We recently reran a piece that we first published in 2004 pertaining to David Cassidy, Teen Idol, and got a pretty good response to it.
We have since uncovered the chapter on Donny Osmond that ran as part of that same 2004 week-long tribute to '70's Teen Idols ...
And, as promised, are rerunning that one again today, too.
Several Forgotten Hits Readers chimed in at the time ... including Frannie, as Donny was her favorite.
It kicks off with another memory from Laura Levin,
"Jack's Trophy Wife," who also spearheaded our David Cassidy chapter.
Enjoy!
The Osmonds, Down
By The Lazy River, circa March 1972
In his wonderful autobiography, Life Is Just What You Make It, Donny Osmond notes that while their first US hit was One Bad Apple, The Osmonds' European debut was Down By The Lazy River. He also notes that The Osmonds get a lot more respect in Europe.
Like the Europeans, my older sister was deeply impressed by this song. Eventually it became necessary for her to give up her Close 'n' Play and switch to a record player that played albums. We used to go to sleep to this album (Phase III) every night.
My sister's dream was finally realized, and she got to see The Osmonds at the State Fair. She and her best friend made a pact: When the group came on stage for a photo op, they would count to three and then yell out, "Donny, I Love You!" At the crucial moment, my sister yelled as planned but her friend froze. Donny, meanwhile, turned in her general direction and yelled,"I love you, too!"
My sister's friend was crushed at her own cowardice, and
insisted my sister not tell anyone about this event, or at least not be happy
when she told them. Their friendship did not survive much past that point.
-- Jack's Trophy Wife
THE OSMONDS certainly hit close to home ...
In fact, the very first concert that Frannie ever went to was THE OSMONDS (with BO DONALDSON AND THE HEYWOODS, no less, as the opening act! ... but that's ANOTHER story!!!) And, there is NO question that DONNY was EVERYBODY's favorite OSMOND.
DONNY was only 13 years old when ONE BAD APPLE began its climb up the charts, making him the same age as many of his older fans ... someone they could easily identify with. Unlike DAVID CASSIDY (who, by his own admission, was consumed with sex ... and looking to partake at every opportunity), DONNY was ... well ... SWEET AND INNOCENT ... and, as such, all that much more "attainable" in the minds of his growing legion of young, female pre-teen fans.
While the BROTHERS were chalking up ten Top 40 Hits between 1971 and 1975, DONNY was putting together his OWN string of solo hits ... SWEET AND INNOCENT (#5, 1971, and a #1 Hit here in Chicago), GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL (#1 on ALL the charts, 1971), HEY GIRL (#9, 1972), PUPPY LOVE (#2, 1972 ... and ALSO #1 here in Chicago), TOO YOUNG (#8, 1972), WHY (#13, 1972), THE TWELFTH OF NEVER (#5, 1973), A MILLION TO ONE (#23, 1973), YOUNG LOVE (#21, 1973), ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT (#14, 1974) and C'MON MARIANNE (#38, 1976) all made The National Top 40. Some of his B-Sides (most notably I KNEW YOU WHEN and LONELY BOY) "tagged along" for the chart ride. Most of these songs were remakes of previously proven hits but while that tactic worked short-term for other '70's heart-throbs like LEIF GARRETT, DONNY pretty much made a career out of it for six years! (We could probably do an entire series on DONNY remakes vs. the originals!!!)
He also hit the charts another half-dozen times teaming with his sister MARIE, with whom he co-hosted a successful variety television series for a couple of years.
And he has managed to stay near and dear to our hearts by staging a MAJOR comeback in the late '80's with hits like SOLDIER OF LOVE, SACRED EMOTION and MY LOVE IS A FIRE ... a TV talk-show (again with sister MARIE) and, here in Chicago, a nightly sell-out for YEARS as the lead in JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. (DONNY owned this town for about four years! I was fortunate enough to see this show four times while it played here ... and meet Donny, The Pharaoh and The Narrator at a public CD signing.) Tom Cuddy has told me on numerous occasions that Donny is, without question, one of the nicest people you could ever meet in show business.
And who would have ever thought that he'd end up as the WINK MARTINDALE of the new millennium by hosting the game show PYRAMID!!! (Since this piece first ran in 2004, you can also add a stint on Dancing With The Stars ...for both Donny AND Marie ... and a long-standing ... and VERY successful ... residency in Las Vegas.)
We're going with LAURA's OSMONDS selection, DOWN BY THE LAZY RIVER (a #1 Hit here in Chicago and #3 on the National Charts) along with DONNY's first solo smash, SWEET AND INNOCENT (officially released as "DONNY OSMOND of THE OSMONDS") ... another GREAT two-fer from those hit-hot Mormons from Utah with the incredibly big teeth!!!
DIDJAKNOW? SWEET AND INNOCENT was first recorded by ROY ORBISON ... who's version sounds absolutely NOTHING at all like DONNY's hit version. (In fact, ORBISON's version never made the charts at all ... you really gotta wonder whose idea it was to revive this otherwise dormant record and "pop-it-up," DONNY style. Whatever the case, it worked ... the song actually topped the charts here in Chicago!)
Oh my god, Kent!!! When I read your email, I
blushed!! How funny!
My big heartthrobs were Donny Osmond and Bobby Sherman. Donny was cute and I
thought he had an incredible voice. He was the same age as me so that added to
the attraction. I would buy "16", "Spec" and
"Tiger Beat" magazines at the 7-11 on my way home from school. Then I
would hide them in my book bag so I wouldn't be ridiculed by my sucky brothers.
I never would put up posters because my brothers would rag on me. I read every
article about Donny. When I read that he was Mormon, I had to find out what
that was. I might have converted!! LOL When he would sing "Too
Young", I felt like he was singing to me. ::melt::
It's a funny thing, bringing back memories of early sexual stirrings. Two songs
come to mind ... Stay Awhile by the Bells and Go All The Way by the Raspberries.
Boy, did those songs have me thinking thoughts! :-)
Suzanne
16
MAGAZINE CONNECTION / IDOL TALES : DONNY loves to tell the story of how his wife, DEBBIE, used to read all the
teenie-bopper fan magazines ... and was madly in love with ... DAVID CASSIDY!!! (lol) It is believed
that DONNY OSMOND holds the record
for the most 16 MAGAZINE covers to
feature his picture.
(According to FH Reader Tom Cuddy, this is closer than Donny and David EVER got on that Teen Idol Cruise Ship!!! lol Obviously, some photo shop work was done here ... at a time when BOTH ruled the pages of every teeny-bopper magazine in the world!)
More Donny Osmond memories from Tom Cuddy ...
Tomorrow in Forgotten Hits!
Meanwhile, here's my all-time favorite Osmonds song ...
And a couple of others from along the way ...
ORIGINAL COMMENTS:
I found a few of the original comments that we received after our Donny Osmond piece first ran in 2004 …
I forgot all about Donny when you asked about teen idols! I loved Donny! In fact, in my Charlie Brown book (I was 8 or 9 at the time lol) I wrote in the front of it, "I love Donny Osmond. Don't tell anyone." I used to watch the Donny and Marie show and had their record which I totally wore out. When the show would be on, I'd kiss Donny on the tv. I told my sister she had to like Jimmy because she couldn't like Donny.
Thanks for the memories :)
Christy/Jovi
Whenever I think of Donny, I think of purple socks!
And I guess I always will.
Yes, I loved him ... thought for sure I was going to marry him.
It was never a sexual thing for me ... I was much too young ... I just wanted to kiss his picture on my wall ... and marry him! That's all!
Betty
I remember it well!
I was working for the Andy Frain Company in the personnel department. We were booked to send a crew to the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place for a concert for the benefit of the Republican Party. We got a panicky call from the management at McCormick Place at 2 in the afternoon asking for ushers and security to be sent as soon as possible because kids had started lining up for the concert at noon. We normally had the theater staffed at 6:45 p.m. The concert was for people who had contributed major dollars to the Republican National Committee. The main attraction was The Osmonds. The contributors had all given their tickets to their young daughters. The seating was to be first-come-first-served and there were 4,000 kids there by 5 o'clock for a 7:30 show.
When we first opened the doors, the horde overwhelmed us, breaking down the theater's huge wooden interior doors. Kids were hurt, but not too badly. This could have pre-dated the Who in Cincinnati, but we were fortunate.
The show started at 7:30 and who walks on stage but the Vice President, Spiro T. Agnew, to say a few words. He had to leave the stage because he could not be heard over the resounding chorus of teeny boppers who wanted nothing but Donny & Co. Next on-stage was The Chairman of the Board ... that's right, the one and only Frank Sinatra.
He was supposed to sing a song or two, but never got the chance to sing a word because he, too, was booed off of the stage.
After a short break, The Osmonds came out to an ovation I have never heard before. I was stationed center stage, right in front of Donny and spent the show dragging teen - aged girls off of the stage apron as they tried to get their hands on their idol. What I remember most, though, was the pain I felt from the punch to the groinal area I received from an innocent looking 13-year-old girl. I saw stars.
The Osmonds played for about thirty minutes and cut the show short when it became obvious that our efforts to protect them would end up going for naught.
Certainly a memorable show!
Steve Sarley
My younger sister was a big Donny Osmond fan, despite my attempts to reason with her.
Some of my arguments included:
1 The Osmonds were nothing more than Jackson Five wannabes. The Jacksons had introduced the prepubescent boy singer schtick more than a year before the Osmonds copied it. The Jacksons did it better and did more original material.
2 Donny Osmond's hits had already been done by grown-up men who could actually sing them convincingly: Nat King Cole, Paul Anka, Elvis, Frankie Avalon, Johnny Mathis etc.
3 Go Away Little Girl making #1 on the chart was a cataclysmic event, which would put popular musical taste into a tailspin from which it would never recover (I was right about that!), and would result in the end of civilization as we know it.
EErxleben
The concept of a then 13-year-old DONNY OSMOND telling someone that he felt was TOO YOUNG to GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL was a little bit hard for me to swallow, too, at the time ... but as he grew, he certainly proved he could sing ... and to this day, he's got a GREAT voice.
When Frannie and I saw him a couple of years ago in concert with a full orchestra, there wasn't a song or style he couldn't pull off ... really had the crowd going. If you missed him in JOSEPH during its four-year run here in Chicago, you missed the best live stage performance I've ever seen. Whereas MICHAEL JACKSON certainly evolved into quite a musician and songwriter, DONNY learned his chops, too ... on any variety of instruments ... I guess he never developed the songwriting ability and has had to rely on remakes for most of his chart success. (kk)
Donny Osmond, David Cassidy and Bobby Sherrman were all over my bedroom walls in 1972 and 1973.
I was 12 in '72 and I just knew that he was singing "Go Away Little Girl" to me LOL.
My brother (5 yrs older than I) couldn't take it anymore ... by 1973, he took all my Donny Osmond albums and 45's and used them for skeet shooting practice with his BB gun. At least I still had my memories.
Thanks for the trip back down the road to my early teen crushes.
--Cheryl
First I must say this is the best series you have put together. Even if Laura and I hadn't been involved, it would have been great.
When people ask me what sells for me, one of things I mention are 70's teen idols. You would not believe the fandom that still exists for Donny, David, Shaun, The Rollers, Andy, Leif and Rick Springfield.
Laura got $50.00 for some old clippings of Rollers articles. There's a bid right now for $30 for a Tiger Beat featuring Leif and John Travolta and it's got pages missing!! And that fact is stated in the description. You can't find those mid 70's teen mags anywhere, particularly with all the pages there. I've had a couple of emails this week alone from people wanting to know if I have more Leif Garrett covers. Who knew?
Jack
This was a fun one to put together ... thanks again to you and Laura ... and Brother Mark (who put together that Collectors’ Item 16 Magazine cover featuring yours truly) ... and to everyone who shared their comments and memories with the rest of the list ... obviously, a VERY special time for many of you! (kk)
Now that you mention it, Kent, I don't recall seeing you on the cover of 16. Great series and thanks for the plug.
Jack
It was a long, long time ago ... and the issue only came out in Bulgaria ... but, yeah, I was quite the rage for about four minutes. (kk)
This has always been one of my favorite Osmonds stories to tell.
According to Alan Osmond:
Led Zeppelin's agent/manager insisted that The Osmonds come backstage and meet the band. As they arrived backstage, the band was playing frisbee with their kids. After a cordial chat, one of the band members asked us if we would like to come up on stage with theme for their final song when they played "Stairway To Heaven."
A concerned manager who was worried about image whispered, "No, not The Osmonds!"
The band member then said, "Yes, The Osmonds," and asked a production member to escort us up the back stairs and to the right side of the stage.
The audience, which never stopped applauding to get Zeppelin to come back for an encore, were surprised as The Osmonds revealed themselves from the back of the stage with Zeppelin following. We stood stage right and watched the greatest performance of their song.
Hmm ... so Led Zeppelin made headlines last week when they supposedly won their court case regarding "Who wrote 'Stairway to Heaven'" ... again.
The biggest point of contention was the opening riff, LONG said to have been originated by Spirit guitarist Randy California.
Now we have known for years how much Led Zeppelin has "borrowed" from some of the blues greats, putting their own names on songs that had already existed for decades ...
But seriously ... could they REALLY have stolen (oops ... I mean "borrowed") the opening of The Osmonds' song "Crazy Horses" to create their own "Immigrant Song"???
No ... of course not ...
C'mon ... THE OSMONDS?!?!? ...
No way ... right???
MORE DONNY TOMORROW ...
IN FORGOTTEN HITS!
