Music Monday: Sometimes the Lyrics Just Come Rushing Back

family, happiness, humor, music 1 Minute

I don’t know what I was doing that would have triggered this, but out of nowhere the other day I started singing:

I was sleeping and right in the middle of a good dream
Like all at once I wake up from something that keeps knocking at my brain
Before I go insane I hold my pillow to my head
And spring up in my bed screaming out the words I dread

And if you’re of a certain age, you probably feel like shouting out the next line:

I think I love you

Here is some background info on the song, from Wikipedia:

“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.

That means I was almost 13 years old when the song was released and I started watching the TV series.

The series lasted for four years, and I’m sure I watched most of the episodes. It was good clean fun, and had some decent music mixed in with it – what’s not to like. It was twice nominated by the Golden Globes for Best Musical/Comedy show, in 1971 and 1972. One fun fact I learned while reading about the Partridge family was that their story was loosely based on the real-life musical family the Cowsills, a popular band in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Wikipedia)

It’s funny how easily lyrics from over 50 years ago can come back to us, but we often forget the name of someone we just met (at least I do.)

Here’s the song as performed on their TV show:

We need more shows today like the Partridge Family, the Monkees, and the Archies…

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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72 thoughts on “Music Monday: Sometimes the Lyrics Just Come Rushing Back”

  1. I knew the song from judt the picture. I would have been 7 when it was released. The show reruns on the weekend and I can’t flip past it fast enough… it’s SO bad!!

    As much as I loved David Cassidy, my younger sister loved Shawn.

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  5. Ooh yes, who could forget David Cassidy! LOL!
    It is amazing how song lyrics just pop into our heads at the strangest times. And like you said how well we can remember them, yet forget what we walked into the room for!

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  6. I would have guessed that it had a run longer than four years. Danny Bonaduce, who played Danny Partridge, was involved in “professional wrestling” and a few other productions along those lines. I read somewhere that he’s a DJ these days.

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    1. Danny has had an interesting life, to say the least, at least from what I can recall when I would hear his name in the news. Hopefully he has settled into something he enjoys doing…

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  9. loved that show and my friends forced me to go to David Cassidy concerts on his comeback tours when we were adults, always fun, but not the best musical experiences )

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  10. This may come as no surprise, but I thought everything about this show was rubbish! My tastes had obviously grown up a lot in the years since The Monkees began, or maybe their show and music were so much better than this!

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    1. The Monkees were a legitimate musical group, the Partridge Family were not. And I can fully understand someone not enjoying this show; I vaguely recall it getting worse each year, but I still continued to watch it (we didn’t have as many choices back then…)

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      1. A fair comparison. Both shows were broadcast here at Saturday tea time, though the Partridge Family didn’t last long. My little sister liked it so we had to have it on – the only saving grace for me was Susan Dey.

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      1. And yet we somehow always had something good to watch back then and often had to agonize over more than one good show. Now, we have hundreds of options and nothing good is ever on. Yet we pay a fortune for the “pleasure” of the programming. Someone needs to explain that.

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  14. I liked the show, but I think it was one of those shows that wasn’t cool to like. Had I admitted it to some of my high school friends they would have eyeballed me as some kind of weirdo.

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    2. Yes, I remember how uncool it was to like them, but I did anyway. I have a distinct memory of a friend of mine in junior high quietly saying, knowing full well how uncool it was, “Have you heard that new song by The Partridge Family “I Woke Up In Love This Morning”? That one actually really kinda rocks, you know?” I’ll never forget that, because it was true. It had a harder edge with a chorus driven by electric guitars, and I really liked it. So they skirted the edge of cool, if only for that one song!

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      4. Well, my friend told only me about his increased regard for the PF due to that song, and his coolness factor definitely rose in my esteem! We kept our little Partridge Family appreciation surge between ourselves, though. Safer that way. 🙂

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      6. And I must add that it made me feel better about my already-present enjoyment of their music at the time, which I mostly kept quiet about. Funny that “I’ll Meet You Halfway” was just so-so for me at the time, but as years past I began to appreciate that song more and more. Now it’s one of my favorites. That’s a very high quality song that dared to be its own thing without kowtowing to standard pop song formulas. It has its own coolness factor.

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      8. Oh, don’t miss “Halfway”! It was their 3rd hit and consecutive Top 10. The TV version chops it down to 2 minutes, so go for the full length version, which was played on the radio. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yPMCHt0rp_o

        If I may recommend one more, from the pen of Tony Romeo who wrote “I Think I Love You”, don’t miss “Summer Days”, with the full length version done on the show, so David’s fans can enjoy watching him put this gem over!

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      9. Just listened to both of those and they were quite good. But I don’t remember them at all. I did pick up this fun fact while watching Summer Days:

        David Cassidy was the world’s highest paid live entertainer, and his official fan club was the largest in pop history.

        I never knew he was that popular!

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  15. I loved The Partridge Family and the Monkees. While all the girls had this huge crush on David Cassidy, my crush was on his brother Shawn. The Monkees were in syndication by the time I was old enough to really watch tv, but I still grew up to all of them. Great childhood memories! As soon as the first few notes to this song comes on, the first words to come out of my mouth is… “I think I love you”. Great pick! 🙂

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  16. OMG Susan Dey! My first major teen celebrity crush.
    I loved the show. And the music. Interestingly, in my recent post about Tony Orlando and Dawn, I mentioned I was a fan of songwriters Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown, who wrote the great majority of Dawn’s hits. Turns out they also wrote for the Partridge Family. You might remember a delightful little song they did called, “Am I Losing You?” But even if you don’t remember that one, you’re sure to remember a little number called “I Woke Up In Love This Morning”, a Top 10 hit for the PF. Both of those songs were from the pens of Irwin Levine and L.Russell Brown. Amazing songwriting team!
    Tony Romeo also wrote other great songs for the Partridge Family and others, including a great hit by Lou Christie called, “I’m Gonna Make You Mine”. A great songwriter.

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  18. I can totally relate with you Jim! It happens to me a lot, sometimes not even full lyrics but only a specific tone haha 😀 searching it is extremely hard, often useless, until I get lucky and bump into them. Sigh, this was a lovely song. Thanks for sharing.

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  22. Jim, you hit another memorable home run with this music post. I can remember the show quite well. Mom Shirley Jones held the show together, and it helped to launch David Cassidy’s own recording career.

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