If you speak to any girl of a ‘particular age’ and ask them ‘Donny or David?’ they will know EXACTLY what you mean. If you ask two or more girls in a group no doubt they will start discussing the merits of their respective crush.
Donny, of course, was Donny Osmond.
Originally one of the Osmond Brothers, the band that your parents were happy for you to like because they were clean living and came from a respectable family. In the 1970s, aside from his success with The Osmonds or with his sister as Donny and Marie, Donny had six top 10 UK singles, and three of them reached number one (Puppy Love, The Twelfth of Never, Young Love). Donny had already started to fall out of favour with the girls, and then he got married. (How could HE? I was going to marry him!) As he has discussed many times, he spent a long time in the wilderness before coming back into favour in the mid-1980s.
David Cassidy made his name as Keith Partridge, in the TV show The Partridge Family. His TV persona was as part of a clean living American family, although life off camera was very different. During the same period as Donny Osmond, David had five top 10 UK singles, and two number ones (How Can I be Sure? Daydreamer/The Puppy Song). He also had chart success as part of The Partridge Family. Life began to fall apart when tragedy struck at one of David’s concerts in 1974, and a young female fan was killed in the crush. Stories had also started to circulate that David Cassidy was not as clean living as Keith Partridge. Like Donny, David also fell out of favour but continued with his recording career. In recent years he has found himself on tour…with Donny Osmond.
No matter how many years pass, no rivalry has every captured the hearts of girls in the same way, no matter how much the media would like to dress it up (Spandau Ballet v Duran Duran; Blur v Oasis; Take That v East 17). Everytime I mention Donny Osmond on twitter I get comments like ‘I’ll fight you for him!’ or “He is all mine!” So girls, let’s do a quick poll… which camp were you in, Donny or David?
Always Donny for me, indeed all the Osmond Brothers. Firm favourites then and still now. I regularly go to Las Vegas to see Donny and Marie perform there. The osmond Brothers perform in many places, adn are doing a 50 date tour of the UK from march to may this year. I am going to 12 of the shows, cant get too much of a good thing.!
DONNY all the way. I have been (and still am) a DONNY OSMOND since since The Andy Williams Show back in the “60’s”. I don’t think DONNY will ever go away.
Actually I think the field was wider than that. Also around at the same time was Marty Kristian of The New Seekers. Long hair and lovely eyes. Anyone else remember him?
Alison, you are so right about Marty Kristian, I found this article on Lyn Paul’s website…http://www.lynpaulwebsite.org/NS-Kristian.htm, , which says that he was always compared with Donny and David. So Donny, David, or Marty? Still Donny for me!