![\"Issue39-donny-osmond\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Issue39-donny-osmond.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nIn the 50 years since Donny Osmond made his debut alongside his brothers on The Andy Williams Show<\/i>, he\u2019s recorded 60 albums, including his latest,\u00a0The Soundtrack of My Life<\/i>. The album features songs that were significant in the 57-year-old performer\u2019s life, from the Beatles\u2019 \u201cThe Long and Winding Road\u201d to the Supremes\u2019 \u201cBaby Love.\u201d Stevie Wonder played harmonica on \u201cMy Cherie Amour,\u201d and Osmond took a turn on a tune meant for him in 1972. \u201cI was the original choice to sing \u2018Ben\u2019 by Michael Jackson,\u201d he says. Meanwhile, Osmond continues to perform with sister Marie in their highly successful Vegas show.<\/p>\n
Did any song intimidate you?<\/b><\/p>\n
All of them! These are the most influential songs of my life and serve as an autobiography, because they helped shape who I am today\u2014which is why I named it The Soundtrack of My Life<\/i>. You can\u2019t sing these songs like the originals, because then you\u2019re just doing karaoke. But there\u2019s a danger in changing them, too. It was challenging to make them my own.<\/p>\n
Which was most challenging?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cI (Who Have Nothing)\u201d [on the album\u2019s deluxe edition]\u2014because trying to top Tom Jones is a task in and of itself. I was spitting blood after singing that because it was so hard.<\/p>\n
How did you land Stevie Wonder?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve known Stevie for years, but this is the first time I ever called in a favor. After I finished the track, I contacted him. But he doesn\u2019t commit to just anything, so he said, \u201cSend me what you\u2019ve got so far so I can hear it.\u201d The next thing I know my phone rings and it\u2019s his assistant saying Stevie wants to speak with me. My heart stopped. But he said, \u201cI love what you\u2019ve done, send me the masters because I want to be a part of this.\u201d That made me happy, because he\u2019s my musical hero.<\/p>\n
Where did you draw inspiration?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
For the most part, I went back to the originals. They\u2019re each magical in their own way\u2014but instead of trying to re-create that magic I wanted to pinpoint what was magical about each particular song. Like, I didn\u2019t use Frank Sinatra\u2019s version of \u201cI\u2019ve Got You Under My Skin,\u201d because if you read the lyric of that song, it\u2019s very sexy\u2014which is not how Frank approached it. That\u2019s a bold thing to say because he made it his own, but it\u2019s a different song when you go to a smoke-filled jazz club where there\u2019s just a spotlight and a mic. It should be sexy and slow.<\/p>\n
Plan to include any in the Vegas show?<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to incorporate some of these Soundtrack<\/i> songs into the show, since it\u2019s hard for me to tour for this album because of all the shows we do\u2014five days a week. But we\u2019re constantly changing the show because we get tired of doing the same thing over and over. We switch it up often so that when people come back, it\u2019s different every time. We\u2019ve always got to do \u201cPuppy Love\u201d and songs like that, because people want to hear the hits, but then you give them the full spectrum.<\/p>\n
Is there one song you\u2019ll always do?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
My 1989 hit \u201cSoldier of Love\u201d is one of the most important songs I\u2019ve ever recorded\u2014because the music industry acknowledged that it was my comeback. I had been written off after my teen idol years. I was told I was a has-been at 21. It took 10 years, but I finally got another hit with that song. It will always be in the show, because it taught me that reinvention is what keeps you going.<\/p>\n
\u2013Katy Kroll<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DONNY OSMOND His latest celebrates the former teen idol\u2019s biggest musical influences\u00a0 In the 50 years since Donny Osmond made his debut alongside his brothers on The Andy Williams Show, he\u2019s recorded 60 albums, including his latest,\u00a0The Soundtrack of My Life. The album features songs that were significant in the 57-year-old performer\u2019s life, from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7676,7623],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14769,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767\/revisions\/14769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}