Sound Magazine

Sound Magazine

The Partridge Family Sound Magazine was the third album from The Partridge Family. It was released on the Bell Records label in August 1971 and, like all of the Partridge Family recordings, was produced by Wes Farrell for Coral Rock Productions. The LP was certified gold in September of that year and is near-universally regarded – by both fans and critics – as the Partridge Family's consummate pop album.

This was the first Partridge Family album featuring Brian Forster (replacing Jeremy Gelbwaks as Chris Partridge) on the album cover.

The album reached #9 on the Billboard album chart, and produced the #13 hit "I Woke Up In Love This Morning". Background musicians were: Hal Blaine on drums, Mike Melvoin and Larry Knechtel on piano, and Dennis Budimir and Louie Shelton on guitar. Background voices were provided by John Bahler, Tom Bahler, Jackie Ward, and Ron Hicklin. The vocal background was arranged by John Bahler.

As with most Partridge Family releases, many well-known songwriters contributed songs to the album, including Paul Anka, Rupert Holmes, Tony Romeo and Bobby Hart. The latter had also contributed songs to The Monkees, a similar project which also combined a prime time television series about a part-fictional/part-real musical group with a series of music albums.

In addition, lead vocalist David Cassidy co-wrote "Love Is All That I Ever Needed" with producer Wes Farrell. This was his second composition to appear on a Partridge Family album. In the mythos of Partridge Family lore, they also recorded a watered-down version of the sexy song "I'll Be Your Magician" which was ultimately discarded and never released. One other song recorded during the sessions for Sound Magazine was "Warm My Soul", which was also a leftover track, discarded because its acid-tinged gospel sound did not fit in with the album's easy listening style. A later re-worked version of the song appeared on Cassidy's second solo album Rock Me Baby.