Morning Side of The Mountain by Donny and Marie

Morning Side Of The Mountain

1974

Donny and Marie Osmond

MGM...like any and all businesses anywhere...likes to strike when the iron is hot, and they really wanted to get another single out while the soothing notes of 'I'm leaving It All Up To You' were still echoing in the heads of the music-buying public at large. Donnie and Marie had proven that they were more than able to sell records as a duo, so the obvious, sensible and likely profitable thing to do would be to record and release a second single. And, though they didn't realize it until the search for this second single was well under way, they already had Donny and Marie's next Top 10 hit in their own house, tucked up in the back of a shelf in one of the spare room closets, so to speak.

See, back in 1951 the team of Lawrence Stock and Dick Manning wrote, and Tommy Edwards recorded, a little tune about a boy and a girl from different worlds, towns and maybe even regions...two kids who would have very likely fallen head over heals for each other had they ever met, but, alas, they never did and one of the great loves of modern times never got to bloom. Stock and Manning used a mountain as the metaphor for what ever barrier separated our star-crossed never-got-to-be-lovers and Tommy Edwards took it to #24 on the charts. He then re-recorded it in 1959, annnnnd...took it to #27. It wasn't gonna set the music-world on fire. So it was put on a shelf to gather dust and slowly slip from the memories of most people other than Tommy Edwards and various record label execs...OH!...did I mention that Tommy Edwards' label was MGM???

And lets be honest here...it was all but freakin' written for a girl/boy duet. So, as all the MGM execs pondered on just how they were going to strike while the afore-mentioned iron was still hot, someone said something like 'Wait A minute!” or 'AHA!' or some other exclamation of enlightenment, turned to the rest of the MGM suits-in-attendance, and said 'Anyone remember that old Tommy Edwards song...?

SO they got Donnie and Marie Osmond in on it, probably let the two of them listen to Tommy Edwards' original version, and I have a feeling that the two of them smiled those famous smiles of theirs and had already figured out exactly how they were going to sing it before the song was half over.

I wish I could have found more behind the scenes info (Or, indeed, any behind the scenes info ) about the recording of their hits, because if Donny and Marie Osmond stayed true to form, both musically and professionally...and I have absolutely no reason to think they didn't...they probably had what would become arguably their best remembered hit down before lunch on the day they recorded it. Really, gang, this tune was all but made for them.

They stayed faithful to both the lyrics and melody, taking it up-tempo and changing the instrumentals (Read that 'Getting rid of the flute).  Vocals-wise, Donny took the first verse, Marie took the second, and the two of them harmonized on the third. They followed this same theme throughout the song's just under three and a third minutes. Very effectively I might add, and it was pretty much a hit from the first time a DJ spun it.

Notice I didn't say a huge hit, or even big hit, but it drew a following...it debuted on The Hot 100 at #74 on Nov 16^th, 1974 and jumped about 10-12 spots a week for the next five weeks before barely cracking the Top 20, at #20, three days after Christmas of 1974. It slipped into the Top 10, at #9, 18 days into 1975 and peaked at #8, a week later, on January 25^th, 1975. It'd stay there for a pair of weeks before heading back down, dropping off the chart on the first of March for a not at all shabby sixteen week chart run.

I think everyone who was around in the mid Seventies remembers this one, and not just us Seventies Kids, because of the video...one of the first 'Music Videos'...for a short version of the song that was shown on The Donny and Marie variety show. This, keep in mind, was at least two years and change after the song actually charted. The two of them also performed the song when they appeared on numerous other variety and Late Night talk shows during that same time-frame. Really, it was hard to get away from 'Morning Side Of The Mountain' over the course of the next several years...it pretty much became their unofficial theme song (Much as 'A Little Bit Country...Little Bit Rock And Roll' became their ...and their show's, or at least a major segment of the show's...official theme song.)

And it really was...and still is...a great little tune. Their voices blended perfectly, it was a fun little song to listen to (And sing along to), and it was performed by a pair of...well...pretty natural performers. It wouldn't break through any new boundaries, or set new benchmarks, or even break any records...but it was and indeed, still is, pretty well loved and well remembered, and you can still hear it...and, BTW, I'm not talking about hearing it on the radio (In fact it's been a good while since I've heard it on an Oldies station) I'm talkin' live, Because Donny and Marie are still performing at The Flamingo in Las Vegas, usually to sold out crowds, and 'Morning Side Of The Mountain' is one of the songs they regularly perform.

The magic's still there, too, from what I've seen and heard...They've been regular performers at The Flamingo since 2009, their contract has been extended through the end of 2015, and they've been voted 'Best show in Las Vegas' several times, because of the same thing that was evident in The Morning Side Of The Mountain from the first time they went in the studio to record it...they truly are that close, and they really do love to perform together. You just absolutely can not fake that kind of chemistry

And to think it all started because MGM wanted to see if they could squeeze a second Top 10 hit out of 'em.

So Enjoy! The Duet That, happily, will probably never die...Morning Side Of The Mountain by Donnie and Marie Osmond.


A trio of bonuses on this one. First bonus...Donny and Marie's official video for the song. This is the vid that appeared on their variety show, Donny and Marie', a couple of years after the song had dropped off of the charts. There's a shot, about midway through the vid, of Marie riding hell-bent-for-leather, straight at the camera, with a huge smile on her face and her hair bouncing on her shoulders...a really, truly beautiful shot of her. I'm firmly convinced every teenage boy in the U.S. who didn't already have a bit of a crush on the Prettiest Osmond fell head over heels for her because of that few seconds of video.



Second bonus, Donny and Marie perform Morning Side of the Mountain live at Ceaser's Atlantic City, in August of 2012, proving that they do indeed still have it!  They changed it up here...Donny led it off instead of Marie...and you also get to hear the good natured bantering that's always been a trademark of their act.


Final bonus...The original, by Tommy Edwards, from 1951. He nevver got it int the Top 2, despite re-recording and re-releasing it. Donny and Marie proved what they should have realized from the get-go. This was made to be a boy-girl duet! And they needed to loose the flutes!