Shaun Cassidy: Surprising "Indie Cred"

This is a followup to those readers--all female and more or less my contemporaries--who posted hear mentioning their former (?) adoration of Shaun Cassidy. Turns out he has a surprisingly high standing with true "rock snobs," judging by the entry on him in Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, which begins thus: "Oh, quit your damn snickering. His teenybopper status notwithstanding, Keith Partridge's younger brother was actually a pretty good singer, and he had good taste in material as well." Turns out no less a figure of awe than Todd Rundgren worked with him as a producer.

For that matter, Shaun's older brother David has accrued far more respect than most of us (males) would have guessed in the early 1970s, when my own older brothers used to ridicule him in some pretty choice terms. He won my heart a long time ago, with his inherently self-deprecating role as host of VH1's 8-Track Flashback, and now I discover--again, thanks to MusicHound--that he has played with Mick Ronson, known for his work with Lou Reed and other luminaries. (And Ronson has an entry in the Rock Snob Encyclopedia [see below]. Need I say more?)