Osmonds Singer and co-founder turned 73

Wayne Osmond, who co-founded the Osmonds, scored four Top 10 singles with the group and was a regular on the hit variety show Donny and Marie starring his younger brother and sister, died Jan. 1 of a stroke. He was 73.

The news was confirmed in a Facebook post by his brother Merrill Osmond, who wrote in part, “I have never known a man who had more humility. A man without guile. An individual who was quick to forgive and had the ability to show unconditional love to all he ever met. Until I see him again, know he was loved.”

Born on August 28, 1951 in Ogden, Utah, Wayne Osmond began singing with his siblings Alan, Merrill and Jay in a barbershop quartet called The Osmond Brothers in the late 1950s. The group appeared on a local television show from Disneyland in 1962 when they were spotted by Andy Williams’ father, and they became regulars on the hit singer’s NBC variety show from 1962-67.

“I put them on for a show — I thought they were cute,” Williams said an interview from 2005 with the Television Academy Foundation. “We stopped rehearsing, so they come in and audition for us … and they were nice. The youngest, Jay, was missing front teeth. … And the audience went crazy. They came back for six or seven years.”

Williams went on to say that the show’s choreographer Nick Castle, who taught the brothers to dance, and “they were like mushrooms—they wanted to learn everything.” He added that he suggested they get instruments and perform as a rock’n’roll band, “So they did. … And everybody on the show, all the creative people, loved them, so they wanted to help them. And they could dance like crazy.”

Each of the group’s members also appeared as the Kissel Brothers in the 1963-64 ABC western Jaimie McPheeter’s Travels, starring Dan O’Herlihy.

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Along with younger brothers Donny and Jimmy, The Osmonds signed with MGM Records in the early 1970s and stormed the charts with their first single. With the massive success of the Jackson 5 the previous year, “One Bad Apple” hit the Billboard Hot 100 exactly 54 years ago today — January 2, 1971 — and would spend five weeks at No. 1. Their eponymous debut LP peaked at no. 14 and went gold.

With Wayne playing guitar, the group went on to have three more Top 10 singles over the next three years: “Yo-Yo” (No. 3, 1971), the harder-rocking “Down by the Lazy River” (No. 4) , 1972) and “Love Me for a Reason” (No. 10, 1974). Their first five albums went gold in the US

The Osmonds’ recording career cooled off in the mid-1970s, but its members became television regulars again in early 1976 Donny and Marie. Rising the variety-show wave and led by teenage siblings Donny and Marie Osmond, the series debuted as a winter replacement on ABC and was a moderate hit in the three-network universe. The show bounced around the alphabet schedule – from Friday night to Wednesday, back to Friday and finally on Sundays – before ending in May 1979.

MORE TO COME…