Steely Dan! Donny & Marie Osmond! What Could Be More Natural Than This Musical Mashup?!?!
Here’s an amazing video that has been catching fire all over the internet – I’ve had a number of friends posting this amazingly horrific video of Donny and Marie Osmond performing a Steely Dan song on their 70’s TV show.
But actually, this has been floating around for almost 5 years! It’s amazing how social media can keep these things alive!
Let’s get into what happened here: Donny and Marie Osmond were part of the singing Osmond family, and when they got really popular in the 70’s, they were given their own primetime variety hour.
So of course, in order to stay “with the times”, they routinely “covered” popular songs of the era – and added their own dance number to it – and that’s what happened when someone came across the band Steely Dan, which is named after a dildo in the book “Naked Lunch.”
The song that Donny & Marie chose to cover was Steely Dan’s hit single “Reelin’ In The Years” from their debut album “Can’t Buy A Thrill.”
Here is the song performed by Steely Dan on Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special in 1973, and yes – that is Bill Cosby introducing them!
OK, you have that classic Steely Dan sound in your head? Well, get ready to have it run through a “TV Variety Show Time Machine!”
The clip is from the Donny & Marie Show that aired on January 13, 1978.
First, get ready for an “outer space” into…
Once you’ve had the chance to catch your breath, you begin to notice the lyrics, which remind you of something – you’re just not sure what it is, until the chorus is revealed – here it is!
Thanks to “DavEvans066” for posting this on youtube! As I said, it’s been around for years, but it’s a classic TV moment worth re-visiting!
As for Steely Dan, you know that all turned out well for them, but did you know that the singer on this first album sued them? Read about it here:
https://johnrieber.com/2015/03/16/icy-cool-steely-dan-classic-70s-music-lawsuits-over-dirty-work/
Thanks to Donny and Marie for the classic TV moment!
