Bulletin Board is the eighth and final studio album by The Partridge Family, released by Bell Records (catalog number 1137)[2] in October 1973. The album was recorded between July and September 1973.[3] Bulletin Board was the first Partridge Family album to fail to chart on Billboard's Top LP's chart.[4] "Looking for a Good Time" b/w "Money Money" was released as a single in November 1973 (catalog number Bell 45-414), but failed to chart. This was the last regular U.S. Partridge Family single.[5]
| Bulletin Board | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 1973 | |||
| Genre | Rock, pop | |||
| Length | 30:42 | |||
| Label | Bell | |||
| Producer | Wes Farrell | |||
| The Partridge Family chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
The album cover featured a handwritten track listing pinned to a bulletin board, as well as a "family" photograph and a memo detailing the show's new Saturday night time slot. According to the liner notes for the CD release, the album cover was created within only a few hours due to time constraints. While Wes Farrell is credited as producer on the album, in fact it was produced and arranged by John Bahler (also spelled as Bähler), a member of late-1960 pop group the Love Generation and, later, the Ron Hicklin Singers, several members of whom provided backing vocals on all of the Partridge Family albums. Bulletin Board is the only Partridge Family album recorded in a studio different from the preceding albums (which had all been recorded at Western Recorders, Studio 2 in Los Angeles).[6]
Reviewer Dave Thompson of AllMusic gave the album a rating of 3½ stars out of 5, claiming it was more representative of David Cassidy's solo material than the typical Partridge Family album: "the performances all lean a lot closer towards the Cassidy solo ideal – soft ballads, tight rockers – than the all-for-one harmonies and joy that characterized the Partridges' earlier releases."[7] Howard Pattow, a member of the Partridge Family tribute band Sound Magazine, states that "the music here is groovy and funky, a definite reflection of pop music's embrace of disco ... overall, the music on Bulletin Board is quite different from previous Partridge Family efforts ... [and] features musicians that had previously not appeared on a Partridge record."[3]
In September 2008 Collectors' Choice Music reissued the album on CD. Initially the disc was available exclusively through the company's website. The disc contains two bonus tracks: both sides of the Bones Howe-produced Shirley Jones single "Ain't Love Easy"/"Roses in the Snow", originally released in October 1972.[8]
Track listing
editAll tracks from the original album, except "Where Do We Go From Here", were featured in the fourth and final season of the TV show
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Money Money" |
| 2:31 |
| 2. | "Roller Coaster" | Mark James | 2:22 |
| 3. | "Lookin' for a Good Time" |
| 2:12 |
| 4. | "Oh No Not My Baby" | 2:38 | |
| 5. | "I Wouldn't Put Nothin' over on You" |
| 2:51 |
| 6. | "Where Do We Go From Here?" | Mark James | 2:36 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "How Long Is Too Long" | 3:41 | |
| 2. | "I'll Never Get over You" | Tony Romeo | 2:59 |
| 3. | "Alone Too Long" |
| 3:10 |
| 4. | "I Heard You Singing Your Song" | Barry Mann | 2:38 |
| 5. | "That's The Way It Is with You" | Harriet Schock | 3:04 |
| Total length: | 30:42 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Ain't Love Easy" (solo track by Shirley Jones) | Carol Hall | 3:13 |
| 2. | "Roses in the Snow" (solo track by Shirley Jones) | Randy McNeill | 2:57 |
| Total length: | 36:52 | ||
Personnel
editProduced by Wes Farrell for Coral Rock Productions, Inc.
- Partridge Family vocals by Shirley Jones and David Cassidy
- Hal Blaine - drums
- Max Bennett, Jim Hughart - bass
- Larry Carlton, Richard Bennett, Ben Benay, Dean Parks - guitar
- Chuck Findley, Tom Bahler - horns
- Lou McCreary, George Bohanon - trombone
- Bill Perkins, Jackie Kelso, Bob Hardaway - saxophone
- Gary Coleman, Joe Porcaro - percussion
- Michael Omartian, Larry Muhoberac - keyboards
- John Bahler, Tom Bahler, Jackie Ward, Ron Hicklin - backing vocals[3]
Bonus tracks produced by Bones Howe.
Recording dates
editJuly 25, 1973:
- "Money, Money"
- "I'll Never Get Over You"
- "Alone Too Long"
- "Oh No Not My Baby"
July 26, 1973:
- "I Wouldn't Put Nothing Over On You"
September 4, 1973:
- "I Heard You Singing Your Song"
- "Roller Coaster"
- "Looking For A Good Time"
- "How Long Is Too Long"
September 5, 1973:
- "That's The Way It Is With You"
- "Where Do We Go From Here" [9]
Notes
edit- ^ Thompson, Dave. Review at AllMusic. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
- ^ Bulletin Board Archived February 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at David Cassidy Downunder fansite.
- ^ a b c Bulletin Board review by Howard Pattow from C'mon Get Happy, The Unofficial Website of The Partridge Family.
- ^ Billboard.com [1]
- ^ Singles Archived September 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at David Cassidy Downunder fansite.
- ^ Partridge Family Release Dates
- ^ Allmusic [2]
- ^ Amazon.com Editorial Review
- ^ The Partridge Family Recording Sessions