I have wondered this since I got my first Billboard Hot 100 book and found that they had ZERO charting singles (can’t remember if they even Bubbled Under) and zero charting albums. This from a “group” with a hit TV show, and “members” plastered all over “Tiger Beat”, “16”, and the like, with merchandising out the ass.
How did they not even scrape the bottom rungs of the charts? It’s possible to reach the 80’s or 90’s with a regional hit.
Now, I never have had any of the singles or albums, and I assume the vocals sounded better than they did on the show, but for a very popular TV show act to put out product at that time, and have none chart, seems very odd. I mean, the Partridge Family had several hits, as did various teen idols of question abillity (Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, Bobby Sherman, hell the frigging Hudson Brothers had a few chart singles.) Tony Defranco’s lack of singing ability didn’t stop “Heartbeat” from going Top 5. And since when do teen recrod buyers care about quality, anyway? Did any of the songs get major airplay?
Why then not the Brady’s? Was the quality that far below the artist mentioned above? Granted David Cassidy could sing well, Shaun could sing a bit, and Barry Williams could not sing at all, but the charts are full of artists with little ability. Others teen idols with dubious ability but some chart success include John Travolta and Rex Smith. How did the Brady Bunch not have a single album or 45 chart?
They stunk and they were stupid. No kid or teen at the time would be caught dead with a Brady Bunch record. The variety show and the cartoon were jokes. The same kids that had Partridge Family albums still thought the Brady’s were “Corny”.
Adults were not going to buy it for themselves and if no kids wanted their music, where were the sales suppose to come from?
The show was popular but campy even then. This did not translate into selling music.
Ethilrist, I am sad to report that they did exist.
Yes, you hit the nail squarely on the head. The quality of the Brady Bunch ‘songs’ were very much below level. The lyrics were nonsensical and the rhythmn was, well, there was none.
In contrast, The Partridge Family had some good pop tunes. “I Think I Love You”, “I Woke Up In Love This Morning” and “Love, Love, Can’t You Feel My Heartbeat” were very catchy tunes back in the 70’s. They were not great songs by any stretch, but they were bouncy, lyrical and fun. Partidges rule!
Actually, they had a #6 album with “Merry Christmas from the Brady Bunch.”
I don’t think the Bradys were the teen idols the others were. The show was designed to appeal to young children, not teens, and frankly, it was one of the worst shows of its time.
In another 20 years, you’ll see people waxing nostalgic for According to Jim and Yes, Dear. <shudder>
I gotta give the series credit, though. It lent itself to wonderful parody. Movies made from TV series usually suck, but both Brady movies were really good. Verrrry funny.
[Marsha]
Oh, no! I’ve told two boys I’ll go to the dance. This is the worst problem I’ve ever had! The worst!
Well, you’ve got to keep on keep on keep on keep on keep on keep on asking yourself what was weak in their music. I keep on keep on keep on keep on keep on keep on arriving at the same conclusions…thay they sucked.
My kids, and others. Just before they hit the teen/cynical stage, they thought that was the best show. Or it may have been passive-aggressive hostility against their parents. All I know is, it was like absorbing human waste through the capillaries in my eyes. That’s a show you want to have cranberry juice on hand for.
I’m with Ethilrist. I actually used to watch the show, and I had no idea they had a band. I remember them performing songs on the show now and then, but I didn’t realize they had actually released records.
This is their discography per Wikipedia- it doesn’t list singles. Surely “It’s a Sunshine Day”, “Keep On” and others were released as singles? Maybe not “Time to Change”, though.
Merry Christmas from the Brady Bunch
Meet the Brady Bunch
Kids from the Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch Phonographic Album
Maureen McCormick and Chris Knight from the Brady Bunch
I long ago lost my copy of Growing Up Brady, by Barry Williams, but his story was along these lines: In the last season of the show, they formed a singing group, and the response was decent enough that they actually started to go on tour. Then the producers got so fed up with the preening stage demands of the kids and their parents that they canned the tour and the series right there.
The show was going nowhere at that point, anyway. Relations between the Schwartzes and Robert Reed, again, according to Williams, had deteriorated past the point of no return, and if there had been an additional season of the show, it would have been without Mike Brady.
Man, do I feel old! I still remember the Christmas that I unwrapped “Meet the Brady Bunch” from under the tree. I’m surprised I didn’t wear the vinyl out playing over and over. In fact, I think I still have the album somewhere.
