Ward was born Jacqueline McDonnell in 1941[citation needed] to a military family in Hawaii (her father served in the US Navy) and raised in Nebraska.
After the trio won a national talent search run by Horace Heidt,[1] they moved to Los Angeles to seek work in the music industry.
(Elton John said the "hook" in his best-selling single "Crocodile Rock" was inspired by Ward's "Speedy Gonzales" vocal.
[2]) In 1963, songwriter-producer Perry Botkin Jr. hired Jackie Ward to make a demo recording of "Wonderful Summer", a song he wrote with co-writer and co-producer Gil Garfield.
Botkin realized the finished recording, with bird and surf sound effects added, was good enough to release as a pop music single.
Ward's voice is heard in dozens of television theme songs, including Flipper, Batman, Love, American Style, Maude (with Donny Hathaway providing the lead vocal), and The Partridge Family.
In 1965 movie Beach Blanket Bingo, Ward sings "New Love" and "Fly Boy", lip-synched by actor Linda Evans.
Along with her TV, movie and advertising singing, Ward is heard on hundreds of pop recordings, including backing Barbra Streisand on "Stoney End".
and other major recording artists including Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Gordon Lightfoot, the Carpenters, Cass Elliot, and Joan Baez.
With Cassidy singing lead, this group did all the TV show performances and records credited to the Partridge Family (along with session instrumental musicians in the Wrecking Crew).