Crazy Horses by The Osmonds

Crazy Horses

1972

The Osmonds

The Osmonds left most of their bubble-gum roots far, far behind with their 1972 album 'Crazy Horses', and set musically-minded tongues a-waggin' while they were at it. Us music-lovin' Seventies kids, you see, had discovered that The Osmonds could actually play (GASP!!!!) Rock!!

The album's title track became, arguably,their second best known (Though, interestingly enough, not their second highest charting) single, playing second fiddle to only 'One Bad Apple'. Trust me on this...'Crazy Horses was a tight, kickin' little Rock tune, and it was different from other Osmonds songs in a couple of respects.

First, Donny wasn't anywhere near it...he didn't sing co-lead, back-up, or as far as I know, even come near the studio on the day it was recorded. Second, Merrill didn't sing lead...Jay did, with Merrill taking the short choruses. Also, The Osmonds really embraced then-new technology when they recorded this one, using a YamahaYC-45D Combo Organ to synthesize the iconic whinnying horses that became the song's signature.

Those very same whinnying horses kicked the song off, making it about as instantly recognizable as any tune ever recorded, but this was not a tune about horses...not the living breathing kind, anyway. This was an early environmental statement that decried the amount of pollution released into the atmosphere by automobiles on a daily basis, with The Osmonds equating cars to horses. (A few people thought the tune was about smoking but this was unlikely as none of the Osmonds smoked...as Mormons, they were prohibited from doing so.)

Now, I can't say for sure how many of us Seventies Kids caught on to the song's musical Environmental Movement connection...In October of '72 I was fifteen, going on sixteen, so my main interest in cars was getting my license so I could drive one...but we liked it well enough to take it into the Top 20. It debuted just inside the Billboard Hot 100, at#90, on October 21^st, 1972,  and jumped about 20 spots a week until it cracked the Top 20, at #19 on November 25^th 1972, just a couple of days before Thanksgiving. It'd peak at # 14 two weeks later, on December 9^th and hang on at peak for two weeks...matching 'Hold Her Tight's stay-at-peak...before heading back down and dropping off the chart entirely six days into 1973.

I vividly remember hearing that whinnying horse pretty regularly on Richmond's AM Top 40 power house, WLEE, during the Fall and early Winter of '72, and I can almost bet that I heard it on the way from Chester to Boykins for Thanksgiving Dinner that year (And as such, I may have heard it on Tidewater, Va's legendary Top 40 station, WGH, after I switched over to it about halfway through the ride...this assuming my parents let me listen to my station on said ride).

 It even...very occasionally...popped up on Rock stations, (WGOE would have been the Rock station of choice in Richmond) much to the dismay of those who listened exclusively to Hard Rock, because a goodly number of that crew...my brother being among them...would never ever admit that The Osmonds could actually do Rock songs...even though they, well, could. It'd also be the Osmonds last foray into Rock music...the last one to chart at any rate.

It most definitely became The Osmonds most recognizable hit, and it did indeed become their best known hit, but...and this is admittedly from my own personal observations...it's not their first or even second most played hit on Oldies stations today. It takes a back seat to both 'One Bad Apple and 'Yo-Yo'...and, Hard-Rock (Or Hard Rock Wannabee, depending on your viewpoint) though it may have been, it almost never pops up on Classic Rock stations.

On the increasingly rare occasions that you do hear it, it's fun to to wonder if The Osmonds, with just a little more effort, could have been numbered among the Rock Gods of The Seventies. They actually had a good bit of respect from the likes of Led Zeppelin, and lets be honest here...they were good, and they most definitely could play true, gritty, guitar-heavy, Riff-centric Rock songs. And his one is proof.

So enjoy! Crazy Horses by The Osmonds.