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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