Wayne Osmond, an original member of the family singing group the Osmonds, which had a string of pop hits in the 1970s and helped launch the careers of his more renowned siblings Donny and Marie, died on Wednesday in Salt Lake City. He was 73.
His death, at University of Utah Hospital, was caused by complications from a recent stroke, his daughter Amy Cook said.
As an original member of the group, which began as a sibling quartet initially called the Osmond Brothers, Wayne and his brothers were child stars who later became ubiquitous pop stars in the 1970s. As practicing Mormons, the family built a brand around resisting the temptations of fame while capturing the spirit of the era with their flared jumpsuits and rollicking dance choreography.
Songs including “One Bad Apple” and “Yo-Yo” became Top 10 singles in the early 1970s, and drew comparisons to the Jackson Five — especially with the younger Donny hitting his raspy high notes — and propelled the family to a feverish level of fame.
When the siblings landed at Heathrow Airport on a trip to Britain in 1972, “where they were lucky to escape alive,” a reporter wrote in The New York Times that year, the Osmonds “produced the kind of teary, lip‐trembling, shrieking scenes that recalled the early impact of the Beatles, post‐Liverpool.”
Though Wayne Osmond’s baritone might not have been the first notes to be noticed on an Osmond record, the deeper tones gave structure to the family band’s songs. He played several different instruments, including lead guitar and woodwinds, and wrote music that included the 1972 song “And You Love Me,” a slow, melancholy ode to his wife, Kathryn White, who was a former Ms. Utah whom he married in 1974.
Mr. Osmond was “a serious and deep thinker, always reasoning and trying to solve life’s greatest questions,” his sister Marie said about his artistic leanings on social media in 2022. “As a songwriter, he expressed his deepest thought-out solutions to life.”
Melvin Wayne Osmond was born on Aug. 28, 1951, in Ogden, Utah, to George Osmond and Olive (Davis) Osmond. Mr. Osmond worked in real estate while Ms. Osmond looked after the nine children, raising them in traditional Mormon ways and instilled a love for music in the household.
The fourth oldest of the nine children, Wayne Osmond started performing when he was 6 years old. He could play 18 different instruments, including the bagpipes, the banjo and the clarinet, but he was most proficient at guitar, Ms. Cook said.
In the late 1950s, Mr. Osmond and his siblings began performing in a barbershop quartet-style group at local venues to earn money to help sponsor mission trips. The siblings’ musical prowess gave them the chance to travel around the country.
Good fortune struck for the Osmonds in the early 1960s. The father of Andy Williams, a popular crooner and television host of the era, saw them while they were performing at Disneyland and was so impressed that he introduced them to Mr. Williams, Ms. Cook said. At the time, the younger Mr. Williams hosted “The Andy Williams Show,” an Emmy-winning music variety show.
The children, donning matching suits and red bow ties, made their debut on the show on Dec. 2, 1962, according to Donny Osmond’s official website.
“Do you know, ‘Yes Sir, That’s My Baby?’” Mr. Williams asked a young Donny perched on his lap.
“Yes sir,” Donny responded sheepishly. The crowd laughed at the adorable scene. And then the children started singing and finished to wild applause.
With that, the Osmond Brothers were introduced to a broader audience and eventually became a recurring part of the show. In the early 1970s, they changed their name from the Osmond Brothers to just the Osmonds, Ms. Cook said. The radio hits and touring followed.
“The Osmonds present a kind of theater‐in‐rock ‘n’ roll,” The Times wrote in 1973. “With tight choreography, taken perhaps from Black soul groups, they wheel and strut around the stage, regimented and disciplined, programmed to draw that last squeal out of an ecstatic weeny bopper.”
As a child, Wayne Osmond had a brain tumor that he was told would be fatal and underwent rigorous cancer treatment. In 2012, he suffered a stroke that prevented him from being able to play guitar, Ms. Cook said.
Mr. Osmond spent the last decade of his life with his hobbies, like fly fishing, and his family. He is survived by his wife, Kathryn, five children and 20 grandchildren. He is also survived by his eight siblings: Virl, Tom, Alan, Merrill, Jay, Donny, Marie and Jimmy.
As much as Mr. Osmond was defined by his musical career, his faith, he said, was always a driving force in his life.
“We’re Latter-day Saints, and we have a very high moral and ethical code that we live by,” Mr. Osmond told Desert News in 2004. “It’s not something that’s forced upon us. Anyone can do what they want to.”
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