David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce reunite onstage
(CBS/AP) A mini "Partridge Family" reunion took place on Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J., when stars David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce played a song onstage together. They said it was only the second time in 40 years they've done so.
Bonaduce, a Philadelphia DJ, played Cassidy's younger brother Danny on the hit 1970s TV series, but lip-synched and only pretended to play the bass guitar. After he did a standup comedy routine to open the show at Resorts Casino Hotel, Cassidy got him to play "Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted." Bonaduce learned the song for real when they played it together in suburban Philadelphia last October.
"We did it five, six months ago," Cassidy told The Associated Press. "He learned it - and then he put the bass away and didn't touch it. I know him."
"That's not true," Bonaduce insisted. "I just dusted it the other day."
"The Partridge Family" centered on a musical family, lead by actress Shirley Jones, playing infectious, hook-laden pop. Jones and Cassidy were the only ones who really sang. The other actors lip-synched and pretended to play their instruments.
Since the show ended, Cassidy has enjoyed a long show biz career, which included a solo sing stint during his teen idol phase, a starring role in the police series "David Cassidy: Man Undercover," and a critically acclaimed role on Broadway in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in 1982.
Most recently, the 60-year-old was on NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," where he was the first contestant to be fired by Donald Trump.
Bonaduce is a radio personality on Philadelphia station WYSP and has starred on several reality shows. He's engaged in celebrity boxing and wrestling matches that included bouts against former "Brady Bunch" actors and retired baseball player Jose Canseco.
Last fall, Cassidy, who has been touring regularly, told Bonaduce, "It's time you learned how to play the Partridge Family hits." Actually, he dared him.
"He knows I don't take dares lightly," Bonaduce said.
So he learned the five or so notes from the song, practiced a few times, and pulled it off. Then he put the red-and-white bass in its case and forgot about it.
"I have these guitars that I kind of collect," he said. "They're in the house so it looks like a musician lives there."
With the 51-year-old only an hour away from Atlantic City, Cassidy has requested that he join him on stage for Saturday night's show.
"It's an easy song to play, but I don't know how to read music," Bonaduce said. "I asked a guy in the band, 'What the ... do these things mean? He said, "This means 'repeat, this means pause' and so on. When I realized I was going to get through it without screwing it up, I had a great time."
Introducing the song, Bonaduce asked the crowd, "You wanna see something nobody has ever seen before? Me, plugging in a bass guitar!"
