I grew up watching the Donny & Marie show back in the 70s. I never missed a episode. Sadly, I was too young to have possibly appreciated Donny Osmond covering David Bowie’s “Fame” (from Bowie’s 1975 record Young Americans) on a show that aired during the first season of Donny & Marie in 1976. And guess what? It’s actually pretty good. Mind blown!
 

Donny dressed in his finest “David Bowie” drag perhaps, or is he trying to be an intergalactic pimp?
 
I’m not really sure, but it appears that the costume department for Donny & Marie must’ve thought “Bowie-esque” meant a sort of showy, Liberace-meets Elton John-meets-Superfly type getup. Once you look past that (if in fact you can look past Osmond’s ridiculous costume), it’s hard not to appreciate his 90-second little Bowie cover. This beautiful and bizarre bit of pop culture goodness that I had no idea existed before today (and can’t stop watching), is posted below. The full episode (which stars the great Ruth Buzzi) can be seen, here.
 
H/T: Kitsch Bitsch on Facebook

Donny Osmond gets down, gets funky

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Crazy Horses’: The Osmonds tear it the fuck up

 
In an event that some commentators are calling “the most 1970s thing that ever happened,” Donny Osmond in 1979 was hired to sing a treacly medley of four recent pop hits to the five finalists of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, a medley that starts with Steely Dan’s “Peg” (off of 1977’s Aja) and then segues to Wings’ “Goodnight Tonight” (non-album single), The Commodores’ “Three Times a Lady” (1978’s Natural High), and Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” (1976’s Songs in the Key of Life).

It’s too bad they don’t let Osmond sing all of “Peg,” but some producer probably wisely decided that it would be too goofy to have him sing the line “It’s your favorite foreign movie” in such a setting—to a Brazilian or Swedish woman, no less, and in Perth, Australia! According to Wikipedia (see last link), after Maritza Sayalero (Miss Venezuela) was crowned the winner, the stage holding her throne collapsed when the runners-up flocked towards her in order to congratulate her. That incident did not make the TV cut.

Interestingly, Osmond included “Peg” on his album Soundtrack of My Life, released earlier this year, in a much more, er, up-to-date style.

Here’s Osmond singing his medley at the 1979 Miss Universe pageant. Just for kicks we’ve also included the (much-better-known) version of the Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years” (off of Can’t Buy a Thrill, 1972) he taped with his sister Marie in early 1978.
 

 
More of the Steely Dan/Osmonds intersection after the jump…

 
Oh my. There really IS a bottomless pit of shitty seventies “show biz” clips, isn’t there? Each one worse than the last.

It seems like the entire world could have imploded with a paroxysm of kitsch back then…
 

 
Thank you very kindly, Matthew Best!

 
Just in time for the holiday!  Ever dream of seeing on the same stage KISS, Margaret Hamilton and Witchiepoo?  Well, The Paul Lynde Holiday Special is here to make that dream come true!  Broadcast just once in ‘76, The Paul Lynde Variety Show was reissued a few years back on DVD, but is now available on YouTube.  Part I follows below, with links at the bottom to all the rest (KISS appear in Part V, right before the emergence of the forever-sexy, Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly).

 
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special Parts II, III, IV, V, VI