A tender promise wrapped in patience, where hope waits quietly for the heart to catch up
There is a soft, wistful shimmer inside “There’ll Come A Time” by The Partridge Family, the kind of shimmer that feels like dusk settling over a familiar street—warm, reflective, touched with the gentle ache of things not yet said but deeply felt. The song appears on their 1972 album Shopping Bag, released in March of that year, a record that found its way to No. 18 on the US Billboard Top LPs chart and added another gold milestone to the group’s bright pop journey. Though “There’ll Come A Time” was never released as a single and carried no chart position of its own, it holds a quietly precious distinction: it is the only song on the album written solely by David Cassidy, the soft-spoken heart at the center of the Partridge Family’s musical world.
From its very first notes, the song settles into a gentler rhythm than the upbeat hits that carried the band through their peak years. There is no flash, no television sparkle—only a carefully shaped melody and the warmth of Cassidy’s voice, so familiar to those who spent evenings watching the family’s technicolor adventures. Here, his voice feels different: less like a performer and more like a young man sitting alone with a guitar, thinking about the strange, beautiful patience that love often requires.
The production, as always, carries the polish of early-70s pop, but it steps back just enough to let the song breathe. Soft orchestration, warm harmonies, the comforting rise and fall of the arrangement—together they create a small, sheltered space where the listener can linger. Cassidy’s writing leans inward, away from the manufactured cheer of a TV ensemble, and toward something more intimate: a feeling that sits quietly in the chest, waiting for its time.
And that is the heart of “There’ll Come A Time”—an understanding that life does not always unfold when we want it to. Without repeating a single line, one can sense the song’s message clearly: that love, or clarity, or forgiveness, or simply the right moment, can sometimes take longer than we expect. But the waiting is not empty. It is filled with belief. With memory. With the fragile hope that what hasn’t arrived yet may still be on its way.
Placed inside Shopping Bag, the song becomes almost a hidden doorway. The album is lively, colorful, pop-bright in the way only The Partridge Family could be. And yet, beneath the cheerful veneer, this track introduces a depth that feels rare for a group built on scripted joy. It suggests that behind the smiles and harmonies, David Cassidy carried his own quiet room of thoughts, and here—just this once—he left the door open.
For listeners who lived through that era, who remember the glow of the television set and the sweet escape of those musical episodes, “There’ll Come A Time” often lands with unexpected familiarity. It feels like something one returns to when the house grows still late at night, when the heart drifts to memories of people who walked in and out of our lives too quickly, or to moments that passed before we were ready. The song does not promise a miracle; it promises possibility. A future moment when things might align, when understanding may break through, when the heart may finally speak its truth.
In the long story of The Partridge Family, “There’ll Come A Time” stands as a quiet treasure—small in fame, but rich in feeling. It is a reminder that even in a world built on bright colors and catchy choruses, there is room for a single, tender whisper. And for those of us who have waited—for love, for answers, for peace—it feels like a hand resting gently on the shoulder, saying: be patient… your moment will come.