Alan Osmond, an original member of the Osmonds, a group of singing brothers known for their pop records and wholesome image — and for their siblings Donny and Marie, who became the biggest stars of the family — died on Monday at his home in Salt Lake City. He was 76.
His brother Merrill announced the death on Facebook. Debbie Ihler Rasmussen, who collaborated with Mr. Osmond on his 2024 autobiography, “Alan Osmond: One Way Ticket,” said the caused complications of multiple sclerosis.
The Osmonds began as a quartet in the late 1950s, with the brothers Merrill, Wayne, Jay and Alan, the eldest and designated leader. They soon went from singing at churches, fairs and civic events to performing as a barbershop quartet at Disneyland in California.
Their big break came in 1962, when Alan was 12: They landed an audition for “The Andy Williams Show,” an NBC variety program, at the suggestion of Mr. Williams’s father, who had seen the Osmonds in a Disney TV show.
“I wasn’t sure what to think when everyone, including Andy, laughed at us,” Mr. Osmond wrote in his autobiography. “But it was actually because we were cute and could sing so well.”
The brothers were asked to sing on two episodes, performances that generated enough buzz to earn them a five-year contract to appear regularly on the show through 1967. They returned to appear on a reboot of the program from 1969 to 1970.
During their time there, the Osmond brothers learned to tap dance, ride unicycles, ice skate and juggle. They appeared in skits and were constantly learning new songs. When Mr. Williams went on the road, they accompanied him; they also opened for comic stars like Phyllis Diller and Jimmy Durante.
The four brothers were eventually joined on the Williams show by their younger siblings Donny and Marie, who would later become famous with solo careers and their own variety series, “Donny & Marie,” which ran on ABC from 1976 to 1979. The youngest Osmond brother, Jimmy, also later joined the group, which was sometimes compared to the Jackson 5.
The group hit its peak from 1971 to 1975, when it had a No. 1 hit, “One Bad Apple,” on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and three Top 10 hits, “Yo-Yo,” “Down by the Lazy River” (written by Alan and Merrill) and “Love Me for a Reason.”
The family was at home listening to the radio on a Sunday in February 1971 when they heard the disc jockey Casey Kasem announce that “One Bad Apple” had reached No. 1.
“We screamed like crazy, and Wayne ran outside and ran around our house,” Mr. Osmond wrote. “That was our goal, and we finally made it!”
They had already sold 20 million records when they made their first visit to England the next year, a trip that included performing for Queen Elizabeth II at the London Palladium. As Bernard Weinraub wrote in The New York Times, the brothers “seemed to be living proof that toothpaste grins, innocuous voices and well-timed routines are enough to make them millionaire culture heroes.”
Alan Ralph Osmond was born on June 22, 1949, in Ogden, Utah. His father, George, sold insurance and real estate and ran a small farm. His mother, Olive (Davis) Osmond, helped with the insurance and real estate businesses, owned a dress shop and managed the household, which grew to include nine children.
In 1957, on a family trip to Yellowstone National Park, Mr. Osmond recalled, his parents were singing “The Old Oaken Bucket” when he added his alto voice to his father’s while his mother sang melody. Then his brothers joined in.
Recognizing their talent, “Mother taught us to sing in three-part harmony,” he wrote. “Our little quartet was born, and we called ourselves the Osmond Brothers.”
The boys soon began rehearsing after their chores were done; their bond would carry them for decades.
At the height of their success, they took a break from pop music to release “The Plan” (1973), a concept album inspired by the family’s faith as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As Mr. Osmond recalled, “I said to my brothers, ‘We need to say something — something important!’”
It was a departure from their previous albums, and one that their record label and distributor struggled to sell, although Mr. Osmond managed to persuade KHJ, a popular radio station in Los Angeles, to play one of the songs, “Traffic in My Mind.” The album went gold in England but not in the United States, a distinction that four of the group’s previous albums had achieved.
Harold B. Lee, the president of the church, however, gave it a rave review. According to Mr. Osmond’s autobiography, after reading the lyrics, Mr. Lee said, “This was inspired.”
The group’s record sales never recaptured their early 1970s peak, but the brothers continued to release music and had some modest country hits in the 1980s, including “I Think About Your Lovin’.”
In addition to his brother Merrill, Mr. Osmond is survived by his wife, Suzanne (Pinegar) Osmond; his sons Michael, Nathan, Scott, Alex, Tyler, Douglas, Jonathan and David, who was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; his siblings Donny, Marie, Jay, Jimmy, Virl and Tom; 30 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. His brother Wayne died last year.
For about a decade after his multiple sclerosis diagnosis, in 1987, Mr. Osmond continued to perform with his brothers.
He was involved in other ventures as well, including running Stadium of Fire, an annual July Fourth fireworks and music extravaganza in Provo, Utah, which he started in 1980 and continued until 1992. He also produced albums, some of them by family members, and directed the video for Marie’s 1985 song “There’s No Stopping Your Heart,” a No. 1 country hit.
In 2019, for her 60th birthday, Marie Osmond reunited the quartet.
“When my husband and I decided to fly the original four Osmond brothers to Hawaii to perform together one last time and honor them for starting it all,” she wrote on Facebook after Mr. Osmond’s death. “Alan, with tears in his eyes, said, ‘So you’re producing me now.’”
Mr. Osmond wrote several children’s books with his wife: “If the Shoe Fits” and “Just Right,” both published in 1998, and “Huff ‘N’ Puff” (1999), based on fairy tales.
Reflecting on his career trajectory, he told The Daily Herald of Provo in 1997: “Well, you can look at it many ways, and I have chosen to adapt.”
He added, “I’ve examined myself, and guess what? I’m still me.”
Richard Sandomir, an obituaries reporter, has been writing for The Times for more than three decades.
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