Past Times

was sweeping Britain 50 years ago and Jimmy Osmond was the super-cute kid with the ‘ahhhh’ factor.

The youngest member of the famous American singing family was only nine years old when he released Long Haired Lover From Liverpool in March, 1972.

He was soon appearing on Top Of The Pops, billed as Little Jimmy Osmond, and cheerfully warbling “I’ll be your clown or your puppet or your April Fool, if you’ll be my sunshine daisy from LA.”

The up-beat song went on to become a number one chart hit, making Jimmy the youngest performer to top the UK music charts – a record which has never been broken.

“I remember it all really well,” he once said of his musical childhood. “I’ve such strong memories, but I don’t know if that’s because I’ve seen so many TV clips and photos of that time and it feels like a real memory.”

Jimmy was even younger when he was awarded his first gold disc for a recording of My Little Darling, which he sang in Japanese when he was only seven. Long Haired Lover From Liverpool came along two years later and earned him a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records along with an invitation to perform before Queen Elizabeth at the Royal Gala Variety Performance at the London Palladium in aid of the British Olympics Appeal Fund. He and his brothers were presented to the Queen and Jimmy got to shake her hand.

He went on to collect six gold records, one platinum record, and two gold albums as a solo singer, a haul that secured him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Londoner Helen Shapiro was the youngest female singer to have a number one UK hit. She was only 14 when her single You Don’t Know saw her topping the charts in 1961, and she followed it up with Walkin’ Back To Happiness. Both sold more than a million copies and earned her two gold discs. The Clapton Park Secondary School pupil saw her career soar in the 1960s and she accompanied the Beatles on their first national tour in 1963. John Lennon and Paul McCartney even wrote a song for her called MisOSMONDMANIA ery, but her producer turned it down.

Across the pond, Stevie Wonder made his mark on the American music charts at a young age. He was 11 when he signed his first record deal and just 13 when he celebrated his first number one hit with Fingertips (Part 2) in 1963 – making him the youngest performer to ever top the US Billboard charts.