David Cassidy on the Web
David Cassidy and The Beatles?
July 9th, 2008
From Beatles Anecdotes at http://70.166.63.245/?p=282
What is David Cassidy's connection to the Beatles you might ask? This post will touch upon the teen idol's friendship with some ex-Beatles.
As is well known, Cassidy had a number one hit in 1970 with the song "I Think I Love You", which was credited to The Partridge Family. The song charted simultaneous to the beginning of the television series The Partridge Family on ABC. Cassidy sang lead, while stepmother Shirley Jones, also a cast member of the show, provided backing vocals. His role on the show catapulted him to international stardom and at one time he was the highest-grossing rock performer in the world before his bubble burst. Between The Partridge Family and his solo career from 1970 to 1973, he had five top ten hits and an additional eight Top 40 hits in the U.S. Many of his solo songs were chart-toppers throughout the world.
In interviews over the years, Cassidy has referred to John Lennon as a friend. Lennon had been introduced to Cassidy at the height of his days on The Partridge Family by mutual friend Elliot Mintz. According to Albert Goldman's controversial 1988 biography The Lives of John Lennon, once after a lunch with Cassidy, John erupted at his lover May Pang and accused her of flirting with Cassidy. Goldman wrote on page 470, "As May denied this ridiculous accusation, John started circling her like a menacing animal. While he paced, he wrapped out the carefully compiled evidence of her betrayal: (1) She had met Cassidy outside the house when he arrived; (2) she had ordered the same dish as Cassidy at the restaurant; (3) she had stood at the window with Cassidy, talking to him intimately. "I always knew you would cheat on me, and now I have the proof!" screamed John as he worked himself up for the kill. "Don't you know who I am" he demanded. "I'm John Lennon!"
The passage goes on to describe that Lennon started throwing things and destroying everything in sight in the house. But, many feel Goldman's book lacks credibility in some areas.
On the other hand, David Cassidy prevented the famous "Wings Across America" from getting started on time. In 1976, while Wings was rehearsing for the tour in Texas, Wings' lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch broke his wrist wrestling backstage with Cassidy. This caused the tour to be delayed for several weeks.
Also, in Geoffrey Giuliano's 1988 Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney, Wings guitarist Denny Laine was quoted as saying about a previous Wings tour:
We were in Paris. Wings had just done a great show so we were all in pretty high spirits. Afterwards we shuffled down to this press conference where we met up with our old pal David Cassidy. I remember Paul was struggling to answer all these typically mundane questions from the media while David did his best to crack us up, making faces and stuff just behind the camera.
This is a link to an article about Cassidy's appearance on Oprah, in which he told about great advice given to him by his friend John Lennon:
www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200802/20080212/slide_20080212_350_104.jhtml
