The Cowsills Acoustic Trio will perform Nov. 2 at Avenel Performing Arts Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge. PHOTO BY DANNY CLINCH
The Cowsills, the real-life inspiration behind the hit television series “The Partridge Family,” featuring teen siblings Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Susan, and Paul in tandem with mom Barbara, were one of the biggest pop acts of the late ’60s. Their hits included “The Rain, the Park and Other Things,” “Indian Lake,” and "Hair," distinguished by their angelic harmonies and sun-kissed melodies.
The group’s origins lie with Bill and Bob, who as children began their singing careers covering Everly Brothers hits. Given guitars by their father, Navy man William “Bud” Cowsill, the siblings soon recruited younger brothers Barry and John to play bass and drums, respectively, and as Beatlemania dawned, the teen foursome began performing live at school dances and church socials throughout their native Newport, RI. Soon the Cowsills landed a regular weekend gig at the local club Dorian’s on Bannisters Wharf, and in 1965 recorded the single “All I Really Wanta Be Is Me” for the Joda label. The record generated little response, however, but after an appearance on NBC’s “The Today Show,” the group signed with Mercury Records, issuing three more singles.
Upon signing with MGM in 1967, The Cowsills added Mom to the band and had their first million-selling single, “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” (usually called the flower girl song), which was magnificently featured in Jim Carrey’s movie, “Dumb and Dumber.” They performed on such notable TV shows as “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Johnny Cash Show,” “The Tonight Show,” “The Merv Griffin Show,” “The Mike Douglas Show,” and also their own NBC television special in 1968.
“Indian Lake” followed in the summer of ’68, and in 1969, they had their biggest hit, the multi-million selling title song from the musical “Hair.” The Cowsills also recorded the theme song for the TV show “Love, American Style,” which is still one of the most popular songs they perform in their shows. They were one of the early pop acts to record commercials for television with nationally shown milk ads for the American Dairy Association.
Today, The Cowsills remain strong as a sibling trio whose harmonies still ring true. Bob, Paul and Susan are still performing and bringing musical joy to all of their audiences, backed by a band that includes a second generation of Cowsills.
They signed with Omnivore Recordings releasing in 2022 their first album in 24 years called “Rhythm of the World.” Still touring and performing and going strong after five decades, the Cowsills harmonies continue to soar and the family continues on its long legacy of providing joy and entertainment to all who come. You can enjoy them on Nov. 2 at Avenel Performing Arts Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge when Bob, Paul and Susan perform as an acoustic trio.
Also, brother John Cowsill will be the special guest vocalist for New Jersey Hall of Famers The Smithereens on Dec. 19 at The Vogel at Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.
Enjoy the following conversation with Bob, as he reminisces about The Cowsills’ glorious past, blessed present, and bright future.
How and why has making music with family impacted your family dynamic?
By making music with the family, we opened ourselves up to having to be a business and a family at the same time. We were children, and that was a challenge. As long as there was success in both areas, that relationship was easy to handle. The challenge we lived was balancing that relationship during more challenging times. When the family suffered, the business suffered, and when the business suffered, the family suffered until finally once the family imploded it wasn't long before the business did too.
Early on, your Mom was in the band. Was your Dad in or involved behind the scenes with The Cowsills?
Our dad managed everything. He is the one who hit the streets of New York in 1965 looking for a record deal for his family, whose talent he had an unwavering faith in. It did not go well at first. The musical ‘family’ at this time was the four brothers only. In 1966, we signed with and were ultimately dropped from two labels while we were in grade school and high school, Jody and Mercury-Phillips. At Mercury-Phillips, we met and worked with record producer Artie Kornfeld. When we were dropped from the label, Artie quit and came with us. He and his writing partner, Steve Duboff, sat together and wrote ‘The Rain, the Park, and Other Things’ for us, took the four brothers into the studio on his own dime and recorded what will become our first million seller. Artie took the song and the family to MGM. At some point they sat us down to tell us that our mother was coming into the band. We were teenage boys and younger. This was NOT good news. We had to go back in the studio and put Mom on the record. MGM took the whole package, and with Mom, we are going to have our first million-seller, and Mom will always be in the band. We do not know who made that decision but probably our dad did.
The Cowsills in the late 1960s. Pictured clockwise from top left are Paul, Bob, Bill, Barry, Susan, Barbara, and John. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COWSILLS
How and why did The Cowsills inspire the Partridge Family?
While living in Santa Monica, we were visited by a group of executives from Screen Gems – one being a very young Michael Isner – who wanted to discuss a plan for a TV show based on our history. They were there to see if we kids might be able to be the kids in a show called ‘The Partridge Family.’ The show was always planning on using Shirley Jones as the mother, and, ultimately, they realized we weren't actors, so we turned them down, and they turned us down, and they went to Central Casting to finish the casting of the show. We had a great relationship with the Partridge Family although David Cassidy seemed a little bothered by the Cowsill-Partridge Family link right up to the end.
Did The Cowsills ever work with the Partridge Family?
We always wanted to have a concert with the Partridge Family, but, alas, there was no functioning Partridge Family band at the time, so we never had an opportunity for a combined performance. We were invited to and attended the premier of the show on the Screen Gems lot and met everyone, and it was a great day, and the show went on to be a big hit, which kept our name in the press for years because every time the Partridge Family was mentioned, we would also be mentioned as the inspiration. This kind of bothered David Cassidy who at some point requested writers to not mention us.
What did your Mom think of Shirley Jones on ‘The Partridge Family’?
She got to meet Shirley at the premier and in general was flattered by their unique relationship. Mom always said imitation is the best form of flattery.
What did Shirley Jones say about why The Cowsills deserve to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Family?
Shirley's point was that the Partridge Family played a famous family on television but that The Cowsills were the real deal in real life, which meant much more to her in terms of credibility than anything. She said that The Cowsills blazed the trail that would open doors for a project like the Partridge Family and that without the Cowsills, the Partridge Family would have never existed.
Why do The Cowsills think they deserve to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Well, we wouldn't turn it down, but we don't necessarily think we ‘deserve’ it. However, Hall of Fame members have more than hit records in their satchels. Things like we made the path easier for other family bands, like The Osmonds, for example, to move onto the pop charts after us. We were the ‘first’ in numerous categories and other factors, like influence and business – we were the first American band signed to London Records. If you study members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you will come away not really knowing what it really takes to get in there.
Was Bob’s twin brother Richard a musician? If so, was he ever in or involved with the band? If not, why?
Due to our father and brother Richard’s intense and negative relationship, Richard was kept out of everything. This is one of the worst missteps of a parent ever. You don’t let six children and their mother on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,’ yet keep a seventh child off. What kind of terrible parenting is that? It ruined our brother’s life.
Who is in The Cowsills now?
The Cowsills’ trio group involves Bob, Paul and Susan with a bigger band consisting of Susan’s husband, Russ Boussard; Mary Lasseigne on bass, Brendon Cowsill, Paul’s son, on guitar, and Ryan Cowsill, Bob’s son, on keyboards.
Is John still in the band? If not, why?
John made a career move when The Beach Boys came calling and played with The Beach Boys for 23 years. He recently recorded an album with his wife, Vicki Peterson of The Bangles called ‘Long After the Fire,’ a collection of songs written by our two brothers Barry and Bill, who have passed away.
John sometimes is the singer in The Smithereens, who are huge fans of The Cowsills. Do the rest of you ever work with The Smithereens?
We actually sing backgrounds on the Smithereens song ‘Now and Then’ and have always been fans of the band. John sings lead with The Smithereens for many shows, and we love it.
Who is involved in the weekly Cowsills Podcast?
‘The Cowsills Podcast’ Executive Producer is Rock Positano, and the show is produced by 2MarketMedia out of New York. It is hosted by Bob, Paul and Susan, and there are 188 episodes online and can be seen or heard on demand wherever podcasts are found. A new episode goes up on demand every week, and you can find it everywhere podcasts live.
What do you like most and least about doing a weekly podcast?
No downside at all other than guest procurement being challenging at times. We love the history we are building by having our guests share their histories in their own words. We get to meet people as diverse as Pat and Debbie Boone to Steve Van Zandt, Paul Shaffer, Frank Stallone and most of the artists from the ’60s.
Why did it take 30 years to release ‘Cocaine Drain’?
When we finished the ‘Cocaine Drain’ album, there was no Internet, no way to release an album without a record company releasing it for you, and our album, unfortunately, stood in the way of Bruce Springsteen, Dwight Twilley, and disco. We were prisoners at the time of our own perceived reputation of not being hip enough – ‘The Cowsills? You mean that family band from the ’60s with their mother in it? They should change their name!’ 30 years later, everyone has grown up, including our audience, and we’re all realizing that The Cowsills were better than we knew. It’s never too late to find that out, and because of Omnivore Recordings, we can now share what we’d been up to creatively all these years. We never stopped.
How and where did Bob find the three previously unreleased tracks on the remastered reissue of 1998’s ‘Global’ LP?
When we finished ‘Global,’ the master recordings sat in the tape vault at Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park for years. When the studio was purchased from the owners Captain and Tennille apparently, the tape library was destroyed or mistreated and somehow the tapes disappeared. We had a tape of the quick mixes and brought that tape to the renowned mastering engineer Doug Sax, who rescued ‘Global’ from the depths of unusable. There were three songs that we did not put on the album and to find them, we put an all-points bulletin out to all of our fans across the country, and lo and behold, they came through with some bootleg recordings that popped up on cassettes here and there. They sent us our three songs, and we got to let Michael Graves, the great mastering engineer himself, bring them back to life for the release of ‘Global.’
In 2022, you released your latest studio LP, ‘Rhythm of the World,’ your first album of new material since ‘Global.’ Are there any plans to follow ‘Rhythm of the World’ with more new material?
Thank you for asking. Our next offering in 2026 or 2027 will be ‘The Dockside Silouettes,’ a collection of our old hits along with one selection each from our later albums all re-imagined in an a cappella format. This is not three-part harmony a cappella. We used our voices like instruments, and we would need a choir to reproduce what we are doing here.
Is there anything I didn’t ask on which you would like to comment?
Just that we will be bringing our harmonies and stories to Avenel on Nov. 2 and invite everyone to an evening of harmony, stories, and fun.
Also, look for our radio show, ‘The Cowsill Chronicles,’ on 97.9 The River every Sunday at noon and 10 p.m. Just download the app with the hippie- looking guy! The show is based on our podcast.
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit with us.
Bob Makin has produced Makin Waves since 1988. Follow Makin Waves on Facebook and Instagram and contact Bob at [email protected].
