Teen Idols of Yesterday

It is enough to say that to have a complete and happy youth is to be able to sigh and cheer for teen idols. To have your favorites that make a teenage girl's heart beat faster. The motto is to love them desperately and to never forget them or their music. Unfortunately, these times are over but never in my memory.

My first introduction to the world of teen idols came when I stumbled upon a show called “Here Come the Brides” from 1968 to 1970. It was about lumberjacks who wanted to leave Seattle, Washington because there were no eligible ladies available. When promised to be supplied so to say with marriageable ladies the logging company was saved and life continued in Seattle. There as one of the main characters was Bobby Sherman and even though at that time I was too young to go crazy over him I sure enjoyed watching the show because of Bobby. Later on to find out that he could sing as well and was rocketing to stardom as a teen idol well that was a dream come true.

I absolutely went wild over his first hit single which was “Little Woman” and at that time I was one I was 12 and on the verge of becoming a starry-eyed teen idol fan. I loved most of his hits. Another one which I remember that I really liked was “Julie (Do Ya Love Me)”. Then he was given a TV show “Getting Together” which was a musical situation comedy lasting from 1971-1972. I believe that Bobby Sherman is the only former actor and teen idol that I know who left that limelight and pursued an entirely different career. He became a technical reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1990s and was named LAPD’s Reserve Officer of the Year in 1999. However, he is still one of the idols of my teen year dreams.

The one teen idol that my girlfriends and I would absolutely die for was David Cassidy. Now he sort of showed up like a glimmering star on the horizon, sort of like out of the blue. His stepmom is the famous actress and singer Shirley Jones and his dad was actor Jack Cassidy who met a tragic end. His real mom is Evelyn Ward who is also an actress so I guess he was fated to become famous. My girlfriends and I were introduced to him when he started playing in the TV show “The Partridge Family” in 1970 alongside his stepmom Shirley Jones. We were glued to the TV screen every week and when David sang he sang only to us. Handsome with shoulder-length hair he was every teenage girl's dream.

When he started singing on his own it was all we could do to wait in anticipation from album to album. When a new one came out my mom’s apartment was club-central and we gathered there to sigh, cry, and generally die over his songs. When I get nostalgic thank heaven there is YouTube and once again I am a teenager. I still have a tape of Partridge Family songs.

One of my closest girlfriends and I went on an adventure. We went out into the wilds of Long Island in New York to Nassau Coliseum to see David Cassidy in concert. That will always stay in my memory. Thousands of teenage girls risking life and limb standing on fold-up chairs jumping up and down and screaming at the top of our lungs. He was there alive and in front of us only too far away to touch. I wonder what in the world we heard from what he was singing but it didn’t matter he was David, he was ours for that afternoon and that was all that mattered. Of course, it was even worth it that we couldn’t speak for two days but we could still listen to his songs.

The Monkees – what can I say? Super great! Again I was a bit too young to really do the fan bit but I loved their TV series “The Monkees” which ran from 1966-1968 and was really into their music. The four guys that made my heart beat so fast were Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. As it always is with a band there is one who stands out and becomes the favorite. For me, it was Davy Jones. His British accent simply sent me and because he wasn’t very tall he was so adorable. Once again I was rather young but they were my initiation into my teen idol years and boy was I ready to drool over all their great songs and their antics on their TV series.

Finally, although they were never really my favorites I must mention The Osmonds. One girlfriend was a great fan of The Osmonds and later especially of Donny Osmond who went to perform solo. He too became a great teen idol. She and I didn’t attend the same high school so our tastes slightly differed. While I sighed over David Cassidy she adored Donny Osmond but when I visited her on school holidays there was always room on her wall for a poster of my idol. And I heard plenty of The Osmonds and Donny’s songs. I remember that in the one song that Donny sang “Puppy Love,” he sounded a little like a very young Paul Anka who was the first singer to have a hit with this song.

All in all the memories are great and if I’m ever found sitting glued to the computer with a giant smile on my face then I’m listening to my idols on YouTube. The only thing that I regret is that I really was much too young for The Beatles but I became of fan of theirs anyway, especially of Paul McCartney who was my favorite.

Another thing I regret is being in the wrong generation for Elvis Presley but I can still enjoy his songs now. He truly was the King.

My sentiments are such that I was born too late for the 1950s and I was too young to be part of the hippie generation. However, I schooled myself on the music and the songs by listening to golden oldies. I am glad however that my teen idols made those years so very memorable and exciting.