The Osmonds
 The
singing Osmond siblings from Utah - Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay and
Donny - had been performing together for nearly 10 years before
they caught the eye of a record company astute enough to realise
that The Jackson 5 in white would be a
good earner.
As soon as the ink was dry on the contract, The Osmonds went
into the studio to record One Bad Apple. The single went to
Number 1 in America for more than a month, selling over a million
copies.
It was shortly afterwards that the solo potential of the
group's 11-year-old lead singer Donny
was also recognised, and while The Osmonds racked up five gold
albums between 1971 and 1973, Donny's parallel career scored four
gold albums and seven Top 10 singles. Then off the Osmond
production line came sister Marie
and youngest brother, the well-nourished 'Little' Jimmy.
Curiously, after the initial flush of success was over, The
Osmonds (both solo and as a group) actually did much better in
Britain where Osmond-mania really got a hold in July 1972 when
Donny's Puppy Love topped the UK charts for five weeks.
 Jimmy
also had a solo Number One hit in the UK at Christmas 1972 with Long
Haired Lover From Liverpool.
Nine-year-old Jimmy admitted in interviews that he had
absolutely no idea where Liverpool was, but became the youngest
ever UK chart-topper, and the song (which shared the UK Top 10
with Crazy Horses by his brothers and Why? by Donny)
became 1972s biggest selling single. Sister Marie
had her own hit with Paper Roses in 1973.
By 1979 though, 'Little' Jimmy was no longer small or cute and
Donny and Marie's material had descended into the worst type of
countrified mawk - It was something they had always threatened
(notwithstanding Donny's ill-advised forays into Disco) - and then
Donny did the worst thing possible . . . he grew up.
The altogether rather sensible LP Donald Clark Osmond
got no further than the Top 160 in America and bombed completely
in the UK. But for a few years when The Osmonds were big in the
70's, they had no equal. They were B.I.G . . . Big.
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