In The 1970s Donny Osmond

He is the Peter Pan of global pop success, even in 2012 he is still performing and looking years younger than he really is. It is no wonder then that when the young Donny Osmond appeared on the Andy Williams show with his brothers that he would be a huge star.

Donald Clark Osmond was born in 1957 (yes honestly he was), one of many brothers who were in the king family show business band. After a few years with his brothers and Andy Williams, Donny went solo in 1970 with his first single Sweet and Innocent get to No. 7 in the U.S. Go Away Little Girl written by Gerry Coffin and Carole King, and telling a story of a man asking a girl to leave him alone as he is sure to break her heart. The song was a hit first back in 1962 and Donny did not break the UK charts with either of those early hits.

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With that single a success and Donny looking as cute as could be with the very clean cut image, Donny would sell to nearly everybody, from screaming teenagers to Gran. The wholesome boy was on the path to pop glory.

His 1972 global single breakthrough came with Puppy Love written by Paul Anka and a hit in 1960. Donny’s version was No.1 in the UK for three weeks, and was having constant radio play. Again any TV show that featured Donny in the UK would get huge ratings, remember no video recorders were available so this was a shared event.

Two more 1972 hits gave him two more top five hits with Too Young and Why? Again despite being covers they kept the teen idol at the top of the charts, and there was no doubt that without really wanting to he was overshadowing the rest of his older brothers, which years later we would find out caused a feud within the family. But for now the public persona was everybody was happy. Especially Donny’s record label.

Several more solo singles followed in the 1970s, along with duets with his sister Marie. Even during this hectic time Donny was still having hit singles as The Osmond’s.

His next solo single was Twelfth Of Never a cover of a Johnny Mathis hit from way back in 1957. 

Puppy Love and the Twelfth Of Never were UK No.1s  and he did it again with his very next 1973 release called Young Love written and recorded in 1956.

    

One of his last big hit in the UK as a solo artist in the 1970s was When I Fall In Love getting to No. 4, which was a 1952 for Eddie Heyman. Amazingly his last single only got to No. 18 and was called Where Did All The Good Times Go?