A Quiet Yearning for the Dawn of a Changing Self
When Where Is The Morning unfurls its gentle chords, it marks a subtle reckoning within David Cassidy’s career—a moment when the familiar boy‑idol façade softens into something more wistful, more introspective.
In early 1972, Cassidy released his debut solo album Cherish under the Bell Records label, produced by Wes Farrell. The track “Where Is The Morning” is credited to songwriter Adam Miller. While this song did not emerge as a major charting single in its own right, the album itself reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. For Cassidy—already a global teen‑idol via his work with The Partridge Family—this was more than a pop confection: it was the opening gambit of a solo identity, and “Where Is The Morning” is quietly pivotal within this turning.
In its lyrical heart, “Where Is The Morning” inhabits a space of searching rather than celebration. The opening line—“I can’t sleep tonight” —places the narrator in wakefulness, in the stillness that follows desire or loss. He finds someone, she smiles, she says she’s free—yet the question of the morning remains: where is light, where is newness, where is the relief of dawn after the lone vigil? The song pivots on that quiet tension: having found the moment, yet awaiting its continuation.
Musically, the track is anchored in mid‑’70s pop sensibility—lush arrangements, gentle rhythm, Cassidy’s voice slightly breathy, vulnerable rather than brash. The album credits note top‑tier session musicians (from the so‑called “Wrecking Crew” roster) under Farrell’s production. That backdrop allows the emotional landscape of the song to breathe: strings that swell like hope, guitars that shimmer like the first light, but always just shy of full arrival. The “morning” here is metaphorical: emotional renewal, connection made true, an awakening from isolation.
In the broader arc of Cassidy’s career, this song stands as a bridge between his bubble‑gum teen stardom and a more contemplative solo path. The fact that it is not among his major singles gives it an interior life: it isn’t designed for screaming fans or mass hysteria, but rather for those brief private moments when the performer drops his mask and a trace of genuine longing remains. In that sense, “Where Is The Morning” invites the listener to reflect, rather than exult.
Moreover, the album itself arrived at a moment of transition. Cassidy was renegotiating his contract, moving from the television‑driven world of The Partridge Family into a solo realm where he could explore more personal emotional terrain. The song’s question—“Where is the morning?”—can thus be heard not only as introspection about love, but as an emblem of the dawning of independent artistic identity.
For listeners, the track’s legacy is modest yet resonant. It may not carry the bells of a chart‑topping hit, but it carries the weight of transition. In the quiet spaces between the melody and the silence that follows, one senses a star reaching beyond what he had been, into what he might become. The morning doesn’t register with loud fanfare—rather, it comes in the subtle promise of the next breath, the next verse, the next chapter.
“Where Is The Morning” remains a jewel for those willing to step back from the mass‑appeal singles, willing to hear the question behind the performance. Here is Cassidy in shadow rather than spotlight; here is longing rather than adulation; here is the soft cusp of change. And in that stillness there is truth.