The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career — a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children to achieving success as teen-music idols, from producing a hit television show to continued success as solo and group performers. The Osmonds are devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and their religious values have influenced their careers.
The Osmond family was not one single act, but a group of several. The Osmond Brothers began as a barbershop quartet consisting of brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay Osmond. They were later joined by younger siblings Donny and Jimmy, both of whom enjoyed success as solo artists as well; with Donny, the band became known as The Osmonds, under which the band enjoyed its greatest pop success. Their only sister Marie, who rarely sang with her brothers at that time, launched a successful career in 1973, both as a solo artist and as Donny's duet partner. A revival of the original Osmond Brothers lineup in the 1980s achieved moderate success in country music and continues to perform to the present day (with Jimmy having since replaced the semi-retired Alan and Wayne), as do Donny and Marie. Collectively, the family has sold 102 million records worldwide.
The siblings' older brothers George Virl Osmond, Jr. (Virl) and Tom Osmond were born deaf and did not originally perform. They made several television appearances in later years, most notably on the family Christmas specials in the 1970s. All of the Osmonds were born in Ogden, Utah except the youngest, Jimmy, who was born in Canoga Park, California.
The Osmond Brothers' career began in 1958 when Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay began singing barbershop music for local audiences in and around Ogden. In their made-for-TV movie Inside the Osmonds, they explain that they originally performed to earn money to support Virl and Tom in buying hearing aids and serving missions for the church. Despite their young ages (Alan was 9, Wayne 7, Merrill 5, and Jay 3) and within a few years, the boys' talent and stage presence were strong enough that their father, George Osmond, took them to audition for Lawrence Welk in California. Welk was unable to meet with them, but on the same trip, they visited Disneyland. Tommy Walker, Disneyland's Director of Entertainment and Customer Relations from 1955 to 1966, found the Osmond Brothers singing with The Dapper Dans on Main Street. Walker hired the Osmonds to perform on a segment of "Disneyland After Dark". This episode aired on 4/15/62 and 7/01/62.
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