I Think I Love You

Album: The Partridge Family Album (1970)
Charted: 18 1
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Songfacts®:

  • The Partridge Family was a TV show that ran from 1970-1974. It was about a musical family, starring David Cassidy and his real-life stepmother Shirley Jones along with future L.A. Law actress Susan Dey and a young Danny Bonaduce. The show was marketed around Cassidy, who is the son of the actor Jack Cassidy. He quickly became a teen idol.
  • Jones and Cassidy were the only members of The Partridge Family to perform on their recordings, as Cassidy sang lead and Jones, a veteran of movie musicals Oklahoma and The Music Man, sang backup. Unlike The Monkees, the actors who were not hired to sing didn't have musical aspirations. Top-tier session musicians played on The Partridge Family's songs, including Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, Louie Shelton and Tommy Tedesco. On their singles and albums, the group was credited as "The Partridge Family starring Shirley Jones featuring David Cassidy.
  • This was released the same day the TV show went on the air, and 2 months and 4 days later, it was a #1 hit. Over the next few years The Partridge Family scored 6 more Top 40 hits, each release declining in chart position. They were:
    "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted" (#6)
    "I'll Meet You Halfway" (#9)
    "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" (#13)
    "It's One Of Those Nights (Yes Love)" (#20)
    "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" (#28)
    "Looking Through The Eyes Of Love" (#39)
  • This was written by Tony Romeo, who also wrote songs for The Seekers, The Everly Brothers and Richard Harris. It's a very unusual song with a vocal intro (ba, ba ba ba...) that made it challenging for disk jockeys to talk over the song. The harpsichord sound and cathartic chorus helped the song endure long after the TV show went off the air.
  • While The Partridge Family was still on the air, Cassidy nurtured his solo career, releasing hit singles including "Cherish" and "Daydreamer." His half-brother Shaun Cassidy also had some hits, scoring in 1977 with "Hey Deanie" and "Da Doo Ron Ron."
  • This was used twice in the first season of the TV show, with producers taking care not to show too much footage of the band "playing" this song.
  • The group Voice of the Beehive took this song to #25 UK in 1991. Other artists to cover it include Less Than Jake, Paul Westerberg and Declan Galbraith. The Hip-Hop duo Nice And Smooth sampled it for their song "Hip Hop Junkies."
  • In 2002, the American teenage singer Kaci recorded a cover, which reached #10 in the UK. Kaci Lynn Battaglia was a child star who by the age of 10 had sung the national anthem at a New York Yankees baseball game and presented a Disney Christmas TV special.
  • In 1977, a young couple was ambushed by serial killer David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, while sitting in a parked car listening to this song. The scene is recreated and discussed in the 1994 thriller Copycat, starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter.
  • The ska-punk band Less Than Jake recorded a rapid-fire version for the 1997 Scream 2 soundtrack. They originally wrote the song "Faction" - which ended up on their 2000 Borders & Boundaries album - for the movie, but director Wes Craven asked them to do a cover tune instead. The band told In Music We Trust in 2001: "We were like, "What the hell?" and did 'I Think I Love You' by the Partridge Family, but we had a great time doing it."
  • Cassidy was less than enthused by Less Than Jake's punk rendition, even though he didn't actually hear it. "A couple people told me they didn't like it," he told Yahoo Music in 2017. "When I heard what they wanted to do with it, I assumed it would be a grunge sort of ear-crunching thing. Not that I don't like some of that stuff, but it's a great melody and it’s a great lyric, so if you want to kill the melody and kill the lyric, why even cut it? Find something else."

Comments: 7

  • Lzalewski from PaSome of the greatest pop music of the early 1970s. Professional songwriters gave David Cassidy some great material. "You Were Always on My Mind" is exceptional catchy stuff. So many others. David was a unique vocalist.
  • Rose from BostonDavid did not have dementia at all.
    He actually had organ failure.
    In the late nineties and early 2000s he performed in the hit live show EFX at the MGM which was extremely successful, earning him the title of Mr. Las Vegas. The he wrote and produced the show AT THE COPA , which was at The Rio. He also wrote the hit, The Rat Pack is Back. Then went on concert tours, before his untimely passing.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyDavid Cassidy, lead singer of ABC-TV's "The Partridge Family" and a successful solo teen heart throb, died Tuesday (November 21st, 2017) in a Fort Lauderdale area hospital, surrounded by his family-- including his stepmother, Partridge co-star Shirley Jones and stepbrother, Shaun Cassidy. David had been hospitalized in critical condition earlier in the week with organ failure. He disclosed earlier this year he was suffering from dementia, and had been arrested three times for DUI. His father, actor Jack Cassidy, suffered from alcoholism and died after passing out with a lit cigarette in his mouth. David appeared briefly on Broadway and on television in the late '60s, which led to his role on "The Partridge Family". He and Shirley were the only memebers of the fictional group who actually sang on their recordings, which included "I Think I Love You" (#1-1970), "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted" (#6-1971) and "I'll Meet You Halfway" (#9-1971). The show ran from 1970-1974, by which time David had also established a concurrent solo career with hits like "Cherish" (#9-1971) and "How Can I Be Sure" (#25-1972). He starred briefly in the unsuccessful TV series, "David Cassidy: Man Undercover" in 1978 and appeared in several stage shows (including a production of "Blood Brothers" with Shaun and Petula Clark. He and brother Patrick appeared in the ABC Family show, "Ruby & The Rockits", created by Shaun. His autobiography, "Could It Be Forever", was published in 2007.
    May he R.I.P.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn September 25th 1970, the weekly TV sitcom, 'The Partridge Family', premiered on the ABC-TV network...
    The series ran for four seasons with 96 original episodes...
    And nine days later on October 4th, 1970 "I Think I Love You" entered Billboard’s Hot op 100 chart at position #75; six weeks later on November 15th it would be at #1 {for 3 weeks} and it stayed on the chart for 19 weeks...
    It also reached #1 {for 4 weeks} on Canadian RPM Singles chart...
    Earlier in 1970 on May 24th Brenda Lee entered the Top 100 with a record titled "I Think I Love You Again"; it spent two weeks on the chart, the first week at #98 and the second week at #97.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyPer: http://www.oldiesmusic.com/news.htm
    Actress Suzanne Crough, who played, Tracy, the youngest member of TV's "Partridge Family", (though she didn't play or sing on the recordings) died "suddenly" Monday (April 27th, 2015) at her Nevada home. She was 52. She eventually gave up acting and worked as a manager of an office supply company. She leaves behind a husband and two children...
    May she R.I.P.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 21st 1973, David Cassidy appeared on the BBC-TV program 'Top of the Pops'; his appearance caused such a commotion that the show's producers banned all future teen idols from the program...
    Eighteen days later on April 8th, 1973 the Partridge Family's "Friend and a Lover" entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #100, the following week it was at #99, and that would also be its peak position of the chart because it was its last week on the Top 100...
    It would also be the last of their nine Top 100 records; three made the Top 10 with one reaching #1, "I Think I Love You" for three weeks in 1970.
  • Rick from Belfast, Meagain.....this song helped to make the 70's rock!!!!!!!!....
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