A hopeful dawn after long nights—the way David Cassidy makes “Tomorrow” feel like a promise you can hold in your hands.
“Tomorrow” is one of those songs that arrives quietly and leaves you changed. Written by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney for Wings’ 1971 album Wild Life, it was reborn in 1976 when David Cassidy cut a spacious, emotionally open version for his RCA LP Home Is Where the Heart Is, co-produced with Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys and recorded at the high-altitude sanctuary of Caribou Ranch in Colorado. Released as a single with “Half Past Your Bedtime” on the flip, Cassidy’s “Tomorrow” became a Top 10 hit in South Africa (peaking at No. 10 on the Springbok chart). In the U.K., it nudged the Breakers list in early February 1976 but did not enter the Official Singles Top 50; some later compilations list an “equivalent” position around No. 52. It did not register on the U.S. Hot 100. These details tell a story of a record beloved by listeners even if it wasn’t a blockbuster everywhere.
Here’s the thread that ties it all together. Cassidy was stepping out of the teen-idol frame and into something more adult, more self-authored. Teaming with Bruce Johnston—a connoisseur of layered harmonies and a master of lush studio architecture—he shaped Home Is Where the Heart Is as a statement album. The sessions drew on elite L.A. players (you can spot names like Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and Jim Keltner across the credits), and the mood is quietly assured rather than flashy. In that setting, choosing a lesser-known McCartney gem made perfect sense: it signaled taste, craft, and a desire to be judged on interpretation rather than poster sales.
The story behind “Tomorrow” starts earlier, of course, with McCartney’s original—a bittersweet piano tune placed near the end of Wild Life—but Cassidy hears something different in it. Where Wings’ studio cut ripples with early-’70s looseness, Cassidy’s version widens the frame: the tempo feels steadier, the vocal sits up front like a confidant, and Johnston’s production gives the chorus a lift that feels like a window thrown open after a long winter. It’s not bombastic; it’s tender. That was Cassidy’s gift at this mid-’70s inflection point—finding the grown man inside the teenage idol and letting him sing plainly about hope without tipping into schmaltz.
What the song means here—and why it lands so deeply with listeners who lived through the era—is the way it treats tomorrow not as a slogan but as a shelter. Cassidy sings as someone who knows real weariness: the public glare, the miles on the road, the attempts to reinvent without losing himself. In his hands, “tomorrow” is a modest, human-sized vow: we’ll keep going, and it will feel lighter than today. That’s why mature ears lean in. The record invites you to remember the mornings after the hard nights—coffee on the table, a slant of sun on the floorboards, and the simple relief of breathing easier than you did the day before. It’s a ballad for survivors, not dreamers.
The release trail underlines that. In Britain, the single surfaced on RCA (catalogue RCA 2645) and spent a week on the Breakers list dated 7 February 1976, hovering just below the published Top 50—evidence of interest, if not mass momentum. In the United States, it appeared on RCA PB-10585 that spring; radio never properly broke it. Yet in South Africa, the record connected immediately, climbing to No. 10 through June and July of 1976. The map of that reception—quiet in some territories, warmly embraced in another—mirrors the song’s character: it finds its people, and then it stays with them.
As part of Home Is Where the Heart Is, “Tomorrow” is also a hinge in Cassidy’s catalogue. The album—cut at Caribou Ranch, produced by Cassidy and Johnston, and studded with heavyweight contributors—didn’t chart as a set, but critics noticed the growth and the care. When you hear “Tomorrow” inside the album’s flow, it functions like a thesis: adult pop craftsmanship, a warm ensemble sound, and a singer ready to trust understatement over spectacle. For many older listeners, returning to the track now is less about chart trivia and more about the feeling of that era—the blue-sky optimism that followed hard lessons, the way music could make the next day seem not just possible but welcome.
Key facts at a glance: Song: “Tomorrow” (Paul & Linda McCartney). Original: Wings, Wild Life (1971). David Cassidy version: single from Home Is Where the Heart Is (1976), produced by Bruce Johnston & David Cassidy, recorded at Caribou Ranch; B-side “Half Past Your Bedtime.” Chart highlights: South Africa No. 10; U.K. Breakers (did not reach Official Top 50); no U.S. Hot 100 placement.
And that’s the lingering truth of David Cassidy’s “Tomorrow.” It isn’t merely a cover. It’s a memory you can step back into—one of those records that carries the hush and resilience of mid-’70s pop, promising, with a gentle certainty only experience can bring, that the light really does return in the morning.