A musician, Billy was the lead singer for the 1960s family pop band “The Cowsills”. They had their share of top-10 hits including “The Rain, the Park and Other Things”, “We Can Fly”, and their version of “Hair” — from the rock opera — not to mention the theme for the 1969 TV show Love, American Style.
But what really caught the public’s attention was that the Cowsill boys were joined in the band by their mother, Barbara, and later their sister, Susan. The family singing situation made it to TV, but when the boys’ father learned Barbara would be played by an actress (Shirley Jones), he pulled the family band out; The Partridge Family (1970-74) went forward without the Cowsills’ involvement, with David Cassidy in the position of the lead singer.
Billy Cowsill, who suffered from emphysema and osteoporosis, died February 18 at 58. (The body of his brother, Barry, was found in late December; he had been missing from his New Orleans home since hurricane Katrina hit there four months earlier.)