231 Hello Donny Osmond - Puppy Love

Chart  entered : 17  June  1972

Chart  peak : 1

Number  of  hits : 16  ( not  including  those  as  part  of  The  Osmonds )

We  move  from  pop  music's  most  disgraced  star  to  one  who's  never  let  his  fans  down  and  gives  anyone  who  grew  up  in  the  seventies  and  is  distressed  by  the  trashing  of  their  childhood  memories  a  last  rock  on  which  to  cling. At  eight  I  was  old  enough  to  think  him  a  bit  naff   ( and  I  don't  recall  my  6 year  old  sister  being  that  interested ) but  now  have  a  great  affection  for  him.

Obviously  we   covered   where  Donny  came  from  a  few  posts  back  so  no  need  to  go  over that  again. MGM  very  quickly  realised  that  Donny  was  getting  most  of  the  screams   and proposed  that  he  put  out  records  under  his  own  name  as  well  ( preceding  Michael  Jackson ). This  had  the  family's  blessing  and  Donny  performed  his  "solo"  singles  alongside  his  brothers at  Osmonds  gigs.

His  first  single  in  the  U.S. ( not  released  here )  was  "Sweet  And  Innocent"  in  Februrary 1971. It  was  specially  written  for  him  by  Rick  Hall  and  Billy  Sherrill  and  sees  the  13-year  old Donny  telling  a  girl  that  he's  too  old  for  her  ( how  old  was  she  ? ) . It's  hard  to  dislike  this infectious  piece  of  bubblegum  although  the  school  recorder  part  is  a  bit  hard  on  the  ears. It reached  number  7  in  the  U.S.

Thereafter  Donny's  solo  releases  stuck  to  formula, a  squeaky-voiced  , lushly-produced   cover  of  a  hit  from  the  pre-Beatles  pop  era  which  the  mothers  of  his  pre-pubescent  fans  would  recognise. "Go  Away  Little  Girl"   went  all  the  way  to  number  one  in  the  US  and  "Hey  Girl"  to  number  9 , both  in  1971  and  if  they're  not  part  of  your  memories  there's  no  reason  to  seek  them  out.  They  were  released  here  but  resisted. We  crumbled  in  the  face  of  "Puppy  Love"   ( which  stalled  at  3  in  the  U.S. ).

Here's  the  Popular  take  Donny.  What  no  one's  mentioned  there  is  the  way  that  Donny  used  the  song  to  re-launch  himself  in  the  UK  with  a  tongue-in-cheek  performance  of  the  song   on  The  Last  Resort   in  1987  with  Hank  Wangford  and  Billy  Bragg  as  not-so-reverent  backing  singers. It  could  have  been  embarrassing  but  he  got  it  exactly  right. People  thought  what  a  good  bloke  and  he's   been  guaranteed  a  good  reception  here  ever  since.