The Osmonds Had Been Singing Songs Chosen for Them — Then They Wrote a Hit of Their Own
By the beginning of the 1970s, The Osmonds seemed to have everything.
Television fame.
Screaming teenage fans.
Gold records.
And one of the most recognizable family names in American entertainment.
But there was something the brothers increasingly wanted.
Control over their own music.
Long before “Osmondmania,” Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay Osmond had started as a young barbershop quartet from Utah.
Their big break came after they were discovered and brought onto The Andy Williams Show in the early 1960s.
Donny eventually joined them, and millions of Americans watched the brothers grow up on television.
By 1971, their image had changed dramatically.
They were no longer simply the clean-cut children singing close harmony on a variety show.
The Osmonds had become genuine pop stars.
“One Bad Apple” went to No. 1 in America.
“Yo-Yo” became another major hit.
At the same time, Donny Osmond was becoming a teenage phenomenon in his own right.
But much of the material had been selected for them.
Years later, members of the family remembered reaching a point where they wanted to make music that represented what they wanted to say.
They wanted to write.
They wanted to play.
And they wanted audiences to understand that The Osmonds were a band, not simply a collection of young singers being handed songs by adults.
That change began becoming visible on their album Phase III.
Even the title suggested a new stage.
The record moved away from some of the polished bubblegum pop associated with their earliest hits and toward a tougher mixture of pop, soul and rock.
And its opening track announced the change immediately.
“Down by the Lazy River.”
Despite the relaxed title, there was almost nothing lazy about the record.
It exploded from the beginning.
Piano.
Drums.
Guitars.
Handclaps.
Shouted vocals.
And a rhythm that seemed designed to push a live audience out of its seats.
The song came from inside the Osmond family rather than from one of the outside professional songwriting teams that had supplied many earlier recordings. The current Universal Music release credits Alan and Merrill Osmond as the writers, with Alan also producing alongside Michael Lloyd.
That production credit mattered.
Alan, the oldest performing brother and longtime leader of the group, was no longer simply standing at a microphone.
He was helping shape what the record actually sounded like.
The result was noticeably different from “One Bad Apple.”
There was still plenty of pop melody.
But there was more muscle underneath it.
Merrill's lead vocal sounded aggressive and energized, and the brothers answered him with the kind of family harmonies they had spent years perfecting.
The lyrics themselves were uncomplicated.
The song invited listeners to escape to a place where they could dance, sing and forget their troubles.
But the performance was what made it memorable.
It sounded less like a carefully controlled television act and more like a young band discovering how much noise it could make.
When “Down by the Lazy River” was released as a single in early 1972, audiences responded.
The song climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It remained in the American Top 10 for several weeks and finished at No. 36 on Billboard's year-end Hot 100 for 1972.
It went even further elsewhere.
“Down by the Lazy River” reached No. 1 in Canada and the Netherlands, while in Britain it reached No. 40.
In March 1972, the single was certified Gold in the United States.
But its importance in The Osmonds' story goes beyond the chart number.
It helped point toward what came next.
Later in 1972, the brothers pushed their rock ambitions much further with “Crazy Horses.”
Merrill Osmond later explained that before that period, songs had largely been chosen for them by the record company. Once the brothers had success, they wanted to start making their own music.
“Crazy Horses” would become the more dramatic statement.
But Phase III and “Down by the Lazy River” showed that transition already happening.
The wholesome television kids were becoming musicians who wanted a say in their own records.
That is easy to forget because the Osmond name became so closely associated with Donny's solo career, teenage magazines and later the Donny & Marie television era.
But The Osmonds themselves could be a surprisingly forceful band.
Alan played rhythm guitar.
Wayne played lead guitar.
Merrill handled bass and many of the lead vocals.
Jay played drums.
Donny contributed keyboards as the group moved deeper into rock.
“Down by the Lazy River” sits right at that turning point.
It still has the enormous hooks and cheerful energy that made The Osmonds pop stars.
But underneath it, you can hear five brothers beginning to push against the musical box people had placed them in.
A group that had spent years performing other people's material was beginning to discover its own voice.
And in 1972, that experiment gave them another Top 5 American hit.
The title said “Lazy River.”
May you like
The record sounded like anyth
ing but.
