The Partridge Family

The Partridge Family were derided as manufactured stars during their early-1970s heyday, but today they are loved for that very fact. After the Monkees, they put the "fab" in prefab. David Cassidy, the object of every nymphet's budding desires, may have led the TV group, but the Family was really the product of a crack team of cigar-chomping businessmen, Brill Building songwriters like Goffin/King, and top LA session players. The very professionalism of this behind-the-scenes team ensured some of the best, saccharine-rich bubblegum pop to come out of pre-Watergate America. Such hits as "I Think I Love You," still sound great oozing out of a pink plastic transistor radio, but who can remember any of today's teen hits two months after the fact? Any rock group backed by Shirley Jones has to be worth its weight in Danny Bonaduce's non-prescription pharmaceuticals. "Come On Get Happy?" Love to.