Yes indeed, it’s Trivia Tuesday for April 13th! Generously brought to us each week by all the Groovey people over at Omnivore Recordings! Your number one destination for all the music you didn’t know, you didn’t know! BUT! Before we get to this week’s all new Trivia Quiz, We’d like to recognize all the brilliant readers who weighed in on last week’s question! Which was a lyrical question, based on the lyric’s from one of our all time favorite 60’s gems, “A Whiter Shade of Pale, by Procol Harum! First in with all the right answers was long time reader and among the very first “SMS Super Geniuses’! Mr. Steve Winogradsky! Yeah Steve, way to go, once again! Following close on Steve’s heals was relative newcomer and SMS Super Genius Mr. John S Noreen! Nice job John! Clark Besch weighed in, but struggled with the question. Buy hey Clark now is your chance to redeem your sterling rep! Next up, even with a small typo, was our old friend and frequent weekly winner Mr. Jeffery Conroy! Good on ya Bruddah! Next in and nailing it, Mr. Edmund Clark Simmons! Next in was one of the original “SMS Super Genius’s Mr. Fast Fred Vogel, Wrapping things up this week was our old friend and favorite Bass Player, Mr. Curtis Stone! Yeah! Curtis! So, that’s this weeks list of truly Trivial Thinkers!
But now! It’s time for this week’s new Trivia Question of the Week: In August of 1970 the ABC Television Network launched their latest entry to the burgeoning music related prime time sit-com era with an original idea about a “Family Band” called The Partridge Family, with the simple premise being an average neighborhood mom and her 5 Children form a band, buy a bus and the laughs and hijinks ensue The program made a strong showing and turned cast member David Cassidy into a Teen Idol Superstar! But after 4 years Cassidy couldn’t handle the workload and pace and he quit. Without Cassidy both the network and the audience had a hard time trying to “C’Mon get happy” and the show was canceled!
Ah, but we digress, here’s your question: The Partridge Family were influenced and loosely based on a real life “Family band” with a “neighborhood mom and her 5 Children, enjoying several huge hits in the mid to late 60’s! What is the name of this popular and successful “Family Band” And! Give us the titles to at least Three of their multiple hits! Lastly, how many of the five band members can you name?
Once more as your thumbing thru your old dog ear’d copies of “Teen Beat” why not click the link below and browse thru Omnivore Recordings HomePage and discover the greatest music in the known world and beyond!
In summary, here’s what we need:
1) What is the name of the “Family Band (from Newport Rhode Island) that inspired The Partridge Family ?
2) Give us the titles to at least three of their many hits ?
3) Give us the names of the 6 band members, including mom !
Remember you can play the weekly Trivia Quiz as often as you like, but can only win a Groovey Omnivore CD every 30 days!
~SMS
Great band….they could actually play their instruments and (allegedly) played on their own records. More than could be said for those Partridges (although to be fair, it was a TV show). Sold a million or so records (and probably got ripped off in the process) and fizzled out. However….Billy (Bud) Cowsill would move to Canada and found the incomparable Blue Shadows (yes, I shamelessly plug that group every chance I get). So there!
If a “no comment” can be construed as a comment, that’s mine. The Cowsills, of course, only song I vaguely recall was something like “The Rain, the Park, abd Whatever Things”…somebody loved the flower girl, oh, I don’t know just why….Nobody, but nobody except perhaps a Cowsill or their publicist is going to know this stuff without Googleing their Wiki..so it is not anything for me to engage with. However, I have a story to offer. I had a friend and bandmate in ’67 and ’68, high school rock band. He was an OK rhythm guitarist and singer who was uncannily a twin of the young Jack Nicholson, in looks and personality. He was as well a dedicated and ingenious thief, specialising in musical instruments, amps, microphones, etc. He kept the group well-equipped, which was nice since we were not wealthy. He cleaned out The Critters entire stage gear one time, from a college cafeteria where they had performed, and left their stuff overnight. Bad move. He snatched John Sebastians ’59 Les Paul sunburst from backstage at another local college concert. (I played it for a few weeks in the band, then in a fit of decency I returned it to Sebastian’s manager, for which I was given 50 dollar reward LOL) Well, the point is, one fine Rhode Island afternoon my acquisitive pal walked into the Cowsill’s open garage/rehearsal space, picked out a Vox Super Beatle amp, and rolled it down the sidewalk for a ways, I don’t know the details of his getaway plan. This time he was caught, but got off pretty easy. This was after we had graduated; if I had been around I would have discouraged him, because the Vox amps that were being imported into the USA at that time were complete garbage, solid state crap. Made in Italy, I think. The Cowsills were pretty forgettable too, IMHO. I never saw them, or watched them on TV. Susan Dey and MILF goddess Shirley Jones got my attention, of course. That’s my story, snd I’m sticking to it.
Hey Mark!
Your “No Comment” comes in loud and clear! And I honestly can’t say I disagree with you! Plus, I really enjoyed your story, I especially liked the way you slipped in a “product review” of the late 60’s Vox Super Beatle! The image of that monster rolling down the street was so funny! I also agree with you about Susan Dey, she was my favorite part of the Partridge Family…
Great story Mark, and I’m glad to hear you returned Sebastions Axe!
Thanx,
Rick
Sorry, no typos today…
Howdy
It’s The COWSILLS. (not to be confused with the great Sill family)
“The Rain, The Park & Other Things”,” Indian Lake”, “Hair”
Bob, Susan, Paul, John Bill, Barry, Barbara and Richard
1. Cowsills
2. Indian lake, Poor baby, We Can Fly
3. Ethel, Susan, John, ?????