An Interview with 

TB: I think we just heard they weren’t going to renew the show.

GH: Were you in the middle of a new album when you got the notice?

TB: No.

GH: So there isn’t a 9th “phantom” album out there, half done and gathering dust in some vault?

TB: No, not to my knowledge at all - and I think I would have remembered that.

GH: There were always songs that were recorded in each season that never made it to an album?

TB: That’s right.

GH: David had given notice in the third season that he wouldn’t be back after his contract was up in the fourth, so there was some advance notice that the show might not continue beyond that. How did you prepare for that?

TB: What happened at that time is that Wes and my brother had forged such a wonderful friendship and also a great working relationship, that Wes started his own label, Chelsea Records. John had an office there, worked all the time and was very successful with Wes. When the Partridge Family was gone, John and Wes were even busier. I love what I did, I loved the money I was making, and I loved the friendships. We were working with some of the greatest musicians, some of the greatest singers!

GH: These musicians are called the Wrecking Crew?

TB: Yeah! The Wrecking Crew played on every Mammas and the Pappas record, every Jan and Dean record. It was always Hal Blaine on drums and Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Joe Osborne on bass, Hal Casey played guitar – that was the Wrecking Crew I remember. They were just awesome. The Carpenters wouldn’t even record without Joe Osborne. Larry Knechtel is one of the best pianists I’ve ever met in my life. He’s also a great bass player. 

GH: Didn’t Mike Melvoin play keyboard for The Partridge Family?

TB: Yeah, but a lot of times there was more than one keyboard. Mike was kind of like the director.

GH: Did they all record at the same time or did they record separately, on different tracks?

TB: They might be on separate tracks but the were always there together. The rhythm section has to be together.

GH: How do you keep them on separate tracks if they played together? Wasn’t there an awful lot of spill from the instruments into the other mikes?

TB: You do get some spillover but if you have enough close miking control, then you can still bring up this or that. They also had what they call Gobos, which are like cubicles in an office. They weren’t that high though, they came up to your chest. That would help divert the sound.

GH: Who picked the songs for the albums? Were the songs picked from a pool or did Wes commission songs specifically for the Partridge Family?

TB: I think he did both. I think he was always looking for songs. He was even interested in having me write for the Partridge Family. “Julie” was such a big hit, he said, “Man, you’re a natural for this!” And I wrote I can’t tell you how many songs!  I don’t even know where they are but none of them ever got accepted and it was embarrassing because he liked me and my writing, but I just didn’t come up with the right thing. Songwriting is a volume business and you’ve got to be able to turn them out and still have that passion in them. I could only write about things that I felt strongly about.

GH: What other songs have you written?

TB: As I mentioned earlier, I wrote “She’s Out Of My Life”, which Michael Jackson sang. I wrote something for Cher called "Living in a House Divided". It sounds like it’s about a man and a wife but it’s actually about me and a buddy of mine who got divorced and came to live with me. He and I got along fine. Then he found a girlfriend and the three of us got along fine. But then I found a girlfriend and once you have two women in the same house, forget it! They were at each other’s throats! So I wrote the song, and it was really about the two women! 

GH: The Partridge Family had some real impressive songwriters.

TB: I loved Tony Romeo’s songs. Bobby Hart was a great writer. Danny Janssen. Wes was an excellent writer.

GH: Isn’t that a conflict of interest? Being both the producer who picks the songs and the writer who is writing them?

TB: Not if you're a smart producer – and Wes was very smart. Wes wasn’t necessarily a writer per se. He was a song "contributor", therefore he was technically considered a writer. He contributed great things to the songs.

GH: Was David considered a "writer" or "contributor"?

TB: I don’t know, but David is a genuine talent, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the writer. Even back then when he was so young. He’s a big talent and a lovely man.

GH: You recently returned to the recording studio with David and the other singers to record new versions of Partridge Family songs for his NBC TV-Movie. How did that come about? 

TB: Well, licensing the originals would have been way too expensive.

GH: It was cheaper to re-assemble all the original musicians and singers and go back to Western 2 and re-record than it would have been to license the originals?

TB: That’s right.

GH: Were you all there?

TB: No, Ron Hicklin was out of the country. He was vacationing in Spain.

GH: Who took his place?

TB: Randy Crenshaw took Ron’s place. So it was myself, John, Jackie and Randy Crenshaw, but almost 30 years later. John used to sing up with Jackie, Ron sang tenor, and I sang teen-age bass. We put Randy on my old part, John sang tenor, and I went up and sang with Jackie. 

GH: Did you record all the songs in that one session?

TB: I think we came back the next day and did a little bit of cleanup. What happens is, by the end of the day, you have hit a pace that wasn’t there in the beginning, so you may go back and re-do some stuff that you did in the beginning. I think that’s what we did.

GH: Did David record his stuff the same day as well?

TB: Yes. David came in and sang like he used to. He sang rough vocals for the track, then we sang to that. In some cases we would say, “Hey, David, this isn’t how we phrased it before. Do you want us to go with your phrasing or do you want to go with ours?” There was a lot of interplay there. Sometimes we went with his phrasing, and sometimes he went with us. 

GH: Was it a fun day?

TB: Oh, it was a ball! It was fabulous! Old friends got together – it was great!

GH: Are there any plans to release it on CD?

TB: I don’t think so. It was paid as a TV movie, and if there was a CD in the works we would have been told about that. I don’t think David has a recording deal for it. Normally record companies aren’t interested in a “one-off”. They’re interested in artists that they can build a catalog with.
 

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

In Part 2, Tom takes us from The Partridge Family years to the present, working with such acts as Billy Joel, Quincy Jones and "We Are The World" among many others.

www.cmongethappy.com would like to give their heartfelt thanks to the following passengers for their contributions to this interview: Thomas-Kevin Bahler, Ramon Aninag, Scott Jeralds, Scottie Gee Gerardi, Beth Squires.

While we refuel the bus (and try to get rid of that skunk odor), stay tuned for our continuing series of interviews with cast and crew members, as we celebrate 30 Happy years with The Partridge Family! Up next: Jackie Ward!!

©2000 Scott Awley for www.cmongethappy.com and respective copyright holders (photos). All rights reserved. No portion of the text of this article may be produced in any form without the written permission of the author.  

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