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The Beatles debut performance in the US on the Ed Sullivan Show attracted a large audience both in the studio and on TV. The Beatles were wildly popular among teenagers and was arguably the biggest band of their time.

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"I think one of the cheekiest things we ever did was to say to Brian Epstein, "We're not going to America until we've got a Number One record." Paul McCartney
Fifty years ago the Beatles conquered America, touching down in New York on February 7, 1964, and making their live U.S. debut two nights later on the Ed Sullivan Show. They seemed to come out of nowhere, but in fact, we knew they were coming. For months before they landed here, the Beatles were all the rage in Great Britain, and America's top news outlets had taken notice. Among them: NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report, the leading network evening newscast of its time, and the forerunner to NBC Nightly News.

Almost three months before that auspicious arrival in New York, Huntley-Brinkley featured a report by Edwin Newman on the Beatles phenomenon. It was the Beatles' first appearance on American television: November 18, 1963. The four-minute piece was seen by millions of people across the country. Not the tens of millions that would later see the Beatles live on Ed Sullivan, but still the biggest single audience for the Beatles anywhere outside England up to that moment.

It's hard to believe, but a copy of that broadcast does not exist in the NBC archives. An audio recording somehow did survive, and was recently discovered in the Library of Congress. It is presented here for the first time anywhere in half a century.

The Beatles had been gathering momentum in the UK for several years. From their start as a hot local band in Liverpool, they'd become the headlining act on package tours across Great Britain, with a crucial Hamburg residency in between. They caught fire in 1963. Their debut album Please Please Me was released that January, and followed by three successive number one singles: "Please Please Me," "From Me to You" (in May), and "She Loves You" (in September).

On October 13, the frenzy was given a name: Beatlemania, after the group's landmark appearance on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. It was Britain's top-rated entertainment program, the equivalent of the Ed Sullivan show. The Beatles were the main attraction that night -- the closing act -- and their appearance triggered pandemonium, inside the theater and out. They performed four songs before a rapt national television audience estimated at 15 million.

Ten days later, after a hectic series of radio, television and concert appearances, and the final recording sessions for their second album, the Beatles flew to Sweden for their first overseas tour. It was another huge success, and their return to London on October 31 was greeted by more than 1,000 screaming, adoring fans. In the crowd at Heathrow that day: Ed Sullivan, who soon booked the band for his show.

"The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands, and the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewelry."

On November 4, at the outset of another marathon British tour, the Beatles were the main attraction at a Royal Command Performance in London. With the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret looking on, John Lennon famously asked for the crowd's help: "The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands, and the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewelry." (He'd actually threatened to say, "rattle your f**king jewelry," but thought better of it.) With that, the band launched into their closing number, a blistering version of "Twist and Shout." The next day, British newspapers were beside themselves. The show was broadcast in Britain on November 10, bringing the Beatles to yet another enormous television audience.

American journalists picked up the story. "Thousands of Britons 'Riot' - Liverpool Sound Stirs up Frenzy," headlined the Washington Post. Time magazine described Beatlemania in vivid detail in an article headlined "The New Madness." That same week, NBC, CBS and ABC dispatched crews to cover the Beatles performing at the Winter Gardens Theater in Bournemouth. The date was Saturday, November 16, and NBC was the first on the air the following Monday with its report by Edwin Newman. CBS aired a story on its morning show that Friday (with a script by correspondent Alexander Kendrick that was strikingly similar to Edwin Newman's). CBS's plans to air a story that evening were scrapped after the assassination of President Kennedy that afternoon. ABC apparently never aired a story.

The news media knew something was happening, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, but didn't really know what it was.

There was more: Variety ran a story headlined "Beatle Bug Bites Britain." The New York Times Magazine weighed in with "Britons Succumb to Beatlemania." Life magazine ran a photo of the Beatles meeting Prince Margaret. And the CBS Evening News finally ran its Beatles story on December 10.

It should be said that the tone of most of this American news coverage -- including NBC's -- was patronizing and dismissive. The news media knew something was happening, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, but didn't really know what it was. The focus was on haircuts, hype, and hysterical teenage girls. Little attention was paid to the music itself, which as the Beatles themselves proudly pointed out, had deep American roots. Not until later was the moment seen clearly as the beginning of a seismic generational shift, and a sea change in popular culture.

What all the news coverage did do was raise awareness of the Beatles, feeding a growing appetite for their music among American record-buyers. Up until then, their hits in Britain had tanked here. But things had changed. The Kennedy assassination had left Americans hungry for something to feel good about. What better than four lovable singing moptops? Eleven weeks after Dallas, the spark of Beatlemania jumped the Atlantic and set fire to a huge American audience.

The Beatles' next single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (b/w "I Saw Her Standing There"), was promised for American release in January. But demand was so great that the record was rush-released on December 26. The song exploded onto U.S. airwaves, charting for 15 weeks, including a phenomenal seven weeks at Number One. When John, Paul, George and Ringo landed at New York's newly renamed John F. Kennedy Airport half a century ago, the Beatles were at the top of the charts, just where they said they would be.
A footnote: The Huntley-Brinkley Report distinguished itself in November 1963 by being the first to put the Beatles on American television. Sadly, that was not the case three months later, when the broadcast inexplicably underplayed the story of their arrival in New York. It's a shame, because the Beatles actually watched Huntley-Brinkley that night. Documentary footage shot in their Plaza Hotel suite on February 7, 1964 shows the Beatles tuning in to NBC after catching Cronkite on CBS. If they'd watched to the end, they would have heard Chet Huntley trying to explain why America's premier evening newscast thought the Beatles' arrival that day was worth covering, but not worth airing! Here's how Chet signed off that night:

"Well, the Beatl es arrived in New York today and advanced almost to the Hudson. The four English musical stars with thei r pudding-bowl haircuts were greeted by about 4,000 shrieking teenagers at Kennedy Airport and mobbed by another large group of juveniles when they got to the Plaza Hotel. All day long, some local disc jockeys had been encouraging truancy with repeated announcements of the Beatles' travel plans, flight number and estimated time of arrival. British journalists tell us that the record company had 16 press agents handling the arrival, but we wouldn't know much about that. However, like a good little news organization we sent three camera crews to stand among the shrieking youngsters and record the sights and sounds for posterity. Our film crews acquitted themselves with customary skill and ingenuity. The pictures are very good but someone asked what the fuss was about, and we found we had no answer. So, goodnight for NBC News."

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What You Don't Know About The Beatles' U.S. Debut

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"I think one of the cheekiest things we ever did was to say to Brian Epstein, "We're not going to America until we've got a Number One record." Paul McCartney Fifty years ago the Beatles conquered America, touching down in New York on February 7, 1964, and making their live U.S.

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This quartet used the Beatles formula to attract fans. They were wildly popular and had their own sit-com that told their story. Davey Jones was the only British member. Drummer Mikey Dolenz was often featured as a lead singer while he played drums. Hits included "Daydream Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville"

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It was a zany sitcom unapologetically riding on the coattails of The Beatles phenomenon, but who would've guessed that 50 years after its premiere on NBC-and subsequent cancellation following a measly two seasons- The Monkees would remain a topic of never-ending fascination. Starring Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith, The Monkees was a TV show about a struggling rock group that featured early incarnations of music videos and plenty of (family-friendly) psychedelic vibes.

Following its 1966 to 1968 run, the series gained new generations of fans through marathon airings on MTV and Nickelodeon in the 1980s. So since it's never too late to become a fan of the Pre-Fab Four (yes, that's what they were called), here are some fun factoids that will help you jump onto the timeless Monkeemania bandwagon.

1. DAVY JONES DIDN'T KNOW WHO THE BEATLES WERE THE NIGHT OF THEIR SHARED ED SULLIVAN SHOW PERFORMANCE.

Two and a half years before The Monkees premiered, English heartthrob and tambourine player extraordinaire David "Davy" Jones had his first brush with the four moptops who, unbeknownst to him, would change his life forever. As a cast member of the Broadway musical Oliver! (he played the Artful Dodger), Jones just happened to be performing on the same historic Ed Sullivan Show broadcast featuring The Beatles. But probably the craziest part of this story was how the 19-year-old Brit was completely oblivious to who John, Paul, George and Ringo were. As he tells the story in this interview, the late Monkee ( Jones died in 2012) had never heard any of The Beatles's songs. He only took interest in what they were doing because he wanted to figure out how to make girls scream too.

2. THE ORIGINAL MONKEES CASTING CALL AD WAS RIDDLED WITH HIPPIE-ISH REFERENCES.

The creators of The Monkees TV show, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, knew exactly the kind of guys they wanted for their new series. So the ad they took out in the September 8, 1965 edition of Variety had to reflect the attitudes of the burgeoning youth culture. In the ad, "spirited Ben Frank's-types" are requested. According to the book Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-for-TV Band, Ben Frank's was a popular Sunset Strip restaurant "where the mods mused over burgers and fries." Or, as Davy Jones called them, "long-haired beatnik weirdos." The ad also included the line, "Must come down for interview." Per Rafelson in Monkee Business, that was "a sly reference to being high."

3. MICHAEL NESMITH ATTENDED THE CELEBRITY-FILLED RECORDING SESSION FOR THE SGT. PEPPER SONG "A DAY IN THE LIFE."

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Donovan ... and Michael Nesmith of The Monkees? It seems like a round of "Which of These Things Are Not Like the Other?" but the Texas guitarist was indeed there among the cream of the British musical crop in February 1967. He appears at around 2:26 in the above promotional "A Day in the Life" clip, and if you have a steady hand it is possible to pause the video right when he shows up. But you have to look sharp, as it is a quintessential blink-and-you'll-miss-him moment.

4. THE MONKEES MANAGED TO SQUEEZE IN SUBVERSIVE BEHAVIOR WHENEVER THEY COULD.

In the season two episode "The Devil and Peter Tork," the boys took on the issue of censorship by slipping in a subversive joke about how, back in 1967, you couldn't say the word "hell" on network television. "This episode was a point of controversy, between The Monkees production crew and the network," says Tork in the DVD commentary (above). The bit, which starts at 9:50, has the boys talking about hell (Tork's character sold his soul to the devil) and getting bleeped every time they uttered the word. This leads Micky Dolenz to observe, "You know what's even more scary? You can't say 'hell' on television" (and, yes, "hell" was bleeped as he said it). The bit "annoyed the daylights" out of NBC, according to Tork. Dolenz also devotes a paragraph to this incident in his book I'm a Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music and Madness.

5. THE "MONKEEMANIA" OF THE MONKEES IN PARIS EPISODE WAS STAGED.

In June 1967, The Monkees headed off to Paris for a season two episode that would ostensibly show them being mobbed by French fans. Whether it was because the series hadn't started airing in France or French audiences just hadn't caught onto the craze yet (the truth is murky-this 1967 article says the show was on at the time; Monkee Business says it wasn't), director Bob Rafelson had to get creative with the squealing girls. The "cinéma vérité"-style "Monkees in Paris" episode is thus described in Monkee Business as "the episode that features The Monkees pretending to run from their non-existent French fans."

6. TWO MONKEES STEPPED BEHIND THE CAMERA DURING THE SHOW'S RUN.

Toward the end of the second and final season, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz were given the opportunity to direct an episode. Tork, using his full name in the credits-Peter H. Thorkelson-directed "The Monkees Mind Their Manor," which aired in February 1968. Dolenz then helmed "Mijacgeo" (a.k.a. "The Frodis Caper"), which also ended up being the series's finale. The Monkees would officially be canceled later that year.

7. THE SERIES'S UNOFFICIAL FINALE FEATURES NOT ONE, BUT TWO BEATLES TUNES.

This Micky Dolenz-directed episode opens up with a real bang: The intro to The Beatles's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track " Good Morning Good Morning." It was, in Dolenz's words (heard in the above video doing the DVD commentary), "a big moment." Mainly because, as he also mentions, it was "the first time, to my knowledge, that The Beatles ever let one of their songs on another show." (And anyone who remembers the "Tomorrow Never Knows" episode from Mad Men's fifth season is well aware that getting a Beatles song for your TV series is no small feat.) The choice of "Good Morning Good Morning" also had special meaning for Dolenz, who had the rare opportunity to hear an early version of the track during a visit to The Beatles's studio at Abbey Road in 1967.

In addition, there are two instances where, if you listen closely below, Davy Jones is singing the Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye" to himself. Once at 7:06, then again at 8:18:

8. THERE WAS A VERY WEIRD MONKEES EPISODE WHERE FRANK ZAPPA SHOWED UP.

It was the '60s, The Monkees was winding down, and Michael Nesmith, according to Randi L. Massingill, in her book Total Control: The Michael Nesmith Story, "was trying to show the rock community that he was not just a kiddie show guy." Nesmith achieved this by not only bringing The Mothers of Invention frontman Frank Zappa onto The Monkees, but by also conducting a bizarre interview with him in which the two men switched roles (which allowed Nesmith, as Zappa, to refer to The Monkees's bubblegum music as "banal and insipid"). It's hard to know what's more disturbing: Frank Zappa in a Monkees double-button blue shirt and Nesmith's signature green wool hat, or Mike Nesmith donning a Zappa-eque wig and fake nose (which keeps falling off during the bit).

9. THE MONKEES OUTSOLD THE BEATLES AND THE ROLLING STONES IN 1967.

Yes, you read that correctly. In 1967, the year of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Between the Buttons, and Their Satanic Majesties Request, The Monkees outsold both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones-combined. Probably because neither British band had a hit TV show on its hands. Pretty impressive considering, at least in the beginning, as discussed at length in Monkee Business, The Monkees were a manufactured group whose only contributions to the records were their voices.

10. LIBERACE ONCE MADE A STRANGE, UNCREDITED CAMEO ON A MONKEES EPISODE, USING THE SAME GOLDEN SLEDGEHAMMER AS FRANK ZAPPA.

The renowned pianist Liberace was never known for being subtle, so when he showed up on The Monkees's season two episode "Art, For Monkees' Sake," a flashy performance was a given. But what people didn't expect to see was the famed entertainer taking a golden sledgehammer to his piano. One could argue this possibly inspired the aforementioned Frank Zappa appearance from later in the season, in which Zappa proceeded to destroy a car with the same golden sledgehammer (it was deemed "playing the car"). It doesn't seem a coincidence now that Michael Nesmith appeared in both bits.

11. THE TITLE OF THE MICKY DOLENZ-PENNED TUNE "RANDY SCOUSE GIT" WAS DEEMED SO OFFENSIVE IN BRITAIN THAT IT HAD TO BE RENAMED.

Micky Dolenz wrote his first Monkees tune, "Randy Scouse Git," for the group's third album Headquarters, which he describes in his book I'm a Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music and Madness, as all about his experiences in England in 1967. ("The Beatles, Samantha [Juste, his eventual wife], the parties, the chemicals ... everything.") Trouble was, even though the title sounds tame to us Yanks, over in Britain it directly translated to, according to Dolenz, "horny, Liverpudlian jerk." For the song's U.K. release, the drummer chose "Alternative Title" for its alternative title, and the track still made it to number two on the British charts.

Additional source:
Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-For-TV Band, by Eric Lefcowitz

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11 Things You Might Not Know About The Monkees

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It was a zany sitcom unapologetically riding on the coattails of The Beatles phenomenon, but who would've guessed that 50 years after its premiere on NBC-and subsequent cancellation following a measly two seasons- The Monkees would remain a topic of never-ending fascination.

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Debuted on December 14, 1969 on the Ed Sullivan Show. Their popularity grew to include a variety show, multiple awards, acting gigs and solo careers for Michael and Janet.

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For most of its 23-year run, The Ed Sullivan Show was the be-all and end-all of starmaking. Musicians, comedians, and acts of all sorts would appear on the variety show, which meant they would also appear in the living rooms of families nationwide who made watching this show a Sunday night tradition.

On December 14, 1969, 51 years ago today, it was The Jackson 5's turn to make their debut.

Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael Jackson performed a medley, leading off with Sly & The Family Stone's hit "Stand!," before going into Smokey Robinson's "Who's Loving You" and ending with their first #1 hit song, "I Want You Back."
Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.

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Watch: The Jackson 5 Debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show 51 Years Ago Today

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For most of its 23-year run, The Ed Sullivan Show was the be-all and end-all of starmaking. Musicians, comedians, and acts of all sorts would appear on the variety show, which meant they would also appear in the living rooms of families nationwide who made watching this show a Sunday night tradition.

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A literal Band of Brothers, similar to the Jackson 5. The youngest brother, Donny, became a solo artist  and later teamed up with sister, Marie. The two hosted a variety show called Donny and Marie.

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When you're asked to think of pop-sensation vocal groups that featured five brothers, the youngest of whom is a breakout star in the making, your first inclination is probably The Jackson 5. However, that description could also apply to another group that released their first album the same year that "I Want You Back" went to number one. Emerging from Ogden, Utah, and following a course that led them to being seasoned performers with a national profile before they were all in their teens, The Osmond Brothers were well-known TV regulars in the 1960s. But as the boys got older, they wanted to try to their hand at a more pop and rock style. Reinventing themselves as, simply, The Osmonds, they released their self-titled debut album 50 years ago this week.

George Virl Osmond, Sr. married Olive May Davis in 1944The two oldest of their nine children, George Jr. (who goes by Virl) and Tom, both had the same condition that resulted in hearing loss. Virl retained about 15 percent hearing, while Tom was almost completely deaf. Nevertheless, both would learn to play music. The remainder of the couple's children (Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Donny, Marie, and Jimmy) did not have the condition; George Sr. taught Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay to sing barbershop style, and they started performing in 1958 (Alan was nine; Jay, only three). Their first goal was to earn enough money to buy hearing aids for their oldest brothers. George Sr. tried to arrange an audition for Lawrence Welk a few years later, but it didn't come together. On a visit to Disneyland, the boys drew attention while spontaneously singing with one of the street performing groups at the park; Disney's Tommy Walker booked them on the Disneyland After Dark episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, which aired in 1962. The father of entertainer Andy Williams saw the boys, and enthusiastically recommended them to his son; Williams added them as regulars on The Andy Williams Show from 1962 thru 1967. They moved over to the The Jerry Lewis Show in 1968, and back to Williams's revived program in 1969.

During their run on the Williams show, Donny joined the group, and both Marie and Jimmy made their debuts, though not as direct members of the quintet. They started making public appearances and even toured Europe. As the second turn on the Williams show ended, the brothers in the quintet decided that they wanted to reinvent themselves as a pop/rock group. The boys already played instruments: Jay was on drums; Alan played piano, guitar, and co-wrote and co-produced a number of songs; Wayne was a multi-instrumentalist, but focused on lead guitar; Merrill played bass, co-wrote with Alan, and traded lead vocals with Donny, who played keyboards. When record producer Mike Curb saw the boys play out in their new configuration, he was impressed at their solid vocals and musicianship (they also had moves choreographed in part by older brother Virl, who, despite his diminished hearing capacity, was able to focus on the beat and become an accomplished dancer). Curb helped get the boys singed to MGM Records as The Osmonds.

Osmonds hit stores on November 14, 1970. Obvious comparisons were made between the group and The Jackson 5. Ironically, Motown's Berry Gordy passed on a song written by George Jackson (no relation) so that the Jacksons could record their future hit, "ABC." George Jackson's song was picked up by the Osmonds, and it appeared on their debut album. "One Bad Apple" would be their first hit single (also released on November 14) and go all the way to the top of the pop charts by February of 1971.

The next few years found the group evolving out of both personal choice and necessity. While the group racked up more hits, they also played on songs credited to just Donny; "Puppy Love" went to #2, and "Go Away Little Girl" hit #1. With each album, the brothers asserted themselves a little more, writing more material and leaning into a harder rocking sound. At the same time, Donny's voice changed, which drove him away from some of the high-sounding bubblegum material he had started on. Through the early to mid 1970s, the group was enormously popular, touring frequently and earning an animated series, The Osmonds.The Jackson 5 also had an animated series, furthering the image of competition between the groups; however, it should be noted that Donny and Michael, both seventh children and frontmen, became good friends, even co-presenting awards\. In an interview with Dr. Phil, Donny would even recall Michael playing Thriller for him in the car before it was released.

A number of factors began to pull the group in different directions. By the time of their fifth album, 1973's The Plan, the band may have gotten too ambitious. The disc is heavily influenced by their Mormon faith, but also traffics in a variety of styles, even prog rock. While it's an obvious musical growth statement, it was pulling away from the material that made them popular. Also, as the older brothers in the group began to get married, they wanted to stay home more and tour less. With Donny positioned as a solo act (at least in name, as the brothers still backed him on most of those records), Marie and Jimmy also started solo careers. Marie had a #1 country hit at age 13 with "Paper Roses" in 1973, and Jimmy had his own #1 hit in the U.K. ("Long-Haired Lover from Liverpool").

For the next couple of years, hits for the band still came, but they were slugging it out on the charts with newer, hotter acts like The Bay City Rollers and other groups that trafficked in the same territory (including other family groups like the Jacksons, of course, The DeFranco Family, and The Sylvers). All of popular music would soon be in upheaval, as disco took over the charts in the mid to late 1970s and the attention of listeners would be divided by other teen idols and the influx of other new acts hailing from funk, rock, and punk. It was around this time in 1976 that the family switched to a new focus: television.

The entire family was involved in The Donny and Marie Show, which ran from 1976 to 1979 on ABC. The show was a big hit, but it caused a number of problems. The family built a studio in Orem, Utah for the show, which was a financial drain. Since the four older brothers from the band worked on the show as producers and performers, touring fell by the wayside, as did the prioritization of new music. The only two years of the '70s without an Osmonds group album were 1977 and 1978 as the show ran. The cancellation of the show was a huge financial blow, as was the failure of Donny and Marie's film Goin' Coconuts, which the family had also produced. The final album of the original era, Steppin' Out, didn't have a big impact, nor did the failed 1980-1981 revival of the TV show. In debt and in flux, Donny split from the group as he, the brothers' band, and Marie went their own ways. Jimmy would eventually join the band even as he continued acting.

"Soldier of Love" by Donny Osmond (Uploaded to YouTube by Donny Osmond)

During the 1980s, the whole family went through a reinvention phase. Marie found further success on the country charts and on Broadway. The brothers invested in a successful theatre in Branson; Alan, Wayne, Jay, and Merrill refocused The Osmond Brothers as a country act during that time, earning a few hit records. Donny grappled with his image in the 1980s and worked with artists like Peter Gabriel to develop new material. In 1988, without an American record contract, he considered opening a home security business. However, he ended up recording a song for U.K. release by Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken (who have since crafted hits for Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, and their own group, Rhythm Syndicate) called "Soldier of Love;" it was hit overseas, and found its way to Jessica Ettinger, at that point program and music director for WPLJ-FM in New York. Knowing that Donny was considered out of fashion in the States, she added the single to the rotation under a "mystery artist" label. Reaction to the song was huge, so they rolled out the "mystery artist" concept nationwide. When Donny was revealed as the singer, Capitol Records immediately signed him to a new deal. "Soldier of Love" went #2 in the States in 1989, followed by the #13 "Sacred Emotion." Donny also successfully went to Broadway (as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast) and touring theater (appearing as Joseph in more than 2,000 performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat).

The family has essentially never stopped working. Donny and Marie reunited for a TV talk show, and then did a Vegas residency for 11 years, just wrapping in 2019. In October of 2019, the original quartet did a "farewell performance" on The Talk (on which Marie was a co-host), to signal the retirement of the original group, though Merrill and Jay still perform and tour together. Jimmy became the business backbone of the group over the years, running theaters in Branson and even taking over the operations of their old friend Andy Williams's theater there. Donny, already familiar with the mystery artist idea, surprised viewers as The Peacock on The Masked Singer in 2019. Their legacy features more than 100 million albums sold around the world, a younger generation of performers (the nine Osmond kids have a total of 55 children among them), and a solid place in the hearts of more than one generation. With over 60 years in entertainment and 50 years as a pop act, the Osmonds managed to be successful, beloved, and somehow avoid having a single bad apple in the whole bunch.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, colorized by Algorithmia
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The Osmonds: 50 Years of Pop, Country, and Family | The Saturday Evening Post

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The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! When you're asked to think of pop-sensation vocal groups that featured five brothers, the youngest of whom is a breakout star in the making, your first inclination is probably The Jackson 5.

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Established in Puerto Rico in 1977, This band was the first LATINO boy band to gain notoriety. Ricky Martin got his start in Menudo in 1984.

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Menudo was the Puerto Rican boy band that rocked the world in the 1970s and beyond. The band released its first album in 1977 and was responsible for catapulting Ricky Martin and Draco Rosa into the spotlight. The group lost a lot of members through the years but also added a lot, giving us even more talent to swoon over. The group rendered hits like "Hold Me" and "Bésame" throughout its 22 years together. Keep reading to see what happened to all of the guys who belong to the original Latino boy band.

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Menudo was the Puerto Rican boy band that rocked the world in the 1970s and beyond. The band released its first album in 1977 and was responsible for catapulting Ricky Martin and Draco Rosa into the spotlight. The group lost a lot of members through the years but also added a lot, giving us even more talent to swoon over.

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The group formed in 1981, with 12 year old Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell and Michael Bivins. They shortly added 13 year old Ralph "Rizz" Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe to the group. Later, Bobby Brown broke away to have a solo career and relationship with Whitney Houston. Bell, Bivins and De Voe formed their own group in the early 1990s and had success with hit "Poison".

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Candy Girl official video New Edition 1983

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Get out your AquaNet, Depeche Mode gained a global following. Their music was passed around as contraband in the Communist Eastern Bloc of Europe and helped break down the Iron Curtain.

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Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence (Official Video)

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American boy band from Dorchester, Massachusetts, United States. The band consists of brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early 1990s and have sold more than 70 million records worldwide. They brought back the synchronized dancing that gained the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds popularity. Their concerts were often sold out to girls with big perms and teased bangs.

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New Kids On The Block - You Got It (The Right Stuff)

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