The Osmonds
The Osmonds were an American family music group who reached the height of their fame in the early to mid-1970s. The group had its best-known configurations as a quartet (billed as the Osmond Brothers) and a quintet (as the Osmonds). The group has consisted of siblings who are all members of a family of musicians from Ogden, Utah, and have been in the public eye since the 1960s.[4]
This article is about the musical group. For the album, see Osmonds (album). For the 1972 cartoon series, see The Osmonds (TV series). For the 2022 musical, see The Osmonds (musical).
The Osmonds
The Osmond Brothers began as a barbershop quartet consisting of brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay.[4] They were later joined by younger siblings Donny and Jimmy, both of whom enjoyed success as solo artists.[5] With the addition of Donny, the group became known as the Osmonds; performing both as teen idols and as a rock band, their peak lasted from 1971 to 1975.[5] Their only sister Marie, who rarely sang with her brothers at that time, launched a successful career in 1973, both as a solo artist and as Donny's duet partner. By 1976, the band was no longer producing hit singles; that year, they transitioned into television with Donny & Marie, a popular variety show that ran until 1979.
A revival of the original Osmond Brothers lineup in the 1980s achieved moderate success in country music, and both Donny and Marie separately made comebacks in their respective fields in the late-1980s. The Osmonds have sold over 77 million records worldwide.[6]
The quartet continued to perform through their 50th anniversary in 2007, at which point Alan and later Wayne retired due to health issues; Jimmy was recruited after Alan's retirement, with the group performing as a trio until Jimmy suffered a stroke and retired in 2018. On 14 October 2019, the original Osmond Brothers quartet reunited for CBS' The Talk for their sister Marie's 60th birthday, billed as the last appearance for the lineup. The brothers performed "The Last Chapter", written as a farewell song and introduced in 2018.[7] Donny & Marie ended an 11-year Las Vegas residency on November 16, 2019. Merrill announced his retirement in 2022 to pursue a church mission, leaving Jay as the last remaining member of the original quartet still performing (Donny continues to perform as a solo artist as well). In later years, Alan's sons, particularly Nathan and David, have made appearances with their uncles.
Pop and rock era[edit]
Bubblegum: Osmonds and Homemade[edit]
Record producer Mike Curb saw the Osmonds perform as a band and recognized that they combined a rare mix of polished performing style, instrumental skill, and vocal talent.[15] He signed the Osmonds to MGM Records and arranged for them to record at Muscle Shoals with R&B producer Rick Hall.[10] Under Hall's guidance, the Osmonds hit the top spot on the pop chart with "One Bad Apple" in 1971. The song, "One Bad Apple", written by George Jackson, was composed in the style of The Jackson 5 (it was not originally offered to The Jackson 5,[19] though the Osmonds would later state that The Jackson 5 considered recording it).[20] The Osmond and Jackson families would eventually meet in 1972 and become friends.[21] "One Bad Apple" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on 2 January 1971, first hitting No. 1 in February, where it stayed for five weeks.
The Osmonds soon had hits with other light, R&B-style pop numbers like "Double Lovin'" (No. 14) and "Yo-Yo" (No. 3). In each of these hits, the formula was the same; Merrill sang lead, and Donny was "co-lead" in essence, singing the "hook" or "chorus" of the song. At this time the Osmonds also recorded several songs that were billed to Donny, the lead soloist on the songs: "Sweet and Innocent" (No. 7), "Go Away Little Girl" (No. 1), "Hey Girl" (No. 9) and "Puppy Love" (No. 3). Uni Records also re-released their 1967 single "Flower Music," this time with "I Can't Stop" as the A-side, where it reached No. 96. Their transition to pop stars required more elaborate choreography than their original work had required, so older brother Virl Osmond taught the quintet how to dance.[22][23] Olive Osmond initially taught the quintet how to sing harmony; the harmony arrangements eventually fell upon Wayne, who was found to have perfect pitch.[4]
Transition to rock: Phase III and Crazy Horses[edit]
The Osmonds began writing and performing their own music, and their sound moved towards rock music beginning with their album Phase III. In addition to "Yo-Yo", Phase III produced the major hit "Down by the Lazy River" (No. 4).[15] Their next Crazy Horses album was the band's first personal statement – the brothers have been quoted as saying that the title song refers to air pollution from cars, and its instrumentation featured an even harder rock sound bordering on early heavy metal. They wrote all the songs and played all the instruments with Alan on rhythm guitar, Wayne on lead guitar, Merrill on lead vocals and bass, Jay on drums, and Donny on keyboards; all of the brothers sang backing vocals and an occasional lead on album cuts.[24] Donny largely switched to instrumental contributions for much of 1972 to accommodate his changing voice; by 1973, Donny had settled from his former boy soprano range into a smooth baritenor voice.
Donny's voice change was a major upset to the group's original formula for success, largely eliminating Merrill's young-sounding co-lead's voice and forcing Merrill's mature tenor voice to strain to cover most of the higher notes, with audible difficulty, through the next few years. The success of Crazy Horses singles "Hold Her Tight" (No. 14) and title track "Crazy Horses" (on which Donny did not sing, but did contribute with a prominent keyboard riff) kept the group very popular through 1973. As the group toured, Donny continued to sing his solo hits, with the band progressively lowering the key until his voice change was complete.
With their clean-cut image, talent, and energetic pop-rock sound, the Osmonds toured to crowds of fans across the United States. By this time, the Osmonds had broken through in the United Kingdom as well: counting group and solo recordings, members of the Osmond family charted 13 singles on the UK charts in 1973. Some observers coined a new word, "Osmondmania", to describe the phenomenon, by analogy with the similar "Beatlemania" of the previous decade. The group also had their own Saturday-morning cartoon series in 1972 and 1973 , The Osmonds, on ABC-TV.
Emergence as teen balladeers: The Plan and Love Me for a Reason[edit]
The older Osmond brothers were of age to go on church missions, typically mandatory for members of the church. Noting that the Osmonds' music career was a major publicity boon for the church that had brought tens of thousands of new members, the church exempted the Osmonds from missionary service on the logic that the group served as de facto missionaries for the faith through their fame and music.[10][25][4] (Merrill would eventually serve a mission in 2022 after the group disbanded.[26]) They recorded an ambitious album in 1973 called The Plan, perhaps best described as a Mormon concept album with progressive rock aspirations. One reviewer suggested that The Plan carried a too-strong religious message, given that Mormonism is fairly conservative and not usually associated with the themes of rock-and-roll. The reviewer likewise suggested that the music was too varied and too experimental.[27] The album produced only two minor hits: "Let Me In" and "Goin' Home" (both No. 36 in the United States, although they both went top 5 in the United Kingdom and "Let Me In" was also a major hit on the easy listening charts).
Following the release of The Plan, the popularity of the Osmonds as a group began to decline. Alan, Wayne, and Merrill all married their wives in 1973 and 1974 (Donny married in 1978; Jay would not marry until 1987), and the band began to slow their tour circuit.[10] The Plan was also a major departure from the pop music which made them so popular. The combination of this album, along with Donny's voice change the year before, meant that the Osmonds' popularity with young fans would wane.
Another major factor in the band's decline was the sheer diversity of its output: within three years, the Osmonds had waffled between bubblegum pop, hard rock, and easy listening, and Donny's solo career as an oldies cover artist further muddled the band's direction. Donny's collaboration with Steve and Eydie, "We Can Make it Together" (which Alan, Wayne, and Merrill had penned for Donny), came out on the easy listening charts at the same time the much harder "Crazy Horses" song was charting.
Television era[edit]
In 1976, ABC offered Donny and Marie their own television show, The Donny & Marie Show. George demanded that the Osmond Brothers work behind the scenes on the show.[4][15] The family and ABC built and operated Osmond Studios, a first-class television studio in Orem, Utah, where the show was produced beginning in 1977.[15] As a result, the Osmonds as a performing band became a lower priority to Donny and Marie. The older brothers deferred or gave up their dreams of being a rock-and-roll band, although Donny and Marie as a duo continued to record hits into 1978. In an interview with The Lost 45s, Wayne Osmond suggested their abandonment of songwriting and not working on material during the TV run may have been a mistake, as their career never recovered from the hiatus. Various members of the family struggled with the transition; Donny experienced stage anxiety, Merrill struggled with bipolar disorder, and Marie had a brief bout with an eating disorder after a network executive told her she looked heavy.[8]: 59 Both Donny and Marie were offered roles in the 1978 film adaptation of the hit musical Grease, with Donny being considered for the role of the Teen Angel and Marie for the role of Sandy; Marie turned the role down, concerned that the character's rebellious turn at the end was not a fit for her.[28] Donny and Marie instead chose to star in Goin' Coconuts, under the belief that it would be more family-friendly, which ended up being a critical and commercial failure.
The Donny & Marie Show was canceled in 1979, and the Osmonds found themselves in debt and without a clear direction. The group switched from Polydor to corporate affiliate Mercury Records and released another album, Steppin' Out, was a transitional album for the Osmonds and was produced by Maurice Gibb. Among its tracks was the first recorded version of "Rest Your Love on Me", a country song that became a hit for Gibb's group, the Bee Gees, and topped the country charts in a cover version by Conway Twitty. Steppin' Out itself was a major failure, with the album failing to chart and its only charting single, "You're Mine," reaching only to No. 138 on the Record World charts; it would be their only album on the Mercury label.
The family also produced two unsuccessful projects for Marie, a sitcom pilot that never aired and a variety show revival that lasted seven episodes in 1980 and 1981.[10] Donny permanently separated from the group (and, for a time, from Marie) shortly thereafter. The family also fell prey to embezzlers who came on as business partners to help finance the television show; several went to prison for their crimes.[4]
George Osmond refused to let the family declare bankruptcy and ordered his children honor all of their financial obligations by whatever means necessary, effectively forcing the Osmonds to return to the road.[10][4]
Parents[edit]
Olive Osmond, mother of the Osmond siblings, died on 9 May 2004, at age 79. Their father, George Osmond, died on 6 November 2007, at age 90.[48] The couple was survived by their nine children and 55 grandchildren as well as a number of great-grandchildren. Before George Osmond's death, plans were being made for him and the 120-plus members of the Osmond family to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show to celebrate the family's 50th anniversary in show business. He died just a few days prior to the taping. The family ultimately decided to go on with the show as scheduled and, on 9 November, the entire Osmond family appeared on stage with Oprah Winfrey as a tribute to their father.[49] The show aired the following day, the same day as George Osmond's funeral.
Hollywood Walk of Fame[edit]
In 2003, the Osmond Family was honored for their achievements in the entertainment industry with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.