Donny Osmond

Marie Osmond was the last of the all-singing, all-dancing, all-too-wholesome Osmonds to emerge on the pop scene; she was already 14 when her super-sweet reinvention of "Paper Roses" became a major hit, and barely 15 when it became apparent that the predominantly adolescent female audience that her brothers took for granted was not going to get so excited about a girl. No problem. It probably didn't take a genius to realize that pairing her with brother Donny, just two years her senior, would reinvigorate both of their careers. What surprised was just how beautifully the pair worked together, across two albums of predominantly duets that drew from precisely the same groundswell of ear-candy ballads that had sustained Donny alone all this time. "Morning Side of the Mountain" and, from the sophomore LP of the same name, "Make the World Go Away" join the debut album's title track as the big hits lurking on this 20-track two-fer, but every song in sight aspires toward the same high standards. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide