ങ THE OSMONDS, One Bad Apple|Double Lovin|Yo Yo|Crazy Horses|Down By The Lazy River|Love Me For A Reason|

The Osmonds are an American devout Mormons family music group rising from barbershop singing style to Disneyland and to international pop stars. The original  barbershop quartet consisted of brothers Alan Osmond, Wayne Osmond, Merrill Osmond, and Jay Osmond . Up and coming superstars younger siblings Donny Osmond, Marie Osmond, and Jimmy Osmond joined the group later.

One bad apple is not that bad after all as The Osmonds exploded onto the pop-music scene, hitting #1 on the Billboard pop chart with "One Bad Apple" in 1971. The Osmonds soon had hits with other light, R&B-style pop numbers like "Double Lovin'" (Billboard #14) and "Yo-Yo" (#3).

The Osmonds began to demonstrate their musical talent by writing their own music, and their sound moved toward rock and roll with hits like "Hold Her Tight" (Billboard #14), "Crazy Horses" (#14) and "Down by the Lazy River" (#4). Alan plays the rhythm guitar, Wayne on lead guitar, Merrill on bass and lead vocals, drums by Jay, and Donny on keyboards. Jay and Donny sometimes singing lead and with all brothers on back-up.

Beginning of 1973 Osmondmania were breaking sound barriers and voted 'Best Musical Variety Act of 1974' and in 1975 won the 'People's Choice Award' as America's 'Favorite Music Group'. In 1974, "Love Me for a Reason" reached #10 on the U.S. pop charts and went to #1 in the U.K.

The Osmonds made a world tour to celebrate their 50th anniversary of singing in show business. They may have aged with grey hair, double chin and more waistline but they sure rock.

The Osmonds all nine of them together with sister Marie being the only rose among the thorns with elder brothers George Virl Osmond, Jr. and Tom Osmond who were born deaf did not originally perform although later made their presence occasionally.

ങ OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, If Not For You|Let Me Be There|I Honestly Love U|Please Mr Please|You're The One That I Want|Magic|Physical|Heart Attack|

Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE (born 26 September 1948 [just turned 61  today, happy birthday] in Cambridge, United Kingdom) is a British-born, Australian singer and actor. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 albums. The RIAA has certified gold 11 of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum). She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Grease, which became the highest grossing movie musical in Hollywood history. She is an avid activist for both environmental issues and breast cancer awareness. Born to a Welsh-born father, Brinley ("Bryn") Newton-John, and a German-born mother, Irene Born (who was the eldest child of the Nobel prize winning atomic physicist Max Born). Newton-John's family emigrated in 1954 to Melbourne, Australia, where her father worked as a Professor of German and became the Master of Ormond College at theUniversity of Melbourne.

Newton-John released her first solo album, 'If Not For You', in 1971. The title track, written by Bob Dylan, was her first international hit (No. 25 Pop, No. 1 Adult Contemporary [hereafter AC]). (If Not For You was originally recorded by Beatle George Harrison on his triple album All Things Must Pass 1970.) Her follow-up, "Banks of the Ohio," was a Top 10 hit in England and Australia, but faltered in the U.S. (No. 94 Pop, No. 34 AC). She was voted Best British Female Vocalist two years in a row by the magazine Record Mirror. In the United States, Newton-John's career foundered after If Not For You until the release of "Let Me Be There" in 1973. The song reached the American Top 10 on the Pop (No. 6), Country (No. 7), and AC (No. 3) charts and earned her a Grammy for Best Country Female and an Academy of Country Music award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. The song also propelled the album 'Let Me Be There' to No. 1 on the Country Albums chart for two weeks.

The next single, "I Honestly Love You," became Newton-John's signature song. Written by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen , the ballad became her first No. 1 Pop (two weeks) and second No. 1 AC (three weeks) hit (also No. 6 Country) and earned Newton-John two more Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Pop Female. The success of both singles helped the album reach No. 1 on both the Pop (one week) and Country (eight weeks) Albums charts.

Encouraged by expatriate Australian singer Helen Reddy, Newton-John left England and moved to the United States. Newton-John topped the Pop (one week) and Country (six weeks) Albums charts with her next album, 'Have You Never Been Mellow'. The album generated two singles – the title track (No. 1 Pop, No. 3 Country, No. 1 AC) and "Please Mr. Please" (No. 3 Pop, No. 5 Country, No. 1 AC). Newton-John's pop career cooled with the release of her next album, Clearly Love. Her streak of five consecutive gold Top 10 singles ended when the album's first single, "Something Better To Do," stopped at No. 13 (also No. 19 Country and No. 1 AC). Although her albums still achieved gold status, she did not return to the Top 10 on the Hot 100 or Pop Albums charts again until 1978.

The release of the film was preceded one month by the telecast of Newton-John's second television special, Olivia. Grease became the biggest box-office hit of 1978 and remained popular enough that it was re-released in theaters on its 20th anniversary in 1998. The soundtrack spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 and yielded three Top 5 singles for Newton-John: the No. 1 "You're The One That I Want" (with John Travolta), the No. 3 "Hopelessly Devoted To You," and the No. 5 "Summer Nights" (with John Travolta and the film's cast). The former two songs were written by Newton-John's long-time producer, John Farrar, specifically for the film. Newton-John became the second female (after Linda Ronstadt in 1977) to have two singles – "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Summer Nights" – in the Billboard Top 5 simultaneously. Newton-John's performance earned her a People's Choice award for Favorite Motion Picture Actress. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Musical and performed the Oscar-nominated "Hopelessly Devoted To You" at the 1979 Academy Awards. To this day, the soundtrack still sells several thousand copies per week and often appears on Billboard's Soundtracks chart.

"Magic" was Newton-John's biggest Pop hit to that point (four weeks at No. 1) and still ranks as the biggest AC hit of her career (five weeks at No. 1). The film has since become a cult classic and the basis for a well-reviewed, Tony-nominated Broadway show that ran for more than 500 performances in 2007–2008.

In 1981, Newton-John released her most successful studio album, the double platinum 'Physical'. The title track, written by Steve Kipner and Terry Shaddick, spent ten weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, matching the record of most weeks at No. 1 held by Debby Boone's 'You Light Up My Life'. The single was certified platinum and it ultimately ranked as the biggest song of the decade. (In 2008, Billboard ranked the song No. 6 among all songs that charted in the 50-year history of the Hot 100.) The song even earned Newton-John her only placement ever on the R&B Singles (No. 28) and Albums (No. 32) chart. The Physical album spawned two more singles, Make a Move on Me (No. 5 Pop, No. 6 AC) and Landslide (No. 52 Pop).

Newton-John became a pioneer in the nascent music video industry by recording a video album for 'Physical' featuring videos of all the album's tracks and three of her older hits. The video album earned her a fourth Grammy and was aired as an ABC prime time special, 'Let's Get Physical', becoming a Top 10 Nielsen hit. The success of Physical led to an international tour and the release of her second hits collection, the double platinum Olivia's 'Greatest Hits Vol. 2' (No. 16 Pop), which yielded two more Top 40 singles: "Heart Attack" (No. 3 Pop) and "Tied Up" (No. 38 Pop). The tour was filmed for her Olivia In Concert television special which premiered on HBO in January 1983. The special was subsequently released to video earning Newton-John another Grammy nomination. [wikipedia]

ങ NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK (NKOTB), Call It What U Want|Games|Please Don't Go Girl|Hangin' Tough|Step By Step|

New Kids on the Block (also known as NKOTB) is an American pop group that enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a boy band which went on to sell 80 million albums worldwide. Managed by Dick Scott and Kim Glover. Assembled in Boston in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr the members consist of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight Joey McIntyre Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood. They won two American Music Awards in 1990 for Favorite Pop/Rock BandDuoor Group and Favorite Pop/Rock Album. After having disbanded in 1994 several attempts were made to get the group back together all of them unsuccessful. Upon secretly reuniting in 2007 they took on a new style released a new album and embarked on a concert tour in 2008. The album entitled The Block was released on September 2 2008.

New Kids on the Block's official fan club had a membership of over 200,000 members and was one of the largest fan clubs in the world. Approximately one hundred thousand calls per week were dialed to 1-900-909-5KIDs, the Official NKOTB Hotline, as well. In 1991, the group topped Forbes list of highest paid entertainers, beating out the likes of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, and Bill Cosby. Further capitalizing on the fame, at year's end, Columbia Records released No More Games/The Remix Album—a compilation of the group's biggest hits remixed, the album also brought along two more released songs in "Call It What You Want" (UK *12) and "Games" (UK *14) in which videos were also released.

After the failure of the first album Starr had the group back in the studio for most of 1987 and 1988 recording their second album. Dissatisfied with the excessively bubblegum sound of their first album the group wanted to have more input on their lookdirection and song material. As a result Donnie Danny and Jordan received associate producer credit on the final product. The album's first single was "Please Don't Go Girl" a ballad released in the spring of 1988. Failure seemed destined a second time when the song became another that went unnoticed by the listening public and Columbia Records made plans to drop the New Kids from the label. At the eleventh hour however a radio station in Florida began playing the song. Scoring listener approval it soon became the most requested song on their play list. When Columbia caught wind of the positive responsethey decided to keep the group on its roster and put more effort into promoting the single. National attention soon followed and it eventually climbed to #10 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart—becoming the group's first hit.

The following May they followed up Hangin' Tough with Step by Step which featured slightly more than half of the songs co-written and produced by the members themselves. The first single the title track raced to number one on the Hot 100 Singles Chart and became their biggest selling single. It was followed up with the top ten "Tonight" which extended the consecutive top ten singles chart run to nine records.

On August 12 2008 they released their second single "Single" featuring R&B singer/songwriter Ne-Yo followed by the release of the group's first studio album in fourteen years The Block. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums Chart and #2 on the Billboard 200 in September 2008. It was certified Gold in October 2008 in Canada.

The group's reunion tour New Kids on the Block: Live began at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on September 18 2008. They are touring the US with Natasha Bedingfield and Lady GaGa as supporting acts. There are seven concerts scheduled for Canada and forty-one in the US ten in the UK one in France and One in Amsterdam in The Netherlands and two in Germany. A NKOTB sponsored "theme" concert cruise (for their fans) is scheduled to depart MiamiFL and go to the Bahamas and return to Miami FL from May 15-18 2009. The group also announced the Full Service Tour for 2009. [wikipedia]