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The Cowsills. The Best of the Cowsills: 20th Century Masters, The Millennium Collection (Polydor/Universal). This middling yet peppy pop charts the warbling Rhode Island family's few hits and ambitious misses from their 1966-'70 MGM label days, when the Cowsills--everyone from mom Barbara to youngster Susan and her brothers Bill, Bob, Barry and John--offered upbeat harmonies for the flower-power generation. The clan's 1967 smash "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" still sounds enduringly pretty, while their radio-ready version of 1969's "Hair," from the same-named Broadway show, boasts some stereo-drenched psychedelia; interestingly, the family could bridge the generation gap with "Hair"'s hippie satire even as they proved wholesome enough to shill for the American Dairy Association's TV commercials. (Cowsills, get it?) The band's later stabs at folk rock are pleasant though disposable, while their theme-song rendition to ABC-TV's anthology sitcom Love, American Style pretty much defines kitsch. The liner notes also mention that the Cowsills were briefly considered for a weekly TV series of their own, a singing-family concept that would later morph into The Partridge Family. But they should look on the bright side: At least the Cowsills won't have to do battle against the Bradys and the Partridges on a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link.
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