit "I Think I Love You", which for three weeks in November and December 1970 topped Billboard's Hot 100 and which NARM declared best-selling single of 1970.

<i>Up to Date</i> 1971 studio album by The Partridge Family

Up to Date is the second studio album by The Partridge Family. Released in February 1971, just four months after the group's debut LP, the album entered Billboard's Top LP's chart in early April, having been certified gold on 25 March 1971. In its fourth week on the Top 200, the album improved on its predecessor, reaching no. 3.

<i>Sound Magazine</i> 1971 studio album by The Partridge Family

The Partridge Family Sound Magazine is the third studio album by TV-linked pop project The Partridge Family. Released in August 1971 before the start of the second season of the US TV series, it was their third hit album in ten months. In late September 1971, in its fifth week on Billboard's Top LP's chart, the album reached its no. 9 chart peak. In that same week the album's one hit single release, "I Woke Up In Love This Morning", peaked at no. 13 on Billboard's Hot 100. The LP was certified gold that same month. Sound Magazine is nearly universally regarded – by both fans and critics – as the Partridge Family's consummate pop album.

<i>Shopping Bag</i> 1972 studio album by The Partridge Family

Shopping Bag is the fifth studio album by TV-linked pop project The Partridge Family. Released in March 1972, just as the second season of the TV series was finishing in North America, the album entered Billboard's Top LP's chart in late March, peaking at no. 18 in late April. The album remained in the Top 200 for 17 weeks and was certified gold. The vinyl release of the album contained a novelty plastic shopping bag.

<i>Crossword Puzzle</i> 1973 studio album by The Partridge Family

Crossword Puzzle is the seventh and penultimate studio album by The Partridge Family. Released in June 1973, it was the last Partridge Family album to chart in the US, entering Billboard's Top LP's chart in July and peaking at no. 167 in its second of just five weeks in the Top 200. Bell Records, losing faith in the group after oversaturating the market with product, chose not to release a US single from the album, though "Sunshine" was released as a single in Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Jones</span> American actress and singer

Shirley Mae Jones is an American actress and singer. In her six decades in show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of musical films, such as Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), and The Music Man (1962). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry (1960). She played the lead role of Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children, in the musical situation-comedy television series The Partridge Family (1970–1974), which co-starred her real-life stepson, David Cassidy, son of Jack Cassidy.

<i>At Home with Their Greatest Hits</i> 1972 greatest hits album by The Partridge Family

At Home with Their Greatest Hits is a greatest hits album by The Partridge Family. Released in September 1972, it peaked at no. 21 on Billboard's Top LP's chart in early November 1972, and remained in the Top 200 for 23 weeks. The compilation features all six previously charted hits and four LP tracks from the previous albums, plus the album debut of the group's newest single. Released in June 1972, The Partridges' cover of Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" became their seventh charted hit.

<i>The Partridge Family Notebook</i> 1972 studio album by The Partridge Family

The Partridge Family Notebook is the sixth studio album by The Partridge Family. Released in November 1972, the album entered Billboard's Top LP's chart in December, peaking at no. 41 in January 1973 – the same week in which its lead single, a cover of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "Looking Through the Eyes of Love", peaked at 39 on Billboard's Hot 100. The album remained in the Top 200 for 16 weeks, and was the first by the Partridge Family not to reach the Top 40.

<i>A Partridge Family Christmas Card</i> 1971 studio album by The Partridge Family

A Partridge Family Christmas Card is a Christmas album by the Partridge Family, released in November 1971. The album's case contains a reproduction of a Christmas card signed by the whole Partridge Family, the stars of a 1970s sitcom. The song "My Christmas Card to You" was original, but the remainder of the tracks were standards. Like most of the Partridge Family songs, the lead vocals are sung by David Cassidy, who played Keith Partridge in the show. The album also features one of the few Partridge Family recordings featuring Shirley Jones as the lead singer.

<i>Cherish</i> (David Cassidy album) 1972 studio album by David Cassidy

Cherish is the debut solo album by American singer David Cassidy, produced by Wes Farrell and released by Bell Records in early 1972.

<i>Rock Me Baby</i> (album) 1972 studio album by David Cassidy

Rock Me Baby is the second solo album release from David Cassidy. It was produced by Wes Farrell for Bell Records, and released in 1972. The album introduced some rock, soul and R&B flavors in a calculated move by Cassidy to expand beyond his teen idol image. AllMusic's Al Campbell wrote that the blue-eyed soul album was officially produced by Farrell, but the song selections and styles showed that Cassidy was also making decisions.

<i>Come On Get Happy!: The Very Best of The Partridge Family</i> 2005 compilation album by The Partridge Family

Come On, Get Happy! The Very Best of The Partridge Family is a greatest hits compilation album from The Partridge Family released on May 3, 2005, in conjunction with the first season DVD collection. It contained some previously unreleased songs. During the course of the television series there were a number of recordings that were used on the program but never released on album or tape in stereo. Some were alternate mixes of released songs. These are known to fans as the "Lost Songs", four of which appear on this collection. They are noted as "new release" in the track listing below. Two of the songs appeared in the pilot episode of the show, tracks 9 and 12, listed below as having Ron Hicklin doing the vocals. Originally, the only cast member who was supposed to sing was Shirley Jones. After the producers heard David Cassidy's demos of the songs, however, they decided to let him sing after the first couple of episodes.

Jackie Ward, better known as Robin Ward, is an American singer, regarded as a "one-hit wonder" of 1963 million-selling song "Wonderful Summer". However, using her real name she was highly accomplished and successful singing in groups. Ward's voice is heard in U.S. television series, motion pictures, advertisements, and pop records. She is one of the real singers of the hits attributed to The Partridge Family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Think I Love You</span> Original song written and composed by Tony Romeo

"I Think I Love You" is a song by Tony Romeo, written as the debut single for fictional musical TV family the Partridge Family, released in August 1970, a month prior to the debut of the ABC-TV musical sitcom The Partridge Family starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy, both of whom appear on the record, with Cassidy as lead vocalist. The single topped Billboard's Hot 100 for three weeks in November and December 1970 and later was certified by NARM as the best-selling single of 1970.

Wes Farrell was an American musician, songwriter and record producer, who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Ron Hicklin Singers were a group of Los Angeles studio singers contracted and organized by Ron Hicklin. They are mostly known as the real singers behind the background vocals on The Partridge Family recordings.

The Love Generation was an American pop rock band from the 1960s. The band was together from 1967 to 1969.

Thomas Lee Bahler is an American singer, composer, songwriter, arranger, producer and author. Bahler is most known for his song "She's Out of My Life", which was recorded by Michael Jackson; the song was originally written for Frank Sinatra, who never recorded it. He is the younger brother of the singer, arranger, conductor and composer John Bahler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Partridge Family discography</span>

This article presents the discography of all albums and singles released by the American pop-rock group The Partridge Family. It includes eight studio albums including one holiday release, plus five compilations and 11 singles.