Pop & Miscellaneous

Osmonds - Best Hits Collection (2010)

2014-04-02T15:45:39Z

Osmonds - Best Hits Collection (2010)


1. Traffic in my mind
2. Darlin
3. A taste of rhythm and blues
4. One way ticket to anywhere
5. My drum
6. Hey Mr. Taxi
7. The last days
8. Don’t panic
9. Movie man
10. Big finish
11. Hold her tight
12. Girl
13. Gotta get love
14. Life is hard enough without goodbyes
15. Find ‘em fool ‘em and forget ‘em
16. Medicine man

Following the breakout success of the Jackson 5 in 1970, it was practically inevitable that a pre-existing quintet of brothers, who had already enjoyed almost a decade in the national spotlight, would follow them to teen idol superstardom. With dynamic youngest brother Donny as a focal point (much like Michael was for the Jacksons), the Osmonds did exactly that, enjoying a run of massive popularity during 1971-1972. While their success as a unit began to wane and had flickered out by the end of 1974, the Osmonds spun off a long-lasting show business career for Donny (as well as sister Marie), and the other members of the group even enjoyed a successful comeback as country artists.

Born to George and Olive Osmond of Ogden, UT, brothers Alan (born June 22, 1949), Wayne (born August 28, 1951), Merrill (born April 30, 1953), and Jay (born March 2, 1955) began singing together in 1959, honing their performance skills at family entertainment venues such as county fairs and amusement parks. At this point, the brothers chiefly sang barbershop harmony, mixing some gospel tunes into their repertoire as well. In 1962, George took the boys to Los Angeles, hoping to secure an audition for The Lawrence Welk Show; after Welk refused to see the group, their father eased the disappointment with a trip to Disneyland, where the brothers gave an impromptu concert with another barbershop quartet employed by the park. the Osmonds were signed on as regular nighttime performers, and luck smiled on them just a few weeks later when the father of popular singer -- and newly minted variety show host -- Andy Williams caught their act and recommended them to his son. Five days before Christmas in 1962, the Osmonds made their national television debut on The Andy Williams Show, on which they would continue to appear regularly until its cancellation in 1967. About a year after that initial appearance, younger brother Donny (born December 9, 1957) officially joined the group as well, and the Osmonds soon began to broaden their musical range with clean-cut pop songs.

Following the demise of the Williams series, the Osmonds moved on to The Jerry Lewis Show, where they stayed until 1969. In 1970, the commercial explosion of family bubblegum groups such as the real-life Jackson 5 and the fictional Partridge Family made the Osmonds obvious candidates for pop stardom. MGM president Mike Curb signed the Osmonds and sent them to work with Muscle Shoals studio owner and famed R&B producer Rick Hall. Hall's staff songwriter George Jackson had penned a sure-fire hit titled "One Bad Apple (Don't Spoil the Whole Bunch)," which appeared on the group's debut album, Osmonds. Released as a single at the very beginning of 1971, "One Bad Apple" shot up the charts and landed in the top spot for five weeks, finally establishing the Osmonds as recording stars after nearly a decade in the public eye. A steady stream of hits continued unabated through 1972, including "Double Lovin'," the Top Five hits "Yo-Yo" and "Down by the Lazy River," "Hold Her Tight," and "Crazy Horses." Their albums sold well too; Osmonds went gold, as did its four followers: 1971's Homemade and the 1972 triumvirate of Phase-III, The Osmonds Live, and Crazy Horses. What's more, Donny's concurrent solo career was in full swing as well, with "Go Away Little Girl" topping the singles charts in 1971.

The Osmonds' momentum was slowed a bit in 1973 with The Plan, a concept album about their Mormon faith that failed to connect with the record-buying public to the same degree (although it was surprisingly popular in the U.K.). Younger sister Marie Osmond began making public appearances with the group later that year at the age of 13 (although she was never an official member) and scored a solo hit with "Paper Roses." In the end, changing tastes and an excess of spinoff projects proved to be too much for the original Osmonds to last as a group; 1974's "Love Me for a Reason" was the quintet's last Top Ten single, by which point Donny and Marie had established their own separate careers (although they often recorded as a duet act over the next few years). The group didn't officially disband until 1980, but as a unit they had long since ceased to be a commercial force in pop music.

Donny made a brief comeback in the late '80s as a contemporary dance-pop singer and Broadway performer, as well as reuniting with his sister in the late '90s for a daytime talk show, Donny & Marie. Marie had a few hits on the country charts in the '90s and was featured on one season of the ABC television show Dancing With the Stars in 2007. Beginning in the early '80s, the four eldest members of the Osmonds -- Alan, Merrill, Wayne, and Jay -- performed together as a country act under the name the Osmond Brothers and achieved respectable commercial success. In 1996, Alan retired from performing, and Jimmy Osmond took his place. They continued to release albums available through their website and The Osmond Family Theatre in Branson, MO. A new album of sorts, Live in Las Vegas 50th Anniversary Reunion Concert, was released in 2008. --- allmusic.com

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Osmonds - Crazy Horses (1972)

2015-02-06T16:40:30Z

Osmonds - Crazy Horses (1972)


A1 	Hold Her Tight 	3:18
A2 	Utah	2:20
A3 	Girl 	3:38
A4 	What Could It Be 	3:20
A5 	We All Fall Down 	2:55
A6 	And You Love Me 	3:40
B1 	Crazy Horses	2:40
B2 	Life Is Hard Enough Without Goodbyes 	3:45
B3 	Hey, Mr. Taxi 	3:05
B4 	That's My Girl 	3:12
B5 	Julie 	3:14
B6 	Big Finish 	0:18

The Osmonds members:
Merrill Osmond (vocals, bass)
Jay Osmond (vocals, drums)
Melvin "Wayne" Osmond (vocals, guitar, piano)
Alan Osmond (vocals, guitar)
Donny Osmond (vocals, keyboards)
Jimmy Osmond (vocals)

On Crazy Horses, the Osmonds attempted to roughen up their clean-cut musical image with some hard rock and psychedelia -- Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" riff is used for bottom-heavy effect on "Hold Me Tight," while Sgt. Pepper's-era Beatles and Paul McCartney are the inspiration for "What Could It Be" and "We All Fall Down." Further tarnishing is attempted with the exclusion of Donny's bubblegum vocals -- the elder Osmonds share the microphone on all the tracks, presumably to insure that this will be a seriously rockin' affair. These "subversive" elements are mostly decorative, though, as variety-show arrangements and "One Bad Apple"-like melodies predominate on cuts like "That's My Girl" and the Bread-inspired number "And You Love Me." What stands out on this plodding album, though, is the excessive yet impressive title track, with its banshee-wail synth intro, Vegas horn arrangements and chugging Bachman-Turner Overdrive rhythm. If only the group could have perfected this Broadway/acid rock alliance on the whole album, we might have had a kitsch rock classic. This one is for die-hard fans and novelty hounds only; stick with one of their greatest-hits packages if you just want a good introduction to the Osmonds' recordings. --- Stephen Cook, Rovi

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The Osmonds - Steppin' Out (1979)

2019-06-03T14:22:48Z

The Osmonds - Steppin' Out (1979)


A1 	Steppin' Out	3:34
A2 	Emily 	3:18
A3 	You're Mine 	5:02
A4 	Baby's Back 	3:32
A5 	Love On The Line	3:32
B1 	Rainin' 	4:33
B2 	I,I,I 	4:18
B3 	Love Ain't An Easy Thing	3:38
B4 	Hold On 	3:20
B5 	Rest Your Love	4:15

Bass – Bruce Nazarian, George "Chocolate" Perry, Ike Egan, Rich Dixon
Drums – Sam Foster
French Horn – Jerry Peel
Guitar – Bruce Nazarian, George Terry, Joey Murcia, Rich Dixon
Horns – Boneroo Horns
Keyboards, Synthesizer – Blue Weaver, Bruce Nazarian, Denny Crockett, George Bitzer
Percussion – Fred Wickstrom, Joe Lala, Ken Hodges, Richie Puente
Saxophone – Chris Colcesser, Whit Sidener, Mike Lewis (A1)
Strings – Miami String Section
Trombone – Peter Graves, Russ Freeland
Trumpet – Ken Faulk, Vinnie Tanno 
Vocals [Female] – Kitty Woodson (A5)
Vocals - Alan Osmond, Donny Osmond, Merrill Osmond, Wayne Osmond

The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children to achieving success as teen-music idols, from producing a hit television show to continued success as solo and group performers. The Osmonds are devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and their religious values have influenced their careers.

The Osmonds began as a barbershop quartet consisting of brothers Alan, Wayne, Merril, and Jay Osmond. They were later joined by younger siblings Donny and Jimmy. Their only sister Marie, who rarely sang with her brothers at that time, launched a successful solo career in 1973. Older brothers George Virl Osmond, Jr. (Virl) and Tom Osmond were born deaf and did not originally perform.

The British label Cherry Red published in 1979 the album “Steppin´ Out”, produced by Maurice Gibb. It contains the Gibb song "Rest Your Love on me". The album never made any way in the charts, but is still worth to listen, especially the track “Rainin´”.

"Steppin' out" was the last album of the Osmonds as a pop band and a turning point in the history of the Osmond of family, that it understood like no other, to exploit their children until far beyond the borders of acceptable and to peddle on the music industry.

The group didn't officially disband until 1980, but as a unit they had long since ceased to be a commercial force in pop music. ---naaldopdegroef.blogspot.com

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The Osmonds - The Plan (1973)

2011-08-05T08:47:37Z

The Osmonds - The Plan (1973)


01. War In Heaven - 1:40
02. Traffic In My Mind - 3:55
03. Before The Beginning - 4:05
04. Movie Man - 3:36
05. Let Me In - 3:39			play
06. One Way Ticket To Anywhere - 3:05
07. Are You Up There? - 4:43
08. It's Alright - 2:36
09. Mirror, Mirror - 2:23			play
10. Darlin' - 3:10
11. The Last Days - 3:01
12. Goin' Home - 2:26

Personnel:
Alan Osmond, Wayne Osmond, Merrill Osmond, Jay Osmond, Donny Osmond

The 1970s saw the release of countless concept albums, but few were as unusual or unexpected as this 1973 magnum opus from the Osmonds. Anyone who thinks of this family group as a ,bubblegum soul outfit will be bowled over by this incredibly ambitious outing, which attempts to explain the family's Mormon beliefs through a series of songs that cut across a wide variety of pop genres. The end result is a testament to the group's versatility and skills as musical craftsmen but The Plan ultimately doesn't work for a few important reasons. The first is that the songs are too serious and overblown for their own good: 'Are You up There?' and 'The Last Days' have solid melodies, but their preachy lyrics are too awkward and diffuse to convey the group's beliefs with any real power. The other big problem with The Plan is that it is overwhelmed by its own musical ambition: the abrupt jumps from fuzzy acid rock ('Traffic in My Mind') to orchestrated show tune-styled arias ('Before the Beginning') to frenetically bopping big band soul ('It's Alright') result in more genre-hopping than a single album can handle. That said, a few solid tunes emerge from the clutter to make an impression: 'Let Me In' is a smooth, lushly orchestrated ballad whose clever lyrics can be heard both as a love song and a devotional hymn, and 'Goin' Home' is a sharp, keyboard-driven rocker whose hook-laden style is reminiscent of Elton John's early-'70s tunes. Ultimately, The Plan comes off as an ambitious misfire instead of the thought-provoking epic it was obviously intended to be, but its grandiose style makes it worth a spin for Osmonds fans and anyone into unusual 1970s pop artifacts. ---Donald A. Guarisco, All Music Guide

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The Osmonds – Love Me For A Reason (1974)

2011-08-09T11:45:25Z

The Osmonds – Love Me For A Reason (1974)


01. Having A Party (B.Massey/H.B.Barnum/C.Brown) - 3:18
02. The Girl I Love (B.Massey/H.B.Barnum/F.Butler) - 3:37
03. Love Me For A Reason (J.Bristol/W.Brown/D.Jones) - 3:59		play
04. Ballin' The Jack (Chris Smith/James Henry Burris) - 3:03
05. Send A Little Love (Solomon Burke) - 3:18
06. Peace (H.B.Barnum/B.Craig) - 4:46
07. Gabrielle (Denny Randell/Letty Jo Randell) - 3:25				play
08. I Can't Get Next To You (Norman Whitfield/Barett Strong) - 3:08
09. Sun, Sun, Sun (Alan Osmond/Merrill Osmond/Wayne Osmond) - 3:31
10. I Can See Love In You And Me (Dalton/Duberri) - 3:15
11. Fever (Denny Randell/Letty Jo Randell) - 3:14

- Alan - vocals, Yamaha piano, guitar
- Wayne - vocals, Gibson lead guitar, woodwinds
- Merrill - vocals, bass
- Jay - vocals, Ludwig drums, percussion
- Donny - vocals, ARP synthesizer
+
- H.B. Barnum (Hidle Brown Barnum) - arranger, conductor
- Mike Curb - producer

Here is the sound of good pop going bad. The Osmonds had already hinted at unforeseen depths when they crowned their most successful year yet with the conceptual The Plan and, it has to be said, scared off a considerable portion of their fan base in so doing. Undeterred, however, they continued driving into more musically sober pastures with Love Me for a Reason, an album of considerably more grown-up emotions and thoughts than any they had unleashed in the past. Of course, the title track is a pop classic, and is joined here by a handful of additional performances that manage to convey the intended sense of maturity at the same time as sounding like an awful lot of fun -- "Having a Party," "I Can't Get Next to You," and (bet you never expected to see a title like this on an Osmonds record) "Ballin' the Jack." But the strange malaise that somehow convinces our pop idols that the road to adulthood is paved with boring ballads is alive and well here as well, and too much of Love Me for a Reason actually fails to deliver any reasons whatsoever. So we'll stop loving them. ---Dave Thompson, AllMusic Review

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