Back in the '90s I had a Partidge Family's greatest hits CD. The liner notes said that Wendy & Lisa's dad worked on their albums, and W&L were exposed to this in their childhoods. It claimed this influenced their musical style, with the implication that it then indirectly influenced Prince through their work with him.

Prince was still pretty popular at the time, so I wasn't sure if the liner notes were exaggerating or misrepresenting the connection to ride his coat tails, if if there was some truth to it.

Before Bart and Udo ask, YES, I Googled this. I only found two references. The Wikipedia page for Wendy's father, Mike Melvoin, says:

"He worked in the early 1970s as a music director on The Partridge Family recordings, often playing keyboard [...]" https://en.wikipedia.org/...ke_Melvoin

Also, back in 2003 someone posted the following here on the Org:

"Well, Michael Melvoin, Wendy's father, composed and recorded most of the original music for the Partridge Family. and Lisa's dad also was a session musician for them as well. When W & L were little they spent a lot of time in the studio with their dads, watching them work on Partidge Family material/albums." https://prince.org/msg/7/55902

The person who made the post didn't substantiate their claim -- maybe they simply read the same liner notes that I did and repeated it as fact???

Does anyone know how much truth there is to any of this? (Obviously even if Wendy and Lisa's dads did create the Partidge Family music, it's highly debatable if they eventually influenced anything in Prince's music. I'm simply asking if their dads really did have substantial input in the Partridge family records.)

[Edited 10/6/20 12:01pm]

word??...i LOVED the music from The Partridge Family show as a child.. cool

Mike Melvoin credited on a bunch of their albums, you might need to squint but you can read the credits

I still have my original vinyl copy of that first Partridge Family album that someone gave to me back in the 70s as and remember looking at the liners notes years ago when I heard Mike Melvoin was involved. I thought it was cool back then and still do.

BTW, I STILL listen to that PF albums from time to time, especially when friends are over. It's an immediate crowd-pleaser.