I saw an interview the other day with Donnie and Marie and Donnie was a little irritated when was asked his opinion about Michael Jackson. You could tell he didn’t want to get into it and expressed as much by replying that the king of pop had “a terrible life and a worse death,” I guess because of all the media scrutiny surrounding his death. This is all true I’m sure to a certain exten, but there has always been a little trace of envy Donny Osmond had towards Michael Jackson and the Jacksons for at one time in the 70’s he and Mike were equally famous, but as time wore on Mike’s star continued to rise and Donny’s star all but fades away.
Now in the 70’s the Osmonds were considered the white version of the Jackson 5 almost matching them tit for tat. Both were big families full of talented youngsters, both started their singing careers early(the Osmonds with more visibility showing up on the Mickey Mouse Club) and both had younger siblings as lead singers of the family group (Jermaine and Michael for the Jacksons, Jimmy and Donny for the Osmonds). Both groups had a string of hits during the 70’s and both graced every teen magazine in the world practically! Hell, I even had a couple of Donny Osmond records in my collection as well as Michael Jackson so that shows how popular both were. Donny Osmond and Michael Jackson were two of the most recognizable teen stars in the world and both seemed poised for mega-stardom. So the big question is; what the hell happened with Donny? Well two things; t.v. and the 80’s.
First of all The Jacksons and Donnie and Marie (Donny’s kid sister) had t.v. shows in the mid 70’s or so. They were variety shows that were popular in the 70’s but were often frequented by show-biz personalities who were in the twilight of their careers and for newer stars they were make or break (generally break) opportunities. Well Michael hated the show he had to do and opted out when their contract was up, but Donnie who didn’t care to do the show either but had a longer obligation than the Jacksons did (four seasons I believe) had to continue on. Well the one season the Jacksons were on didn’t hurt their recording career that much and they went on to make several more platinum selling albums. The long period that Donny was on the aire though did hurt his recording career for the over-exposure he got from the show made the public get bored with him and to regard him more as a clown rather than a serious recording artist (and he was for he was versed in playing multiple instruments and an accomplished songwriter too). The songs he sang didn’t help either for most of them were old hits from the 50’s with the exception of their best song to date, ‘One Bad Apple’ and I’m not sure he sang that one (I think his brother Merrill sang lead on that).
The other reason was the 80’s hit. Now in the 80’s it wasn’t cool for whites to sing R&B type music for the rock musicians had been working for a while to create this hate Disco movement because it’s popularity displaced them in the market and hurt their record sales. Now Donny Osmond was basically an R&B/pop singer in style and he was the wrong color at that time so he was sunk before he got good out of the port. In the meantime, Michael Jackson had just put together a little record called ‘Thriller’ and was making music history with a tour to boot called ‘Victory’ from the Jacksons album of the same name. For Donny though acts like him were out and Motley Crue was in as acceptable ‘white’ entertainment. Hey I didn’t write the book, I just read it like it says.
Well eitherway near the end of the 80’s a dude named Maurice Starr the producer of New Edition jumpstarted the boyband movement with acts like New Kids on the Block and Fine Young Gentlemen thus the Donny Osmond’s of the world were back in vogue. But by this time Donny was married with a couple of kids and years of hardened experience under his belt from trying to navigate the Hollywood scene, so not really the teen heartthrob material of the day though he did drag a couple of hits out of this time, ‘Soldier of Love’ and ‘Sacred Emotion’. It’s unfortunate that the cards played against him this way for Donny Osmond is a really talented entertainer and we all expected that he would be as big a star perhaps bigger than Michael Jackson. For I don’t know what those record companies out there be thinking but when Michael Jackson released ’Off the Wall’ his first big selling solo record, we were waiting to see what Donny would do next. I think he released an album with his sister at that time and that’s not what we were looking for.
Now I got the title of my story from an interview I saw of Donny’s years ago where he expressed some envy at Michael Jackson’s success and disappointment at his own failures. Well Donny after seeing you in the interview the other day I sensed some of that envy still and I couldn’t understand it. Yes Michael had all of this major success with his recording career but look at all the trouble he had also. False accusations of the most terrible kind, extortion attempts and successes, lawsuits flying every which way possible, enough trouble to drive a man early to his grave; and it did just that for him. Now three kids are left without their father surrounded by opportunists and sychophants(with the exception of their family members of course) looking to bleed them of their inheritance. In all likely-hood Donny will be around to see his kids grow up, get married, and see some grandkids at some point. So Donny mega-stardom may not have been in the cards for you, but you got dealt the best hand.
