With the first day of school right around the corner, here's Chuck Buell, with yet
another “sharp point” to make!
(Wasn't life so much easier when school started the day after Labor Day ...
You just knew that Labor Day was going to be the first Monday in September - and that school was going to start the day after that! And it was usually a half day to boot!)
Sending the kids off to school in the dreadful heat of August just doesn't make sense to me ... plus they end up losing a whole month of summer!
The world just seemed to make so much more sense back then.)
ANYWAY ...
It’s Back-to-School Time
once again and time to buy those brand new wonderful and unique smelling School
Supplies!
Like the famous “Number
Two” Pencil! ( Yes, they are still used
in many classrooms today! )
When you read the word
“pencil,” what might have come to mind was a long, slender, yellow, wooden, stylus
topped with a pink eraser ( or what I refer to as a “Portable, Handheld,
User-Friendly, No Batteries Required, Word-Processing Device! )
That Yellow Pencil color
has been around since 1899 when a Czech manufacturing company decided to color
its pencils yellow because of the color’s long association with royalty in
China ( the country’s next-door neighbor. )
Soon, other companies
followed suit, and the yellow pencil became ubiquitous around the world.
And to this day, most
grade school students can easily spell “pencil,” while most high school grads
can’t spell “ubiquitous!”
Can you?
Yeah, me neither.
Now then, why “Number
Two?”
It was
writer Henry David Thoreau who worked in his father’s pencil factory and
somewhere along the line, Thoreau introduced the system for measuring the
hardness of pencil graphite marking them with numbers from 1 to 4. Number 2
turned out to be the most satisfying.
Now, can
you spell “Thoreau” on your first attempt?!
Nah, me
neither.
And it
was also Thoreau who popularized the common phrase heard so often in classrooms
and offices everywhere and in the Forgotten Hits World Headquarters when one
who does not have a pencil immediately in hand says to another, “Pardon me,
would you please thro-reau me a pencil?”
OK, I
might have made that last part up but still . . . .
Nevertheless,
from writing Books to Love Letters and all else in between with a pencil, here
is my “Chuck Buell Books and Letters Written with a Pencil Minute Medley!”
CB (
which stands for “Composition Boy!” )
My favorite Back To School commercial ever ...
Ever been stabbed with a #2 pencil???
I have ...
Third grade.
Can't remember the name of the girl who did it ...
But the mark is STILL there some 62 years later!!!
When it first happened, my parents took me to the doctor as it looked like a piece of lead must have penetrated my skin and was now embedded in there ...
But after a bit of painful digging, he determined there was nothing there to remove ... and that the discoloration would probably go away "in a couple of days."
Yet here it is, 62 years later, and it's still there.
So yes ... the #2 Pencil gets my vote as "most durable" for sure!!!
A couple of other pencil songs that came to mind when I first read Chuck's piece ...
[I just LOVE the Barry Manilow version of this song!]
And of course the minute he said #2, my mind went in a completely different direction! (lol)
Since today (Monday, August 1st, 2023) just happens to be the night of a full moon ...
And since there has been all this talk lately about military whistle blowers acknowledging the on-going investigations into all things alien and UFO related ... and how they may pose a threat to our national security ...
(oh wait, we can't call them UFO's anymore ... they're now called UAP's ... must be some kind of "politically correct" update since the '30's!) ...
And since Kevin Spacey was found not guilty of sexual assault (ya see what I did there) ...
And since Chuck Buell wants us to maintain our image of being on the leading (if not BLEEDING) edge of all things Forgotten Hitable ...
He has offered up THIS piece of galaxy news.
And so, without any further adieu (bless you!) ...
Here is the latest fromour in-resident Director of the Forgotten Hits “Music
in Outer Space” Department, Chuck Buell
(who may have been considered a little bit spacey himself from time to time over the years!!!) . . .
One of the most iconic pieces of musical space
exploration history went up for auction yesterday.
But it can still be yours at a later date
as it did not sell!
In 1977, just weeks apart, NASA’s Twin
Voyager Probes, Voyager One and Voyager Two, lifted off to explore the solar
system. They carried identical 12-inch golden records designed as the first
recorded interstellar message from humankind to potential intelligent life
in the cosmos.
Eight copies of this special record,
made of copper and plated in gold, were produced, including the two that flew
to space. Each record cover was etched with symbols depicting how to locate the Sun and instructions on how to play the record.
And, as any astute Forgotten Hitter knows,
one of those recordings included Chuck Berry’s 1958, Top 10 Hit, “Johnny B.
Good.”
One of the copies of the Master Analog Audiotapes
of these Voyager Golden Records, held by the late astronomer Carl Sagan and his
wife, went on the auction block yesterday at Sotheby’s New York.
They are still in their original
Columbia Recording Studios boxes with very informally handwritten labels. According
to the auction house, the audio quality of both tapes is “excellent.”
The two double-sided reels were
expected to go for between $400,000 and $600,000. However, they did not.
The Gold Records themselves traveling
beyond our solar system and now between 12 and 15 billion miles from Earth were
designed to last between 1 billion and 5 billion years. ( Side Buell Bar: How could
they even “calculate” how long they should last much less that long?! )
When the Voyager probes were launched
in 1977, no one expected those twin spacecraft would have missions lasting from
four years to 45 years and counting.NASA says it will be forty thousand years before
a close approach to any other planetary system is even reached.
And shortly after they do, NASA fully expects
to receive phone calls from undetermined locations stating that the warranty on
their space probes have expired and should be renewed immediately!
( OK, I might have made that last line
up, but still . . . )
BTW, a 3 Vinyl LP Box Set Compilation of
these actual NASA Gold Records, especially for Earthlings, IS available on
Amazon for a more budgetable price of around $160.
( Forgotten Hitters wonder if Kent has
this one in his extensive collection of Box Record Sets! )
*****
Seems to me that this piece is just BEGGIN' for a SWEET 16 List!!!
SPACE ... THE FINAL FRONTIER (???)
Well, not exactly ...
Buell'll be back tomorrow to cover a few points regarding what we're calling "Pencil Logic"
As promised, here is the piece we ran back in 2004 (seriously ... almost 20 years ago?!?!) submitted by Laura Levin, Mrs. Rock And Roll Never Forgets, aka Jack's Trophy Wife ... along with a few follow-up pieces on the great Donny Osmond we put together in response to this piece.
Consider it part of our tribute to the late Jack Levin, a long-time friend and frequent contributor to Forgotten Hits. (kk)
'60's FLASHBACK:
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. (DONNYowned 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???
With all his years in radio, Tom Cuddy has met and mingled with most of the music stars we all count among our favorites ...
So I just knew he'd have an interesting story or two to share about Donny Osmond ...
Hi Kent:
You asked for a couple of Donny Osmond memories for your Teen
Idols feature, so here you go:
This is an incredible comeback story that goes back 30 years.
For years, Donny Osmond has been struggling to shed his child
star image. After the phenomenal success he enjoyed with his brothers and
as a soloist, he was out of the spotlight for a while and hadn’t had a
radio hit since 1976 with “C’mon Marianne.”
So here it is the late 80s, and he had been working on some
demos in England. One of those songs was getting some traction in the
U.K., when one of Donny’s fans sent the record to WPLJ / New York’s
then Music Director Jessica Ettinger.
The song sounded so good that the decision was made to put the
record on the air, but not in a typical way. Knowing the pop audience
would have serious hesitations about a song associated with Donny’s
goody-good image and to allow the song to be evaluated without preconceived
notions, the song was aired in America’s # 1 radio market as
“the Mystery Artist.”
In the days before e-mails and texts, the request lines were a
valuable tool, and it was clear that listeners loved the tune, and only three or four figured out it was Donny. Most people didn’t have a clue and
Billboard Magazine, who was listening from their NYC office, couldn’t
figure it out and called wanting to know.
So Donny’s manager was called in LA and told what was
going on in NY with the “Mystery Artist” airplay. Donny was
invited to fly into NY and be on the morning show the day that it was revealed
to the audience that the mystery artist was Donny Osmond.
At first, Donny was a little hesitant to fly-in. He was
fearful that he would fly 3,000 miles and then, when it was revealed it was him,
people might not be so receptive.
This was before Scott Shannon arrived as morning man at
‘PLJ, so it was iconic NY air talent Jim Kerr who revealed it was Donny
and he started to take calls from listeners. The reaction was
overwhelmingly positive.
Because all the major record labels had offices in NYC and they
heard the excitement the “mystery artist” was creating, Donny
Osmond went from an artist without a label, to an artist that had several
offers.
Donny decided to go with Capitol Records.
After the record, “Soldier of Love” was
released, it shot up the charts and peaked on the Billboard charts in
1989, at #2. In my book, he deserved #1!
Donny followed it immediately with “Sacred Emotion”
and that gave him a # 13 hit in Billboard.
In over 40 years in radio, I have found some artists over time
forget how radio helped them ... but not Donny.
Anytime over the years that we needed Donny’s help at
WPLJ, he was always there to lend a hand with a smile.
I remember one time my wife and I were getting boarding passes
at JFK airport for a trip to LA. All of a sudden, I heard someone call my
name at the airport and it was Donny. He came over to say hi, met
my wife and we caught up in the middle of the airport. Most celebrities
get escorted quickly to the VIP area so they can be hidden from the public
until their flight leaves, but Donny kept talking to us, even as the crowds
were forming as they recognized him.
And, Kent, I’ll leave you with A Donny Osmond
exclusive ...
Something I’ve never revealed publicly before.
When I
was the Executive Producer of “American Top 40” and Casey Kasem
announced he was leaving the show for a more lucrative contract with a
competitor, tons of well known radio and media talent and artists auditioned
for the job as the new host of AT40. Donny Osmond was one of them and he
did such a fine job, he was one of our Top 5 finalists.
Even though he didn’t get the full-time gig, Donny did end
up being one of the first recording artists to guest host American Top 40.
-- Tom Cuddy
(It sounds like Donny's Mystery Singer tactic served him well as advance training for his stint on The Masked Singer several years later! lol)
Here are a few pictures that Tom sent us ...
Donny Osmond and Tom Cuddy
L-R: Tom Cuddy, Donny Osmond, Mike Preston (WPLJ Music Director)
As well as one submitted by David Salidor (courtesy of disCOMPANY) of Tom Cuddy, Donny Osmond and Micky Dolenz at Feinstein's (from 2007!)
For all his accomplishments and all his success ... worldwide fame and fortune... a 50 year career in show business, and gracing the cover of more teen magazines than anyone else in history, I still feel like Donny never really got his due.
He is just such an incredibly talented man ... and it often felt that the whole teen idol thing actually held him back from being taken too seriously. (The corny tv show didn't help much either, for that matter!)
But this guy can SING ... and play DOZENS of instruments well ... and has that enduring charisma that even now, all these years later, still charms an audience to putty in his hands.
Listen to some of his latter day work and you'll be amazed by just how good it is. (Besides the Joseph soundtrack, I also highly recommend Donny's Christmas album ... I have played this one non-stop throughout the holiday season for many years now ... impeccable.)
Jeez ... I sound like one of his teenage fans!!! Frannie LOVES the guy and even SHE doesn't gush as much as I just did!!! (lol) kk
******
>>>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. (Steve Sarley)
Whenever I write about Steve's "groinal area," I always feel obligated to give him a call to be sure he's all-right ... so I did exactly that this morning. (I mean, what's worse than a pandemic???)
Anyway, he assured me that he's fine ...
Oh my God, I forgot that story ever appeared in FH.
It is a true honor to have my groinal area mentioned in the esteemed pages of FH again.
Reading it again certainly brings back the pain. Just like a farmer, I still have a couple of acres.
Steve
******
Joseph took a brief hiatus in Chicago ... and when it returned the demand for tickets was greater than ever.
Naturally, we had to see it again.
To help drum up additional interest (yeah, like THAT was necessary!), Joseph, The Pharaoh and The Narrator all made a personal appearance at North Riverside Mall to sign CD's, T-Shirts, Theater Programs, etc.
My two girls were DYING to see them ... they LOVED the musical and couldn't wait to see it again. (Years later when Paige became part of the family, she starred in two productions of "Joseph" ... first as a seven year old member of the children's chorus down in Fort Worth, TX, and then again as the Narrator in her high school production ... kind of a full circle Joseph evolution! Needless to say, SHE'S a major fan, too!)
Anyway, I figured I'd just take a long lunch, shoot on up to the mall, meet the kids there, get a couple of autographs and maybe (if we were lucky) a picture with the key members of the cast and be on my way.
I couldn't believe the number of people that were there to see them that day ... the length of the line ran through the length of the mall! I had NEVER expected this kind of turn-out!
We waited for a little over four hours and were finally getting near the front of the line when they announced that they would be shutting things down in twenty minutes.
To help speed up the process, and allow as many people to see the actors as possible, there would be no more picture taking ... and whatever you wanted to have signed needed to be brought up in advance so that you could meet up with your merchandise when you finally hit the table.
Well, Kris, my youngest, absolutely LOVED The Pharaoh ... nobody steals the show from Donny Osmond ... but this guy came pretty damn close!!! The ovations after his Elvis bit were phenomenal. (And I can say, without the slightest reservation, that Chicago's Pharaoh blows away the Pharaoh that made the DVD release. Johnny Seaton ... you was robbed!!!)
Anyway, as we finally made our way to the front of the line, Kris ran right up to the Pharaoh and I came up behind her and told him "You're her favorite!"
"Is that right?" he said ... well, then let's get a picture together right now. (The poor guy had to be SO relieved that somebody was FINALLY paying attention to him instead of swooning over Donny!!!)
So we snapped a quick shot, got our CD signed by all three cast members, and were on our way. (I didn't realize how long ago this really was until I looked at the picture ... Nicki, my older daughter on the right, just gave birth to our fourth grandchild a month ago ... her second ... and thanks to a remarriage to Frannie, we now have four grown children of our own ... and four GRANDchildren as well. Man, I gotta go lie down!!!) kk
Wow! How old was that Osmond comment of mine that you printed today? Still holds true though.
Songs of the 60's and 70's, though, continue to show their timelessness.
"Dreams" from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album went to #21 on the Hot 100 this week after a video of a man on a skateboard drinking cranberry juice while lip syncing that song went viral.
Also in the top forty is a remake of Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by singer Emilee Flood, sort of. But it's only one line repeated over and over. I kept waiting for the rest of the song, but apparently one line is all that fits on TikTok, or so I'm told.
It's nice to see the kids still enjoy this music, in their own bizarre way.
Ed Erxleben
I read about the “Dreams” thing the other day … we mentioned it a week or two ago that after this Tik Tok video went viral, sales were thru the roof. (Mick Fleewood even made his OWN skateboarding video! And Frannie said that she heard that Oceanspray gave the guy a new car for all the great press ... and free publicity ... thanks to him drinking their cranberry juice in the clip! lol)
Incredible to think that Fleetwood Mac wind up just outside The Top 20 again after all these years with a former #1 record. (Which just goes to show you that SOMEDAY … and it just may be sooner than you think … somebody just might actually TIE Chubby Checker’s 60 year old record of hitting #1 in Billboard with the same record in two different releases! Of course, Chubby's record came over a two year span ... but a 40-50 year span?!?! Incredibly, it actually COULD happen!!!)
That Donny Osmond comment was from 2004 when our Teen Idol Series first ran. (We did a whole week, spotlighting ‘70’s teen heartthrobs like David Cassidy, Donny Osmond, Any Gibb, Leif Garrett, Bobby Sherman, Shaun Cassidy, The Hudson Brothers and more.)
There is a lot of Forgotten Hits material that did not survive our now 21 year history … but fortunately this one did … although FH reader Clark Besch takes issue with a few of the points you raised in your original comments (kk)
Kent,
I have utmost respect for my friend Ed. He's been a great person to know. STILL, I must defend a few things on his three points below. Luckily, I was just old enough to not be totally consumed by the early 70's teen idols ... YET, I had a few faves in those musically. BTW, Kent, "Love Me For A Reason" WAS a 45 I kept in my faves … however, listening to it now, it is not as great today.
ED said:
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.
The Osmonds had been on Andy Williams for years before the J5 hit. They were often singing old standards or barbershop type tunes and I paid no attention. Yes, the J5 did get a head start on the Osmonds pop hit factory, but they HAD been around. I agree, they jumped on what bandwagon they could, as they signed with MGM in 1963 and had tried lots of things before they hit it big seven years later. They NEEDED a hit and MGM wanted one, too. They jumped on Lou Christie's bandwagon in ‘67 with this one, but it failed. Great tune ‘tho.
Oddly enough, American Bandstand played their fall, 1970 45 "Movin' Along" on Rate-a-Record and I recorded it then and liked it a lot, altho I was surprised THAT group could have a decent pop record. It failed, but the next was paydirt and I liked "One Bad Apple," despite the kiddy image.
As early as 1972, tho, they were doing throwaway silly ones like "Crazy Horses" … but ALSO doing some nice ballads that the J5 were not really into.
From that very 1972 LP, I was listening to X-ROCK 80 in El Paso before high school one morning and on came this song. Altho, you may not think it when the chorus starts, I first thought it was a new McCartney song. Listen and you could agree! Beautiful song I would never have thought would be the Osmonds at the time.
One thing I also point to as an AM/FM dividing tool was the Osmonds were what people would say was AM, while Edgar Winter and such were FM sounds at the time. SO, it was funny when I heard "Goin' Home" and loved it. It was SO much like Edgar Winter's recent "River's Risin'" that it kind of showed a bit of prejudice in the AM/FM theories. The former would be AM only and the latter, AM and FM friendly.
Anyway, there were really some pop gems in these kiddie Osmond things, IMO.
Chiming in here for just a sec …
The song “One Bad Apple” was first offered to The Jackson Five … and they turned it down!!!
So The Osmonds jumped on it … and it became a #1 tune, very much in the same vein as what The Jacksons were doing. (Truth be told, I HATED this tune when it came out … and STILL have a hard time listening to it … I think The Osmonds recorded FAR better material deserving of #1 status than this one … but this is what got the ball rolling. That being said, there were a few early Jackson Five singles that made my skin crawl, too … but I believe that BOTH bands released many more GOOD singles than bad.) kk
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.
Yeah, most of those DID suck! Of course, J5 early solos were like that, too: "Little Bitty Pretty One,” “Rockin' Robin," "Daddy's Home."
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
I think there were many before that probably.
OK, so Donny beat Michael to the top before Michael did "Rockin Robin" shortly thereafter.
My point is that despite all the criticism, BOTH groups did some good and some bad kiddie pop in those early 70's days.
Clark Besch
While looking for something else, I just happened to stumble across ANOTHER piece written by Laura, Jack’s Trophy Wife, that touches on her love for all things Donny …
This one actually won her a prize AGES ago when we were looking for the best definition of Psychedelic Music …
FROM DONNY OSMOND TO PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC IN A FEW EASY STEPS
Snow cones taught me about psychedelic music.
It must have been the summer of 1973. My sister was 12 and a fan of Donny Osmond.
Every 12-year-old girl was a fan of Donny Osmond that summer of 1973. They bought every issue of 16 Magazine (which always had Donny on the cover), practiced writing "Mrs. Donald Osmond" in their diaries, and -- well, you get the idea.
It was a well-known fact that Donny's favorite color was purple. My sister's softball team was called The Purple Turtles. The whole team was made up of 12-year-old girls, and they loved their Donny. I don't know where the turtle part came from.
I was almost 8 and I loved Donny a little bit, too. I did not love softball, but everyone else seemed to, so I tried to pretend like I did.
It seemed like every night I was at the local ball diamond, watching the Purple Turtles. There wasn't much to do there in the bleachers. The Purple Turtles weren't very good, and I don't ever remember them winning a game, or even coming close to winning, so cheering seemed kind of beside the point.
My favorite part about the games was the concession stand. A very nice married couple ran the concession stand. They sold candy and pop and snow cones. There were three or four flavors of snow cones, including a red that may have been cherry or strawberry, a purple grape, an orange orange, and maybe a green lime. To be honest, all the flavors tasted the same, so you usually ordered your favorite color.
Some kids couldn't decide which color they wanted, so the couple that ran the concession stand started selling snow cones that had squirts of every color, all swirled around. They looked sort of like when you tie dye a t-shirt. They called their new creation psychedelic snow cones.
Of course, by 1973 the word psychedelic really wasn't cool anymore. But the couple who ran the concession stand thought they were really hip with their psychedelic snow cones, and we 8-to-12-year-olds thought we were really hip eating them.
So, this is what it comes down to:
Because of Donny Osmond, the softball team was called The Purple Turtles.
Because of The Purple Turtles, I was at the ball diamond.
At the ball diamond concession stand, I learned the word psychedelic.
And I learned that psychedelic music sounds like a tie dye snow cone looks.
--Laura (Jack's Trophy Wife)
I still think this was one of the best series we’ve ever done.
The whole concept was … How do you describe the term “psychedelic” to a nine year old kid?
We had our readers submit their definitions … and then had Paige (age nine at the time) read them and grade them, ultimately awarding the prizes that went along with writing the best definitions (in the language that a nine year old could understand.)
I remember her "grading papers" in our hotel room in Florida each morning before heading off to Disney World!
It was a whole lotta fun …
And it’s STILL posted on the other Forgotten Hits Website after all these years.
Check it out when you get a chance. (Even if you’ve seen it before, you probably won’t remember it ... because the whole idea of psychedelic music is … well, you get the drift!) kk
