Sunday 9 May 2021

Fit for a King



Elvis had many looks - thin Elvis, fat Elvis, army Elvis. But when you think of early 70s Elvis - the Vegas Years - you picture him in your mind's eye in that iconic white jumpsuit (with the collar turned up. Natch). A sartorial nightmare in the wrong hands, you would have thought: why, who else would be crazy enough to walk down the street in 1972 wearing a heavily sequinned all-in-one jacket/trouser combo verging on the utterly ridiculous; your chances of being run out of town on a rail would, on a scale of 98 to 100, be, well, pushing 100.
Unless, that is, you were the Osmonds. Ever wondered how many white jumpsuits you could fit on a stage at any one time? Five, seemingly. Sometimes six, though long haired (underage) lovers from Liverpool don't really count.

...

When the insanely talented brothers released Crazy Horses, their fifth long player, this was, for my money, the best song on the album. And, as I found out only recently, the intro is the perfect soundtrack to brush your teeth to. I kid you not. 

The Osmonds - Hold Her Tight (1972)



8 comments:

  1. Ha ha - Yes indeed, identical jumpsuits for a while (until those worn by Elvis got more and more outrageous).

    They featured on Rol's Saturday Snapshots recently and I could still remember all their names and the instruments they played - Slightly scary.

    One of the first songs that would have pleased the environmentalists - They were ahead of their time.

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    1. Referring to Crazy Horses of course there.

      Thanks for the clip though - Not obvious Osmond material.

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    2. Not scary at all, Alyson. Before I progressed to Sounds I used to devour the weeklies - Music Star, Popswop and Look In - where weekly wall-to-wall wall coverage of Osmondmania was a given.
      Hold Her Tight, like all the songs on the Crazy Horses album was written by them; fair play.

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    3. Ah Look In - I'm sure I had a subscription. I heard a statistic recently, the Osmonds are the most successful band in terms of record sales to get the least airplay nowadays. They have been almost erased from history - but not here obviously.

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  2. A long time favourite of mine too. Zepp's 'Immigrant Song' meets Sweet's 'Burning', fabulous.

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    1. It's such a brilliant riff, isn't it? I love it when they all come to their mics for the opening line. And they're genuinely enjoying the moment - you can't fake that.

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  3. I always picture him in jeans and a jacket.

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