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The Cowsills prove there is no guarantee of personal harmony and a long professional life for any family group, even one laden with gold and glory as they were.
A family fracas can be a hurtin' thing, with heartbreaking consequences for one and all. Non-kin troubadour teams can fight and split, but it's not that simple for a blood brood with a 10-to-22 age range.
The Cowsills hit the top in 1967 with "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things," their first MGM single, followed by countless hit records and tours of the U.S. and Europe. The Cowsill name blazed high in the sky wherever modern pop music is loved. So famous and fantastic were they from 1967 to early 1971 that books were written about them and a smash TV show, "The Partridge Family" was based on the story of their adventures and experiences.
Whatever happened to the Cowsills? It wasn't easy to find out, as they haven't cut a disk or done a road tour since last spring. Finally we found a tour promoter who confided: "We had to let them go. They were having too many family quarrels. We couldn't take it. I don't know what became of them. They just dropped out of sight."
It took a lot of digging to learn that the Cowsills are still around, playing local dates like Saturday nights at Knott's Berry Farm, a neighbor of Disneyland in Anaheim. Though they signed a new contract with London Records last summer, they haven't cut a disk or shown much interest in recording.
A clue to the riddle may be found in Mrs. Barbara Cowsill's interview a year ago: "After long, grinding tours and recording sessions, we get tense. When we stayed on the road for three or four months, there was pure hate at the end!"
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