“I Think I Love You” / “Somebody Wants to Love You” – Doyle’s Space: Music Hall of Fame – SOS Award

“I Think I Love You” was written by Tony Romeo and released as the Partridge Family’s debut single on Bell Records on August 22, 1970, issued just ahead of the TV show’s premiere. The bright, bubblegum/baroque-pop tune featured David Cassidy as the lead vocalist (Shirley Jones and professional backing singers also appear on recordings) and was produced by Wes Farrell.

The single climbed the pop charts quickly and reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in November–December 1970 (holding the top spot for several weeks). The song’s lyric is a teenage-first-love confession — direct, simple, and hook-driven — which helped it land massive radio play and wide commercial appeal at the start of the family-sitcom’s run.

Recording-wise, the single was a professional studio product rather than a cast-band performance: Los Angeles session players and top backing vocalists (the same kinds of players associated with the so-called “Wrecking Crew” and groups like the Ron Hicklin Singers) performed on the record.

The arrangement and production polished the tune into a radio-ready three-minute single; its combination of catchy melody, Cassidy’s appealing lead voice, and the TV tie-in propelled it into heavy rotation. The record was enormously successful internationally as well as in the U.S.: it reached #1 in Canada (RPM) and later topped charts in Australia, and it reached the Top 20 in the U.K.

The B-side, “Somebody Wants to Love You,” appears on the same single and on The Partridge Family Album. The writing credits commonly shown for that B-side list Wes Farrell along with Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos; various sources note that Farrell’s credit was partly a business/production arrangement (a common practice at the time),

and Appel/Cretecos were responsible for much of the composition. Like many Partridge Family recordings the B-side was sung and produced as a professional studio track rather than by the TV cast playing live — it complements the A-side with straightforward pop arrangements and fits the same teen-oriented emotional territory

(seeking/accepting love) but never approached the A-side’s chart dominance. Versions and legacy: the single has been reissued and anthologized many times and the A-side has dozens of released versions, covers and compilations (the Partridge Family recording itself appears on many greatest-hits and compilation packages). “I Think I Love You” was commercially the Partridge Family’s signature hit, reportedly declared by industry groups as one of the best-selling singles of 1970, and it played a major role in turning David Cassidy into a teen idol.

Over time critics and retrospectives have treated the record as both an emblematic piece of early-’70s bubblegum pop and a notable example of TV-to-recording-industry cross-marketing. Trivia and other notes: the single was issued in advance of the TV series to create buzz, and Cassidy lip-synched the song on the program (as was standard for the show).

The record’s success also helped earn the Partridge Family a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist the following year. Because the Partridge Family was a television construct, many of the people pictured in the group’s promotional photos and album sleeves did not perform on the recordings — the music was the product of professional songwriters, producers, session players and backing vocal groups assembled for pop single production.