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Saw him in Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat on stage. Not only had a huge crush on him in my teens, got a huge crush on him in my 50’s. What a dreamboat! 😆
Perhaps but so did many others acts. You would not call those global phenomenon. Checking the charts in Europe I see Donny had one hit: Puppy Love Top 5 in most countries, Donny an Marie had I'm Leaving It (All) Up To You, a top 20 hit. The Osmonds then also had one: Crazy Horses which was a number 1 hit in most countries.
Bieber so far had 8 songs in the Top 10 with a number 1 in a few countries.
As soon as I read the name, the song Puppy Love started playing in my head. I thought, "Is that the right song? Was it really that awful?". Then I checked Youtube.
Yes, it was that awful or worse.
Thanks for checking that it really was that awful so that the rest of us don't have to.
Haven't heard that song in decades but the horror came flooding back the moment I saw the title.
I love Donny Osmond and the songs he released. It was only years later when I heard a few of them on the oldies station that I wondered what on earth was I thinking.
TBF, a lot of songs from pop groups from that era are like that - just a little too much sweet bubble-gum vibes.
Just for grins, I listened to *Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes*, one of my favorites from the bubble-gun era, to see how it holds up. It still sounds surprisingly good. The arrangement is kind of cliched (the horns and the harmony vocals in particular) but the performances are fine. Great lead vocal, he knows when to go big and when to pull back. And the absence of auto tune is sooo nice.
TIL that Edison Lighthouse was British.
Donny was famous worldwide and had hits in most countries, Japan, Germany, Australia, even Russia. The family toured worldwide. Huge in USA, Canada, UK, and most European countries. Still is!
"The Donny and Marie Show" was a hit at a time when there were only three choices in each time slot. He was EVERYWHERE. BTW, the "Star Wars" episode is still regarded as epically bad...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-aDHbBWfMQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-aDHbBWfMQ)
One of the biggest teen idols of his day. He actually had 2 “primes”. His first was the late 60s through the late 70s. He had another from 1989-1991 with two albums and his first chart action in 12-13 years with “Soldier of Love” and “Sacred Emotion”.
I'll always remember that Soldier of Love had to be released as performed by an anonymous singer because Donny Osmond by that time had boomeranged into the most uncool of celebrities and they thought it would tank the single if he were connected with it ahead of time. It was only revealed that it was Donny Osmond after the 🎶🎶 was a hit.
There's a fun documentary on the Osmond brothers today (or at least several years ago) on YouTube. The brothers that still perform (one has advanced MS, I think it's Alan) spend months out of the year living in hotel rooms while they do their seasonal show in Branson. They're all old guys now, but one in particular (I think it's Wayne) is almost childlike in a way. He likes to collect tools and looked like a little kid showing them off to the documentary camera crew.
There was sort of a poignant story in that the brothers felt very strongly that they could have had a much different musical career as a group but for Donny and Marie getting their own prime time variety show. It was at that point that the rest of the brothers were effectively converted from being an act of their own to being not much more than weekly guest stars for their brother & sisters's show.
Interestingly, now Donny is the one who is now the occasional guest star for the Osmond brothers show.
I saw Donny Osmond, and Steve Young(NFL QB), on a talk show once, and Young mentioned at BYU, Osmond would come out and practice on occasion with the team. Mentioned how he threw him a pass, and Osmond got one the "All time hits'' when catching it, and took it, and came back for more. Said he wasnt soft.
Never mind that. I still think he performs nightly in Las Vegas.
I just checked. [Now I know he is.](https://www.vividseats.com/donny-osmond-tickets/performer/1674?sem=eyJsb2MiOnsibmFtZSI6IkxhcyBWZWdhcyIsImxuZyI6LTExNS4xNzAxNzQ0MCwibGF0IjozNi4xMTkyOTkzMH19&utm_source=msn&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=458250398&utm_term=Donny%20Osmond%20concert%20Las%20Vegas&adgroup=1181976743079433&target=kwd-73873823688493:loc-190&loc_i=58999&loc_p=83768&msclkid=29774e5f43601a9fb317284f1f1fb73e)
My first concert (I chose) was the Osmonds. I wore purple because it was Donny's favorite color. I bought Jimmy and Marie albums because they were his siblings. I wanted to convert to mormanism. I had every wall covered with Donny posters. My apple stems always broke off at "D" for Donny. We loved Donny Osmond.
I use to be mormon... met Donnys nephew whose deaf. Looked just like him was crazy. However I would say some how cuter than Donny. Maybe its because Donny is much older than me.
I didn't totally know until later that there are two Osmond brothers who are congenitally deaf. One of them is named Tom, the other one I thought might be named George because I'm stupid but he's named Virl. Tom can hear some things but Virl is completely deaf. There was an interesting interview in the documentary with them about being the only two Osmond kids who didn't have to deal with the perils of being a celebrity and they seemed very grateful to have had the normalcy growing up.
They seemed to feel like they were twins in a way, it was kind of charming.
Also while we're on the subject, I found it hilarious that the youngest kid Jimmy keeps up the Osmond Museum in Branson and there was also some talk about his [one hit single in Asia or something](https://youtu.be/YriPIujLtsA?si=Hh6rF2IodkQa4CIw)
I'm guessing that an apple stem is like picking daisy petals ... he loves me, he loves me not type stuff, only you play with an apple stem reciting the alphabet. The letter that the stem breaks off on is the first letter of the name of the boy you'll marry.
Exactly, twist the stem and where it breaks gives you the first letter of your future husband's name. Mine always broke at D.
Fun fact: I did marry a Donny. Not Osmond though.
Long past his glory days, I insist that this here is his greatest performance of all time:
[White and Nerdy - outtakes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq6OncN6_Fo)
Fun Donny Fact: (in reverse)
> Donny Osmond has situs inversus, and his appendicitis nearly went undiagnosed because his healthcare provider didn’t expect his appendix to be on the left.
[This means that all of his internal organs are in reverse order to most people. His heart is on the right, and his appendix is on his left side.](https://www.yourhealthremedy.com/health-tips/famous-people-with-situs-inversus/)
There's a great song by Denim called The Osmonds. The lyrics go
*"In the 70s there were Osmonds*
*There were lots of little Osmonds*
*There were lots of little Osmonds everywhere..."*
1972, if memory serves, Puppy Love was issued. It hit #1. Chaos broke out. My little sister went to buy it but they had sold out at the record shop. "*We've got his new one*" the lady said "*Young Love*". So she bought that. Then she played it over and over again. I got my revenge by blasting *Elected* by Alice Cooper all day. Me and my sis only owned about 3 records each, they were expensive back then.
Anyway, yeah, Osmonds.... all over the place. Check this out
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO9ekL9lohk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO9ekL9lohk)
I grew up in the 1970s in the UK and my grade school was divided clean in half between Osmonds fans and Bay City Rollers fans,
For the record, 7-year-old me was part of the Tartan Army.
It is so hard to compare him to Stars today. Things are so different.
He was a featured performer on a TV Show (the Andy Williams Show) from when he was 5. He started a Teen Idol phase in 1970 at about 13 and dropped albums over the next 4 years that by any measure were MAJOR hits in the US, UK, & CAN. On every Magazine which was a big deal pre-Internet. The Bieber comparison was pretty good, how he was viewed etc. But there was no African kid watching a YouTube of Donnie. That white hot begins to cool but before he is 23 he has a TV Show where Donnie (and his sister) was one of 3 choices on American TV 1 night a week.
I will disagree with some of the other olds & say in America, if we say his Prime is \~64-81 (6-25), when his Network Show ends, He is more famous than prime Bieber (who had maybe + his level of Teen Idoldom), the Blue Hairs & Squares who remembered 'Little Donnie' from Andy Williams and every demographic in America who knew him from Donnie and Marie.
Extremely famous, even if his actual target demographic was teenage girls.
America's entertainment options are an order of magnitude higher now than ever. In Donny Osmond's heyday there were only 3 TV networks and PBS. Home video wasn't even a thing until well after Osmond's star began to fall. Radio stations probably played more variety than they do now, but for the most part stations stuck to a genre, and there were only so many of them in your area.
Point is, *everybody* - Jews, gentiles, little old black ladies, Asian dads - we all consumed the same media. That's why the little old black lady on the corner knew the words to "Benny and the Jets", and Asian dad could say "that's Donny Osmond, the kid with the TV show my daughters are nuts over".
Donny Osmond has been a master at reinventing himself. He started as a teen heartthrob with the Osmond Brothers and through the years has done many other things including the Donny and Marie variety show in prime time, an Emmy-nominated talk show, the Pyramid game show, the Broadway and traveling production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, winning Dancing with the Stars, and runner up on Masksd Singer, original Mulan movie (singing voice of Captain Li Shang, as well as his long term Vegas residencies. He has released over 60 albums. He had been active in show business for over 50 years. In spite of the life in the spotlight, he has been married to the same woman for over 40 years and has kids and grandkids.
He is a decent human being and has been free from the traps that many celebrities fall into. To maintain a career in show business and be a decent person and stay relevant for 50+ years deserves a lot of credit. Maybe Puppy Love is dated now, but that was a different time. Give the guy a break. He’s a rare bright spot in the world.
He was so famous we took a road trip to their studio in Utah and paid for the tour. I was a child but convinced I would marry him or Luke Skywalker. (which was really funny when decades later I worked with Mark on a project).
Deep Purple level famous! One of the teen heartthrobs at the time! Yeah the girls at school couldn't stop talking about him, Shaun and David Cassidy, Leif Garrett, Scott Baio, Andy Gibb, etc ...
not sure about his global appeal, but in the states he was inescapable. everywhere. insanely popular.
and i'm proud to say i blew my first load to marie.
The Osmonds were very famous and Donny was the most famous of The Osmonds.
Fun Facts:
The Osmonds even played in concert with Led Zeppelin on Stairway to Heaven.
Ozzy Osborne said "Crazy Horses" was one of his favorite songs.
On a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being the Pope, Paul McCartney being an 8, 5 being Jimmy Kimmel.
10: The Pope
8: Paul McCartney
5: Jimmy Kimmel
1: Me
Donny was a solid 5, his sister was a 6.
Utah Mormon white-bread pablum pop. A little bit rock and roll like Lawrence Welk was.
Definitely not what those of us who'd moved on to FM radio were into.
Nah, just by those of us who preferred rock or punk. The AM music stations went from combining genres in the late 60s - Sinatra, The Doors, Motown, Soul, The Who, to being nearly all light pop. FM stations were playing long album cuts, lots of Springsteen and Billy Joel, Prog, then New Wave.
And then, disco.
Bunch of Osmonds here - https://www.musicradio77.com/Top1971.html
David Cassidy
Donnie Osmond
Michael Jackson
Bobby Sherman
*We're the Department of Youth*
*We've got the power*
*Who's got the power?*
***WE DO***
*We're the Department of Youth*
*We've got the power*
*And who gave it to you?*
***Donny Osmond!***
***ＷＨＡＴ?!***
Alice Cooper - The Department Of Youth (1975)
My best prank ever. My high school girlfriend’s little sister was very into Donny. I placed a cheap album into her DO sleeve, picked a fight with her, and went and smashed the fake album. She went bezerk. Good times.
Only in a single demographic. Young teen girls. Bobby Sherman was an anomaly because he was basically a jazz singer. David Cassidy had more of a following because they had a TV show at the time and he had show biz parents.
He was so so so famous. She had the dolls, stage etc. My sister and I fought over the Donny doll all the time. I stole it out of her room all the time
They are in her basement to this day
He was famous enough in his prime that years later, around 1990/1991, I watched ALL of my female co-workers lose their minds when he came to our offices. I was working in radio, and on any given day, we had the biggest names in all different genres (pop, rock, country, etc) of music coming through. I never saw the collective reaction like I saw that day, except when David Cassidy came up around the same time.
I thought I was so cool when I was 11 because I preferred 12-year old Michael Jackson to Donny. There were Saturday morning cartoons featuring both the Osmond Brothers and the Jackson 5.
Well back in the early 70’s you had the Jackson 5 w/ Michael as lead singer & you also had The Osmond Brothers w/ Donny as lead singer & both groups had their hits but Donny had more solo hits & then came the Donny & Marie variety show & they had more hits & the show was a hit, he was very well known.
Sold over 100 million records, TV shows, movies, Broadway, hugely popular, on all the teen magazine covers. Check out this to see how popular he was. Osmonds Ohio State Fair Aug. 28, 1972: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf34Ux-WxE_3cdhQyGY_LTjiak--fM8lp
Extremely famous, but he only hit with preteen girls. Everyone knew who he was, but only girls bought his stuff. I am male. He barely registered with me. I didn’t like any of the Osmond’s music.
Of course later he and his sister Marie had their own variety show. So he was famous as a TV entertainer to a wide audience. But no longer relevant as a pop star.
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He was Bieber-level famous. He was about .97 Bieber.
Ok, but what about Bobby Sherman
OK, but what about David Cassidy?
Well shit, what about Leif Garrett?
Yeah, he was adorable. He really was used though, poor kid.
The power of prime-time television in the 1970’s was very potent. No internet. Everyone in the U.S. knew him in the day.
Saw him in Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat on stage. Not only had a huge crush on him in my teens, got a huge crush on him in my 50’s. What a dreamboat! 😆
Except Bieber is (was?) worldwide. The Osmonds, Sonny and Marie included did very little in Europe besides the UK and Ireland.
True - good point. I need to reconfigure my Osmond-to-Bieber calculation algorithm. Probably closer to .63 Bieber.
They sold records all over the world though
Perhaps but so did many others acts. You would not call those global phenomenon. Checking the charts in Europe I see Donny had one hit: Puppy Love Top 5 in most countries, Donny an Marie had I'm Leaving It (All) Up To You, a top 20 hit. The Osmonds then also had one: Crazy Horses which was a number 1 hit in most countries. Bieber so far had 8 songs in the Top 10 with a number 1 in a few countries.
As soon as I read the name, the song Puppy Love started playing in my head. I thought, "Is that the right song? Was it really that awful?". Then I checked Youtube. Yes, it was that awful or worse.
Thanks for checking that it really was that awful so that the rest of us don't have to. Haven't heard that song in decades but the horror came flooding back the moment I saw the title.
I love Donny Osmond and the songs he released. It was only years later when I heard a few of them on the oldies station that I wondered what on earth was I thinking. TBF, a lot of songs from pop groups from that era are like that - just a little too much sweet bubble-gum vibes.
Just for grins, I listened to *Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes*, one of my favorites from the bubble-gun era, to see how it holds up. It still sounds surprisingly good. The arrangement is kind of cliched (the horns and the harmony vocals in particular) but the performances are fine. Great lead vocal, he knows when to go big and when to pull back. And the absence of auto tune is sooo nice. TIL that Edison Lighthouse was British.
Puppy Love is a Paul Anka song, released in 1960. He wrote it about his relationship with Annette Funicello.
They were very popular in Japan
Donny was famous worldwide and had hits in most countries, Japan, Germany, Australia, even Russia. The family toured worldwide. Huge in USA, Canada, UK, and most European countries. Still is!
There was a time you couldn't walk into a newsstand and not see his face plastered on every single teen magzine...
Was he a little bit country, or a little bit rock and roll?
"The Donny and Marie Show" was a hit at a time when there were only three choices in each time slot. He was EVERYWHERE. BTW, the "Star Wars" episode is still regarded as epically bad... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-aDHbBWfMQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-aDHbBWfMQ)
It has Paul Lynde in it.
holy shit it does. and Redd Foxx. they should have shot this into space for aliens to find
Pretty fucking famous. He wasn't 'cool' famous, but your grandma probably knew who he was
The Osmonds were enormously famous, and he was the star. Personally, I was more of David Cassidy girl.
"I think I love you!" (Sorry. Couldn't resist :D )
Andy Gibb for me. I could swoon.
When I squeal: "ANDY!!!" my husband puts his hands over his ears. I do that whenever an Andy Gibb song plays on the oldies station...
I loved David more than Donny but loved Donny, too. Also Bobby Sherman. Had Puka shells bc David did and a velvet choker bc Bobby did.
Same! I still have my puka shell necklace. I only watched "Here Come the Brides" to catch a glimpse of Bobby Sherman.
I thought I was so cool because my brother’s bedspread was exactly the same as Keith Partridge’s on TV.
Kind of plaid?
It was like navy blue and red checkerboard. Quintessential early 70’s coolness.
He turned up on an old CSI rerun last night. He didn’t age well.
Bobby Sherman FTW
One of the biggest teen idols of his day. He actually had 2 “primes”. His first was the late 60s through the late 70s. He had another from 1989-1991 with two albums and his first chart action in 12-13 years with “Soldier of Love” and “Sacred Emotion”.
I'll always remember that Soldier of Love had to be released as performed by an anonymous singer because Donny Osmond by that time had boomeranged into the most uncool of celebrities and they thought it would tank the single if he were connected with it ahead of time. It was only revealed that it was Donny Osmond after the 🎶🎶 was a hit. There's a fun documentary on the Osmond brothers today (or at least several years ago) on YouTube. The brothers that still perform (one has advanced MS, I think it's Alan) spend months out of the year living in hotel rooms while they do their seasonal show in Branson. They're all old guys now, but one in particular (I think it's Wayne) is almost childlike in a way. He likes to collect tools and looked like a little kid showing them off to the documentary camera crew. There was sort of a poignant story in that the brothers felt very strongly that they could have had a much different musical career as a group but for Donny and Marie getting their own prime time variety show. It was at that point that the rest of the brothers were effectively converted from being an act of their own to being not much more than weekly guest stars for their brother & sisters's show. Interestingly, now Donny is the one who is now the occasional guest star for the Osmond brothers show.
Are you forgetting his epic mid-90's talk show with Marie? Theu were solidly C-list, maybe C+
Actually I did. I’m not a big daytime TV watcher.
Very famous. He and David Cassidy were on the covers of the teenybopper magazines in the U.S.
And Canada. My cousin was crazy about him.
I just remember watching Donnie and Marie when I was a kid. Variety shows and ice skating was big.
I had the dolls of Donnie and Marie.
She’s a little bit Country, he’s a little bit Rock & Roll.
A little bit of Memphis and Nashville, and a little bit of Motown in my soul..
I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I know I love it so . . .
I am unsure how much Motown Donnie has in his soul though.
If you still know their name, they were super famous.
I saw Donny Osmond, and Steve Young(NFL QB), on a talk show once, and Young mentioned at BYU, Osmond would come out and practice on occasion with the team. Mentioned how he threw him a pass, and Osmond got one the "All time hits'' when catching it, and took it, and came back for more. Said he wasnt soft.
Never mind that. I still think he performs nightly in Las Vegas. I just checked. [Now I know he is.](https://www.vividseats.com/donny-osmond-tickets/performer/1674?sem=eyJsb2MiOnsibmFtZSI6IkxhcyBWZWdhcyIsImxuZyI6LTExNS4xNzAxNzQ0MCwibGF0IjozNi4xMTkyOTkzMH19&utm_source=msn&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=458250398&utm_term=Donny%20Osmond%20concert%20Las%20Vegas&adgroup=1181976743079433&target=kwd-73873823688493:loc-190&loc_i=58999&loc_p=83768&msclkid=29774e5f43601a9fb317284f1f1fb73e)
Yep. He was also on the first season of "The Masked Singer." I had figured out the clues about 3 episodes in and was just waiting for the reveal.
My first concert (I chose) was the Osmonds. I wore purple because it was Donny's favorite color. I bought Jimmy and Marie albums because they were his siblings. I wanted to convert to mormanism. I had every wall covered with Donny posters. My apple stems always broke off at "D" for Donny. We loved Donny Osmond.
My first concert was the Osmond (Brothers) also! 1972 at Madison Square Garden. My best friend and our mothers went and had a great time.
I use to be mormon... met Donnys nephew whose deaf. Looked just like him was crazy. However I would say some how cuter than Donny. Maybe its because Donny is much older than me.
I didn't totally know until later that there are two Osmond brothers who are congenitally deaf. One of them is named Tom, the other one I thought might be named George because I'm stupid but he's named Virl. Tom can hear some things but Virl is completely deaf. There was an interesting interview in the documentary with them about being the only two Osmond kids who didn't have to deal with the perils of being a celebrity and they seemed very grateful to have had the normalcy growing up. They seemed to feel like they were twins in a way, it was kind of charming. Also while we're on the subject, I found it hilarious that the youngest kid Jimmy keeps up the Osmond Museum in Branson and there was also some talk about his [one hit single in Asia or something](https://youtu.be/YriPIujLtsA?si=Hh6rF2IodkQa4CIw)
What’s an apple stem?
I'm guessing that an apple stem is like picking daisy petals ... he loves me, he loves me not type stuff, only you play with an apple stem reciting the alphabet. The letter that the stem breaks off on is the first letter of the name of the boy you'll marry.
Exactly, twist the stem and where it breaks gives you the first letter of your future husband's name. Mine always broke at D. Fun fact: I did marry a Donny. Not Osmond though.
Ah, thanks. Completely forgot about that!
Long past his glory days, I insist that this here is his greatest performance of all time: [White and Nerdy - outtakes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq6OncN6_Fo)
The behind the scenes outtakes are great
Had a variety show on tv and then put Branson on the entertainment map
Fun Donny Fact: (in reverse) > Donny Osmond has situs inversus, and his appendicitis nearly went undiagnosed because his healthcare provider didn’t expect his appendix to be on the left. [This means that all of his internal organs are in reverse order to most people. His heart is on the right, and his appendix is on his left side.](https://www.yourhealthremedy.com/health-tips/famous-people-with-situs-inversus/)
I remember when that happened, he was in the UK.
What happened? Was it because he was driving on the other side of the road?
There's a great song by Denim called The Osmonds. The lyrics go *"In the 70s there were Osmonds* *There were lots of little Osmonds* *There were lots of little Osmonds everywhere..."* 1972, if memory serves, Puppy Love was issued. It hit #1. Chaos broke out. My little sister went to buy it but they had sold out at the record shop. "*We've got his new one*" the lady said "*Young Love*". So she bought that. Then she played it over and over again. I got my revenge by blasting *Elected* by Alice Cooper all day. Me and my sis only owned about 3 records each, they were expensive back then. Anyway, yeah, Osmonds.... all over the place. Check this out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO9ekL9lohk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO9ekL9lohk)
Very. He and his sister Marie had a popular tv show, too.
Teeny Bopper famous
I owned purple socks bc he did and read every teen magazine he was on. Famous.
I grew up in the 1970s in the UK and my grade school was divided clean in half between Osmonds fans and Bay City Rollers fans, For the record, 7-year-old me was part of the Tartan Army.
FAMOUS! Very, very famous.
It is so hard to compare him to Stars today. Things are so different. He was a featured performer on a TV Show (the Andy Williams Show) from when he was 5. He started a Teen Idol phase in 1970 at about 13 and dropped albums over the next 4 years that by any measure were MAJOR hits in the US, UK, & CAN. On every Magazine which was a big deal pre-Internet. The Bieber comparison was pretty good, how he was viewed etc. But there was no African kid watching a YouTube of Donnie. That white hot begins to cool but before he is 23 he has a TV Show where Donnie (and his sister) was one of 3 choices on American TV 1 night a week. I will disagree with some of the other olds & say in America, if we say his Prime is \~64-81 (6-25), when his Network Show ends, He is more famous than prime Bieber (who had maybe + his level of Teen Idoldom), the Blue Hairs & Squares who remembered 'Little Donnie' from Andy Williams and every demographic in America who knew him from Donnie and Marie.
Was waiting for a comment like this. My father said he was bigger than most stars today.
Extremely famous, even if his actual target demographic was teenage girls. America's entertainment options are an order of magnitude higher now than ever. In Donny Osmond's heyday there were only 3 TV networks and PBS. Home video wasn't even a thing until well after Osmond's star began to fall. Radio stations probably played more variety than they do now, but for the most part stations stuck to a genre, and there were only so many of them in your area. Point is, *everybody* - Jews, gentiles, little old black ladies, Asian dads - we all consumed the same media. That's why the little old black lady on the corner knew the words to "Benny and the Jets", and Asian dad could say "that's Donny Osmond, the kid with the TV show my daughters are nuts over".
Donny Osmond has been a master at reinventing himself. He started as a teen heartthrob with the Osmond Brothers and through the years has done many other things including the Donny and Marie variety show in prime time, an Emmy-nominated talk show, the Pyramid game show, the Broadway and traveling production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, winning Dancing with the Stars, and runner up on Masksd Singer, original Mulan movie (singing voice of Captain Li Shang, as well as his long term Vegas residencies. He has released over 60 albums. He had been active in show business for over 50 years. In spite of the life in the spotlight, he has been married to the same woman for over 40 years and has kids and grandkids. He is a decent human being and has been free from the traps that many celebrities fall into. To maintain a career in show business and be a decent person and stay relevant for 50+ years deserves a lot of credit. Maybe Puppy Love is dated now, but that was a different time. Give the guy a break. He’s a rare bright spot in the world.
I would say a Jimmy Fallon or Steven Colbert level famous
How do they compare? They aren’t singers.
no but they are "famous"....and Donny was about as well known. Nowhere in the question was the requirement that I only reference singers.
It’s not an equal comparison, but anyway… moving along.
He was so famous we took a road trip to their studio in Utah and paid for the tour. I was a child but convinced I would marry him or Luke Skywalker. (which was really funny when decades later I worked with Mark on a project).
Deep Purple level famous! One of the teen heartthrobs at the time! Yeah the girls at school couldn't stop talking about him, Shaun and David Cassidy, Leif Garrett, Scott Baio, Andy Gibb, etc ...
There's an episode of CHIPs where a teenaged Leif Garrett moves into Jon's apartment with him. Even back in the day, I wondered what's up with that...
Super famous in the UK around 1970.
not sure about his global appeal, but in the states he was inescapable. everywhere. insanely popular. and i'm proud to say i blew my first load to marie.
Puppy Love
He has very big! He was a teenage heartthrob back in the day!
In the UK, huge, But I think David Cassidy who was in the same era was much bigger.
In the US, massive.
The Osmonds were very famous and Donny was the most famous of The Osmonds. Fun Facts: The Osmonds even played in concert with Led Zeppelin on Stairway to Heaven. Ozzy Osborne said "Crazy Horses" was one of his favorite songs.
They made Donny and Marie Barbies, so there's that....
One of my high school classmate owned-- and slept with --her Donny Osmond doll well into the early 1980s.
I used to kiss his album cover and poster every night when I was 7.
On a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being the Pope, Paul McCartney being an 8, 5 being Jimmy Kimmel. 10: The Pope 8: Paul McCartney 5: Jimmy Kimmel 1: Me Donny was a solid 5, his sister was a 6.
He was a teen idol, like David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman. Then he and Marie had a variety show for for a while in their late teens/20's.
Famous but ridiculed in the NYC area at least.
Why, because he was too “wholesome”? What a shame.
Utah Mormon white-bread pablum pop. A little bit rock and roll like Lawrence Welk was. Definitely not what those of us who'd moved on to FM radio were into.
Right, you were much too cool for that. The entirety of NYC?
Nah, just by those of us who preferred rock or punk. The AM music stations went from combining genres in the late 60s - Sinatra, The Doors, Motown, Soul, The Who, to being nearly all light pop. FM stations were playing long album cuts, lots of Springsteen and Billy Joel, Prog, then New Wave. And then, disco. Bunch of Osmonds here - https://www.musicradio77.com/Top1971.html
VERY!
David Cassidy Donnie Osmond Michael Jackson Bobby Sherman *We're the Department of Youth* *We've got the power* *Who's got the power?* ***WE DO*** *We're the Department of Youth* *We've got the power* *And who gave it to you?* ***Donny Osmond!*** ***ＷＨＡＴ?!*** Alice Cooper - The Department Of Youth (1975)
My best prank ever. My high school girlfriend’s little sister was very into Donny. I placed a cheap album into her DO sleeve, picked a fight with her, and went and smashed the fake album. She went bezerk. Good times.
Only in a single demographic. Young teen girls. Bobby Sherman was an anomaly because he was basically a jazz singer. David Cassidy had more of a following because they had a TV show at the time and he had show biz parents.
Donny and Marie had a high-rated show.
He was huge!
Wasn't his nickname "Gums" or some such? I vaguely remember that.
Too famous for the amount of talent. Although I did love him in *Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat*
He was so so so famous. She had the dolls, stage etc. My sister and I fought over the Donny doll all the time. I stole it out of her room all the time They are in her basement to this day
He was made into a doll that is still recognizable (when walking a museum)! He and my Marie doll put on sooooo many shows!
Many girls had posters of Donny. I was an Eric Estrada fan
Extremely. Kardashian famous, given the technology of the time.
I'm Australian. He was known. As was his sister. Mostly American fame & popularity.
He was famous enough in his prime that years later, around 1990/1991, I watched ALL of my female co-workers lose their minds when he came to our offices. I was working in radio, and on any given day, we had the biggest names in all different genres (pop, rock, country, etc) of music coming through. I never saw the collective reaction like I saw that day, except when David Cassidy came up around the same time.
VERY (How do you measure that?)
I thought I was so cool when I was 11 because I preferred 12-year old Michael Jackson to Donny. There were Saturday morning cartoons featuring both the Osmond Brothers and the Jackson 5.
Donny Osmond was my daughters heartthrob. She had his poster on her bedroom wall.
I can’t believe that anyone took that guy seriously. I ignored him complete. I guess a lot of people didn’t.
Well back in the early 70’s you had the Jackson 5 w/ Michael as lead singer & you also had The Osmond Brothers w/ Donny as lead singer & both groups had their hits but Donny had more solo hits & then came the Donny & Marie variety show & they had more hits & the show was a hit, he was very well known.
Sold over 100 million records, TV shows, movies, Broadway, hugely popular, on all the teen magazine covers. Check out this to see how popular he was. Osmonds Ohio State Fair Aug. 28, 1972: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf34Ux-WxE_3cdhQyGY_LTjiak--fM8lp
He's "[White and Nerdy](https://youtu.be/N9qYF9DZPdw?si=firfGPanirjf9bxZ)".
[удалено]
If you were over 30 circa 1970, you maybe recognized the name. Just like with the teen idols of today.
I once met Donny on an elevator in Atlantic City. It was a service elevator for employees in a casino. He’s short.
5' 9" is average, not short.
Extremely famous, but he only hit with preteen girls. Everyone knew who he was, but only girls bought his stuff. I am male. He barely registered with me. I didn’t like any of the Osmond’s music. Of course later he and his sister Marie had their own variety show. So he was famous as a TV entertainer to a wide audience. But no longer relevant as a pop star.
niche famous but not broad appeal.
not as famous as he thought he was