Chasing after rainbows I may never find again

Very sad news - "the beauteous one" David Cassidy is dead.

We will never forget him...

David Cassidy - How Can I Be Sure and Rock Me Baby

David Cassidy - Daydreamer

RIP, David Bruce Cassidy (12th April 1950 – 21st November 2017)

Read my previous tributes to David here and here.

Totty of the Day

Oh. My. Gawd.

David Cassidy is 65 years old!

As if getting up for work wasn't bad enough... Now I feel very old indeed.

Never mind - it is also Tacky Music Monday, so let's harken back to when The Beauteous One was indeed still beautiful - and here introducing some particularly illustrious company, including Carol Channing and Lauren Bacall - in this all-too-brief song-and-dance (rare for a purveyor such as he of heartthrob-ballads and soft rock numbers) rendition of Give My Regards To Broadway from the Parade of Stars in 1983...

David Cassidy - Parade of Stars 1983

Facts:

• At his peak, David Cassidy was the world's highest paid live entertainer, out-selling Elvis and the Beatles; he was voted Number 1 of "TV's 25 Greatest Teen Idols" by TV Guide in 2005.
• His father Jack's second marriage was to actress Shirley Jones, and he has three half-brothers, two of whom have successful musical careers of their own: Shaun, Patrick and Ryan.
• David made his Broadway debut in 1969 in the musical The Fig Leaves Are Falling at the same time his father and stepmother opened on Broadway in their only play together,Maggie Flynn; both shows were notorious flops, the former closing in less than two weeks.
• He has been married three times, to actress Kay Lenz, to horse breeder Meryl Tanz, and to Sue Shifrin; they divorced after 23 years last year.
• His struggles with alcoholism have been splattered over the tabloids over the years - he has been arrested for "driving under the influence" three times, and has been in and out of rehab.
• Despite having sold over 30 million records, David recently filed for bankruptcy protection.
• He continues to tour the USA.

David Bruce Cassidy (born 12th April 1950)

Mother Love

Three important celebrations today.

It's Mothering Sunday here in the UK.

Our clocks have gone forward, so it's officially British Summer Time - yay!

And Miss Shirley Jones - whose career took her from grieving ingénue in Carousel to matriarch of The Partridge Family - will be 80 years old tomorrow.

Here is a rare piece that suits the "Sunday mood" - Miss Jones' magnificent version of The Sound of Music:

Shirley Jones - The Sound of Music

And here is a clip of Miss Jones (playing second fiddle again to the gorgeous David Cassidy) with The Partridge Family, and an appropriate number for today:

Partridge Family - Summer Days

We were privileged back in 2010 to see Shirley Jones in her one-woman show - read all about it - and we were pleased to note her voice was still a force to be reckoned with.

Shirley Mae Jones (born 31st March 1934)

I think I love you

Happy 58th birthday today to the lovely David Cassidy - erstwhile former member of the cheesy Partridge Family and teen heart-throb of the early 1970s.

It is unbelievable to think just how much of a stir David caused when he burst onto the music scene - with his tight satin trousers and androgynous pretty-boy looks, he was chased, screamed at and generally mobbed by hordes of teenage girls (and, more subtly, lusted over by queens of all ages) in a way not seen since the Beatles a generation earlier.

Bizarrely at the time my pre-teenage crush was (gulp!) Donny Osmond, but I was not immune to David's charms. I do know he was Madame Arcati's favourite, though, and he still is today...

And David is still cute even now, as he - unbelievably - heads towards sixty! Here he is at the height of his fame:

David Cassidy - I Think I Love You

I Think I Love You, indeed.

David Cassidy official website