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 & Marie starring his younger brother and sister, died January 1 after a stroke. He was 73.
The news was confirmed in a Facebook post by his brother Merrill Osmond, who wrote in part: “I’ve never known a man that had more humility. A man with absolute no guile. An individual that was quick to forgive and had the ability to show unconditional love to everyone he ever met. Until I see him again, know that he was loved.”
Born on August 28, 1951, in Ogden, Utah, Wayne Osmond began singing with his brothers Alan, Merrill and Jay in a barbershop quartet during the late 1950s. The group was performing on a local TV show from Disneyland in 1962 when they were seen by the father of Andy Williams, and they became regulars on the hitmaking singer’s NBC variety show from 1962-67.
“I put them on for one show — I thought they were cute,” Williams said in a 2005 interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “We stopped rehearsal so they come in and audition for us … and they were darling. The youngest one, Jay, had teeth missing in front. … And the audience went nuts. They came back for like six or seven years.”
Each of the group’s members also appeared as the Kissel Brothers in the 1963-64 ABC western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring Dan O’Herlihy.
RELATED: 2024 Hollywood & Media Deaths: Photo Gallery & Obituaries
Joined by younger brothers Donny and Jimmy, The Osmonds signed to MGM Records in the early 1970s and stormed onto the charts with their first single. Coattailing the massive success of the Jackson 5 during the previous year, “One Bad Apple” hit the Billboard Hot 100 exactly 54 years ago today — on 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 the have three more Top 10 singles during 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 U.S.
The Osmonds’ recording career cooled in the mid-1970s, but its members became TV regulars in early 1976 on Donny & 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’s schedule — from Friday nights to Wednesday, back to Friday and finally on Sundays — before ending in May 1979.
MORE TO COME…
