(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY")
PARTRIDGE FAMILY: (Singing) Hello, world, here's a song that we're singing.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Actor and singer David Cassidy died yesterday at the age of 67. The cause was liver failure. And if you're of a certain age, you remember nobody was dreamier than Keith Partridge, the aspiring teen musician Cassidy played on TV's "The Partridge Family."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHERISH")
DAVID CASSIDY: (Singing) You don't know how many times I wish that I had told you. You don't know how many times I wish that I could hold you.
MARTIN: Here's NPR's Ann Powers talking about Cassidy's appeal.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: He just had a sexy thing going on that appealed to teenagers, you know? And his vocals were kind of husky and emphatic.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WOKE UP THIS MORNING")
CASSIDY: (Singing) I woke up in love this morning. I woke up in love this morning. Went to sleep with you on my mind.
MARTIN: Cassidy got famous fast, and he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse as an adult. But his legacy is as that teen heartthrob from the early 1970s, a time when the country's values were shifting. And for a lot of people, David Cassidy will always represent a hybrid of wholesome family values and rock star sex appeal.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I THINK I LOVE YOU")
CASSIDY: (Singing) I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of? I'm afraid that I'm not sure of a love there is no cure for. I think I love you. Isn't that what life is made of? Though it worries me to say that I've never felt this way. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.