Osmonds ~ Baby's Back 1979 Disco Purrfection Version

Bet you did not know that they worked with Mauice Gibb on this album.... you can hear it for yourself.

The Osmonds began performing in 1958 when Alan, Merrill, Wayne and Jay sang in a barbershop quartet to help make money for hearing aids. They performed at Disneyland where the Osmonds were vocalizing with the Dapper Dans on Main Street and caught the attention of the entertainment director who hired them for the next summer.

Disneyland After Dark selected them to appear in 1962. That led to a stint on the Andy Williams show and they became regulars up to 1967 earning the moniker "One Take Osmonds" due to their professionalism. It was at this point that Donny joined the group making them a quintet.Releasing their first single in 1967, "Flower Music" on UNI records it did not chart.Next came Producer Mike Curb, who was the one that brought them into the American Mainstream with the Jackson Five like "One Bad Apple" that spent five weeks at #1. They went through a few changes and record sales began to slip, especially after Donny left to become a solo teen star.

My friend Human Numan who is program director for Sirius XM filled me on some little known facts about who actually sang lead. "What most people don't realize is that Merrill was always their lead vocalist. Donny added the "falsetto" with his young voicing. Later Donny went on with his own solo career and proved he could hold a song together alone. But all of the great '70s hits... they were all Merrill on lead. Because Donny did his vocals as the equivalent of Michael Jackson, Merrill's career never really took off. Same with Jermaine. They both were in a situation where even though they were singing lead parts, their little brother was the focus.

Merrill is the "unsung" hero of the Osmond Brothers...One Bad Apple (#1) is a perfect example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLtqJQx_V6U, Yo Yo (#3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlA-z0du1Pg Down By The Lazy River (#4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8-gezTsrxs Double Lovin' (here he is much older) https://youtu.be/X5g9IP0hJe0?t=801Here you can see Donny is not the lead, he was a co-lead singing certain phrases. So it was all perception that Donny was the frontman.

Merrill got upstaged.What's strange is Merrill's accent grew more country as he got older.In 1979, they did a one off album for Mercury Records, 1979's "Steppin' Out" Human notes that "Produced by Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees and Steve Klein - Definitely some Bee Gees vocals in the hook. Keyboards: Blue Weaver who was keyboards for Bee Gees, Joe Lala on drums. George Terry on guitar. Donny is credited with vocals while Merrill handled the leads."Recorded at Criteria Studios Miami, home of the disco classics they created from "Jive Talkin'" to "Tragedy" it has that classic Bee Gees sound but the Osmonds were credited as vocalists and Maurice added some Bee Gees magic to the track that was sadly overlooked back in da day.

Human mentioned that the song is as hooky as any other Bee Gees hit and it sounds like it would have mixed nicely with Love You Inside Out, which was out a short time before the Osmonds release. What do you think? Missed opportunity here? Family group member produces family group, it should have been promoted its just so catchy! It was there last official release as the classic line up as Donny left the band in 1980. Human also relates this story, "I have a story of how I almost met Merrill. (I've met Donny on numerous occasions, super guy, very kind). Right before Covid struck, I went on the '70s Rock & Romance Cruise to get familiar with what we were promoting on the air. Occasionally I would walk by this guy who seemed to be around a lot but travelling solo, I'd smile and nod or say hi, and keep on walking. But all the while I kept thinking "That guy looks strangely familiar. He looks like one of the Osmond Brothers." But they weren't performing on this cruise so I dismissed it. Near the end of the week, I was having dinner with the cruise executive producer, and he mentioned that the Osmonds were booked for the next cruise. I told him I thought I saw one of them on the cruise. He said, that's Merrill. He is for the group gathering intel on how its conducted in order to build a show. I said is he still here? I would love to meet him! He said, no he was only on for 3 days, and jumped a plane back to the States. So that would have been cool."