You couldn’t help but compare the Osmonds to the Jackson Five. There were five of them and the lead singer was the youngest, in the case of the Osmonds, Donny. The song “One Bad Apple” was actually written for the Jackson Five, but they choose to record “ABC” instead, so the Osmonds got the song.

The group started out as a quartet, however. People who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) (which the Osmonds do) have a tradition in that they have a family night once a week, usually on Monday night. It was during these family nights in the Fifties that the Osmond family found out that the kids could sing in harmony. The kids grew up in Ogden, Utah and one day in the late Fifties, Dad decided to take four of the brothers to Disneyland in California and see if they could get a gig singing there. The four were Alan (9), Wayne (7), Merrill (5)and Jay (3) Osmond. Donny, being born in 1957, was still in diapers at this time.

In what can only be called a one in a million shot, they got a job with a television show which originated from Disneyland called Disney After Dark, singing barbershop quartet. They called themselves the Osmond Brothers. This lasted a couple years until one day, they were noticed by Jay Williams, who is the father of Andy Williams. Andy Williams was starting his own television variety show and Jay thought the Osmond Brothers would be a great fit for the show.

Andy Williams auditioned the boys, hired them and they sang on the show from 1962 until 1969 when the Andy Williams Show closed down. Donny joined the show in 1963 (he was six) and on his first show sang a solo of “You Are My Sunshine.” The audience loved him. With the addition of Donny they were now five and they became just The Osmonds.

After the demise of the Williams show, the boys decided they wanted to shed their image of being a variety act or a barbershop quartet and to sing more mainstream rock and roll. They knew they couldn’t make a career out of barbershop. Dad was a little suspicious of rock and roll, after all, the Mormons are pretty conservative, but he agreed to let them try it out.

Record producer Mike Curb saw the boys and thought he could make them into a record selling group. He signed them with MGM Records and the first song they recorded was “One Bad Apple.” The song was written by George Jackson who had the Jackson Five in mind when he wrote it, but as I’ve already stated, the Jacksons passed on the song, so the Osmonds took it over.

The Osmonds had a great career and are well known even to this day. Donny and Marie are well known for their Las Vegas shows. But, surprisingly, The Osmonds never had another number one hit. “One Bad Apple” was it. Donny did have a solo number one later in 1971, but that was all he had as well. Marie never had a number one and while younger brother Jimmy did hit the Top 40 one time, he never hit the top either.

“One Bad Apple” debuted on the pop charts on January 23, 1971 and stayed at the top for an astounding five weeks. You might think that that would make it the top song of the year, but not so. We will get to that in just a few songs. Stay tuned.