David Cassidy on the Web
A love there is no cure for
Friday, October 19, 2007By Abigail Leichman
Special To The Record
www.northjersey.com
At 57, you'd think David Cassidy would have left behind the wildly popular persona of dreamy Keith Partridge of the 1970s TV hit "The Partridge Family."
But even now, as he talks on the phone from his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., back yard before driving his teenage son to band practice, Cassidy is unapologetic about keeping his musical alter ego squarely in the spotlight.
Though his career has been marked by acting, writing and producing as much as singing, it's "I Think I Love You" and "Cherish" that his fans want to hear, and that's what they'll get at his upcoming appearance in Englewood. Apparently, the sound of screaming in the aisles hasn't faded for this performer who once faced stampedes of female admirers.
"If you've come to my shows recently, you'll see that it still occurs," says Cassidy, who's scaled back to the concert circuit for the past few years after starring in about 2,000 Las Vegas extravaganzas. "People are getting carried away and the energy is high."
At one time among the world's highest-paid live entertainers, with a fan-club membership purported to be larger than that of Elvis or the Beatles, Cassidy has been touring the world reviving early Partridge Family hits.
"It's like opening a trunk and finding these great songs that people identify with," he says. "They really have an emotional connection with the music, as do I, probably now more than ever. The music really holds up."
For his 20th and newest album, "David Cassidy Part II: The Remix," the former pinup king rerecorded some of his most popular hits with dance remixes by Craig J, a Chicago-based arranger/producer who's worked with Beyonce, Madonna, Cher and Kelly Clarkson. The CD is part of 180 Music's nostalgic Spotlight Features Series available at Target.
"For the first time in many years I let an arranger and producer create an album for me, and I was just the singer," says Cassidy. "It was quite different and refreshing."
What's also changed is Cassidy's bad-boy past, documented in all its sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll glory in two autobiographies, 1994's "C'mon, Get Happy ... Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus" and this year's "Could It Be Forever?" He's been with his third wife, Sue Shifrin-Cassidy, for 20 years and is content to be a proud papa.
"My son, Beau, is a very accomplished musician, and he's a student of the dramatic arts here in Florida," says Cassidy, who spends his summers in upstate New York. Daughter Katie, almost 21, just finished shooting the film "Taken" with Liam Neeson -- due out early next year -- and four episodes of "Supernatural."
Performing in the Garden State has special significance for Cassidy. He lived in West Orange from age 3½ to 11, until departing for the West Coast with his mother, Evelyn Ward. (In a confusing coincidence, Shirley Jones -- wife of his father, the actor Jack Cassidy -- played the role of his TV mom.)
"When I go back to New Jersey it's always somewhat of a homecoming for me," Cassidy says. "When I last played in that area [in 2002], at Paper Mill Playhouse -- a few miles from where I used to live -- some kids pulled out a photo of me at 6 years old at a neighborhood birthday party. That was so incredible."
CONCERT
WHO: David Cassidy.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Bergen Performing Arts Center, 30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood; 201-227-1030 or bergenpac.org.
HOW MUCH: $30, $45, $55, $67, $90.
WHERE TO HEAR: 180music.com/spotlight/features_cassidy.html
