December 9 - Donny Osmond

Photo courtesy twitter.com

On this day, in 1957, Donald Clark Osmond was born in Ogden, Utah. As the seventh son (and no he wasn't the last one either) of George and Olive Osmond, Donny grew up in a close-knit Mormon family that produced a large number of performers.

Four of Donny's brothers, Alan, Jay, Merrill and Wayne, formed a singing group known as The Osmonds Brothers when they were kids (Alan was the oldest at 9). They were basically a barbershop quartet and sang to raise money to pay for the hearing aids two of their other brothers needed. As they gained popularity in Utah, their father decided to have them audition for the Lawrence Welk Show. When they got to California, Welk wasn't able to meet them so the family visited Disneyland as a consolation. When Tommy Walker, Disneyland's Director of Entertainment, stumbled upon the boys signing with the parks own barbershop quartet, the Dapper Dans, he hired them to appear on an episode of the television show Disneyland After Dark. When that episode aired in 1962, Andy Williams' dad was so impressed with their singing, he told his son to book them on his show. Andy did and The Osmond Brothers quickly became regular guests. A year later, five year old Donny joined the group and it became known simply as The Osmonds. The five brothers kept performing on The Andy Williams Show until it ended in 1967. At that point they signed with The Jerry Lewis Show for its two year run.

Image courtesy of wikipedia.com

Following the cancellation of The Jerry Lewis Show, The Osmonds decided they wanted to become a rock and roll band. With Merrill singing lead and Donny singing co-lead, the group had their first hit single with "One Bad Apple" in 1971 (the song had been written for the Jackson 5 who turned it down). A string of hits followed as the brother's popularity skyrocketed. Some songs followed the Merrill/Donny formula (Yo-Yo and Double Lovin') while Donny sang solo on others (Go Away Little Girl and Puppy Love). Minor tragedy struck in early 1972, when Donny hit puberty and his voice changed. It wasn't enough to keep the hits from coming though and the boys got their own Saturday morning cartoon that same year on ABC (it would only last the one season).

Photo lifted from youtube.com

During this same time period, Donny was starting to make it as a solo artist. He would still perform full time with The Osmonds, but was becoming increasingly popular on his own. He also began creating a string of hits with his only sister, Marie, who was climbing the country charts. By 1976, The Osmonds popularity had waned, which was okay with Donny as the next phase of career started that same year: a family produced television show called The Donny and Marie Show. The show ran for three seasons before being unexpectedly cancelled. The aftermath was terrible for the family. They incurred a lot of debt when they built a state of the art television studio in Utah, Donny suffered from performance anxiety, and Marie had wrestled with an eating disorder. Every member of the family would spend the next several years trying to recreate themselves and revive their careers.

Donny would continue performing and occasionally appeared in other musicians music videos. It wasn't until 1989 that he finally returned to the charts with the songs Soldier of Love and Sacred Emotion. As the Nineties progressed, Donny found success on the stage in the title role of a revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He performed the role over 2000 times, in spite of his anxiety and was chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber to star in the film version in 1999.

Image copyright Disney

Donny officially became part of the Disney family in 1998 (he hadn't become a member of The Osmonds until after their Disneyland After Dark performance) when he was chosen to be the singing voice of Captain Li Shang in Mulan. His rendition of I'll Make a Man Out of You has, in my opinion, become a Disney classic. Interestingly, Donny had auditioned to voice Hercules the year before but was deemed too old sounding. In 2006, he returned to the Broadway stage in a limited engagement as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. He was so popular, his six week run was extended several weeks and he was invited back to close the show in July 2007.  He then was a part of the 2008 film College Road Trip which also starred Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone. Donny's final appearance for Disney was as himself when he competed on the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars. He basically did it to try to show up his sister, Marie, who had competed on an earlier season. His strategy worked because he ended up being crowned champion.

Donny has had many other success in his varied career. He spent two seasons hosting a syndicated version of the game show Pyramid. He hosts his own syndicated radio show called, funnily enough, The Donny Osmond Show. And since 2008, he's appeared with his sister in a Las Vegas stage show at the Flamingo simply title "Donny and Marie." At 61, Donny not only keeps chugging along steadily, but continues to do it with the family that got him started in the first place. And that is something worth celebrating.