Sweet
And Innocent
1971
Donny
Osmond
Just
as Motown had with the J-5 and Michael Jackson only a year or so
earlier, MGM realized they had a powerhouse on their hands, and they
weren't
thinking entirely of the group.
They
were listening to the high-pitched young chants of 'Don-nee!!
Don-nee!!Don-nee!! and
hearing all of the little girls saying, in dreamy, shuddery voices,
that they were going to marry Donny Osmond. (The proper way for a
young girl to do this was to cast her eyes skyward with a dreamy
sparkly-eyed expression on her face, breath in deeply, say
breathlessly 'I'm gonna marry
Donny Osmond!!!!' then, while still staring dreamily at some point in
space, sigh at length. The ending-sigh was mandatory. Yep, almost just like
on TV. And Yes, I saw one or two of my better-looking friends do just
this, or a reasonable facsimile there-of, during that time frame.).
And
the kid could
sing. And Motown
had
made a mint already off of both The Jackson Five, and Michael
Jackson. SO...MGM naturally wondered if they could match that performance by making
Donny Osmond a solo artist as well as a member of the Osmonds. Of
course, with forty-five years of hindsight available to us, we know
the answer to that one, but it
really was a bit of a
risk. They had to find the perfect song...one
that'd have each and every one of his young, impressionable fans swooning and imagining
him singing it to her and her alone.
SO a
search for The Perfect Single for Donny Osmond was mounted...the
suits at MGM and Fame Studios wanted to strike while the iron was
hot, specifically while 'One Bad Apple' was still echoing in all the
tween-girl heads in the US, and somewhere along the way...probably
early on at that...the decision was made that they just didn't have
time to concoct an original song, so the search criteria were
narrowed...find the perfect already-existing song for Donnie Osmond
to cover...
...And the musical
cross-hairs fell upon a 1958 barely-hit written by Rick Hall and
Billy Sherrill, then recorded and released by Roy Orbison called
'Sweet and Innocent' . Roy had taken this syrupy ballad of young teen
love to the top 100...but I couldn't find just how far up the charts
he took it. This tells me, however, it wasn't far.
SO, the song was
given to the staff song-scribes at FAME studios, and they were told
to 'Make it a hit for Donny' or words to that effect. And they did
just that. Now Donny's version of 'Sweet and Innocent' is considered
a cover but I'm gonna give credit where credit's due on this
one...it's a cover in name only. The title's the same, and certain
phrases in the chorus...the titular 'Sweet and Innocent', as well as a
couple of other word-pairs...are reused, but the entire song...for
that matter, the entire concept of the song...was rewritten,
revamped, and entirely remodeled.
While the original
was a s-l-o-w, syrupy, almost cloyingly sweet ballad, Donny Osmond's
cover was taken way up-tempo and given some actual snap. While
there was still some sweetness involved, it was a bit more sweet and
sour and, with it's energetic beat, it was way more suited to Pop
music as it existed in mid 1971. You can be a little tempted to
head-bop a bit to Donny's cover of Sweet and Innocent, where you
wouldn't even think of doing so to Roy Orbison's original.
Then there was the
complete revamp of the tune's lyrics and concept. Basically Fame Studio's
songwriters pretty much gutted the song and sent most of the old
lyrics to the dump, leaving, as noted, only a few phrases. Then they
wrote new lyrics that turned the song's concept just about 180
degrees. While in the original a boy spoke of how his young
girlfriend's sweet, innocent nature was perfect for him, Donny's
version turned that on it's head, telling the young lady that she was
far too young for him, and that he needed to keep her at arms
length because he was so attracted to her despite her youth. (Keep in
mind here that Donny's almost a year younger than I am, which
would've made him 13 when he released 'Sweet and Innocent'. Lots of
ten, eleven, and twelve year old girls just knew he was singing to
them, personally. And that was truly a driving force in the tune's
success.)
MGM and Fame didn't
waste any time rewriting, recording, and releasing it either...One
Bad Apple was still comfortably in the Top Ten when Sweet and
Innocent hit the Billboard Hot 100, at #88, on March 27th,
'71. It also became obvious that neither Donny or The Osmonds were
going to manage the same multi-chart-topper success as their friendly
rivals from Motown, The Jackson Five, had a year or so earlier.
Though The Osmonds kicked off their career with a chart-topper,
Donny's first single was a slow-burner. It most definitely didn't
shoot up the charts, and for a bit it looked as if it might emulate
Roy Orbison's original version of the tune, because it hadn't
cracked the top 40 yet on it's fifth week in. Sweet and Innocent
finally cracked the Top 30...and almost cracked the Top 20...when it
landed at #22 on week 5. It made it to the top 10, at #8, a week
later on May 29th, peaked at # 7 a week after that on June
5th, and hung on to that spot for two weeks before heading
down, dropping off the chart, at #24, on July 10th. It may
not have climbed as fast or as high as One Bad Apple (Or any of the
J-5's songs) but it's 16 week chart run did beat out One Bad Apple
by one week.
And don't let chart
position fool you about the song's popularity among it's target
demo...remember songs such as Sweet and Innocent were actually aimed
at a fairly narrow, but well populated demographic, and the young
girls loved it, begging parents to front them the money to buy it as
as they crushed hard on it's young singer. And sometimes those
parents said 'No'. So there were lots of young girls listening to it
on the local Top 40 station who didn't buy the single. You
heard it on the AM Top 40 powerhouses (WGH. 'Famous 1310' in my
still...but not for long...home county of Southampton County,
Virginia) all spring as it gathered steam and eased up the charts
slowly but deliberately, like a big rig climbing a mountain grade.
The tempo and
melody of the song was perfect for the target it was aimed at, and
that simple little synthesized whistle/drum/guitar intro was a very
familiar sound as the Summer of '71 kicked off. Like all Bubblegum it
was simplistic and sweet, but this one was sweet with just a touch of sass, and
those simple and repetitive lyrics made it easy to memorize and sing,
so like One Bad Apple, you could hear it being sung to at lockers and
during class change pretty regularly (I had a pair of very good
friends, one of whom is still a very dear friend, who could knock out
a mean version of it, complete with a cute little sashay to '...I
love the little wiggle...in your walk...)
It's still loved by
Donny Osmond fans everywhere, as much for the memories it
generates...both of a much simpler time and a much simpler era...as
for the song itself and if you listen at just the right time you just
might hear it on an Oldies station occasionally.
So Enjoy! Sweet
and Innocent by Donny Osmond...Note the hiss you
can hear in the background here and there (And the record player at
the beginning of the video). Me thinks this was recorded straight off
of an old 45, or maybe an album track. The great majority of the
record players owned by the kids who were Donny's biggest fans were
not high end studio quality rigs...most were inexpensive rigs
that gave you that little back-ground hiss, making this seem all the
more authentic
As a Bonus...The Original version of the tune, from 1958, by Roy Orbison. While Donny's version is considered a cover, other then the title it had absolutely nothing in common with the original, and this proves it. Roy Orbison's original was a slow, syrupy ballad, while Donny's version had some snap to it, and about the only lyrics the two songs had in common were the words 'Sweet and Innocent' As noted above, Fame Studio's songwriters completely overhauled the tune.
No comments:
Post a Comment