(Credits: Far Out / NASA / Uwe Conrad)
As a child, you’re often presented with the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Many children will share their hopes to one day explore beyond planet Earth as an astronaut, to care for sick animals as a vet, or to climb the charts with a guitar and a microphone. For one California kid, that dream had already come true before he even had his tenth birthday, as he topped the UK charts at just nine years old.
A number of artists have managed to top the charts while still in their teens. Olivia Rodrigo is one of the most recent examples of early chart success, earning her first UK number one at just 17 years old with ‘Drivers License’ back in 2021. A couple of decades before, Britney Spears was forging her position in pop royalty at the same age, winning her first number one with the now iconic ‘…Baby One More Time’ in the late 1990s.
Alt-pop icon Lorde beat them both to the top spot with ‘Royals’, her debut single, which won her a number one at just 16 years old. But the New Zealander wasn’t even close to beating the record for the youngest person to score a number one in the United Kingdom, which has been held by the same artist for over half a century now: Jimmy Osmond.
Back in 1972, the aptly named Little Jimmy Osmond secured himself a number one single at just nine years old. Though he was barely halfway to adulthood, Osmond had already amassed more experience and success in the music industry than most. He was a member of the Osmonds, a family of musicians from Utah who had been singing together since the late 1950s.
As the youngest sibling, Jimmy only joined the Osmonds on their TV appearances in the late 1960s, but he had still been performing for several years before he embarked upon a solo career. When he was just four months from turning ten, Osmond unveiled ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’, a single that would win him modest success in his home country but, for some reason, captivated audiences on the other side of the Atlantic.
The tune was penned by Christopher Kingsley, who released his own version of the track, but it found far more success when Osmond took it on. “I’ll be your valentine, and you’ll be mine and things’ll be cool,” he sang over bouncy strums, occasionally accompanied by a chorus of backing vocalists, quickly winning over audiences with his familiar voice.
The song was released in the spring of 1972, but audiences in the UK grew to love the song a little later on. ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’ assumed the top spot in the charts on November 25th. It remained there for five weeks running, even becoming the year’s Christmas number one. It became Osmond’s first and only number one as a solo artist and broke the record for the youngest artist to top the charts in the UK.
This is a record that is still unbroken over 50 years later. Many young artists have managed to find their way into the charts, an undoubtedly impressive feat, but none of them have done so at a younger age than Osmond. At just nine years old, he lent his voice to a song that captured the entire nation for over a month and made music history.
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