Over three decades ago, "Soldier Of Love" dominated the Top 40 airwaves, putting Donny Osmond back at the top reaches of the American charts -- and at the forefront of pop culture -- for the first time since the halcyon days of the '70s, where the bedemined whiteness of The Osmonds sat queerly next to the Quaalude smiles and quasi-incestuous vibe of Donny & Marie. And like many pop oddities, it only happened due to a confluence of personal fandom and music biz machinations, for The Masked Singer of 2019 would only break through in 1989 as the man with no name.
A Top 30 hit in the U.K. in 1988, "Soldier Of Love" was not initially released in the U.S., as Osmond did not have a record deal in America at the time. However, a cassette of the song from a British import was sent by an Osmond fan to Jessica Ettinger, the acting Program Director and Music Director at ABC’s WPLJ-FM New York. Ettinger liked the song but was concerned that Osmond, a former child star, wouldn’t be accepted by the current pop audience.
Ettinger, believing the song to be a hit, up-ended the Top 40 music and radio industry by giving it a slot on her playlist. Osmond was not only unsigned by any record label in the U.S., but the song itself was unavailable for purchase in the U.S. at the time. To give the song a fair chance, she created a “mystery artist” promotion, putting the song in rotation and keeping listeners guessing who the artist was for several weeks. Eventually, Ettinger had her on-air talent reveal that the song was by Donny Osmond, who appeared live on the air at the same time.
Osmond was soon signed by Capitol Records, which copied Ettinger’s promotion idea nationwide and released the song as a single. It worked like a charm, as “Soldier of Love” reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989 -- behind Y&R daytime soap star Michael Damian’s cover of “Rock On” -- and Osmond credits Ettinger with re-launching his career by listening to the music and not prejudging whether a song could be a hit based on the name of the artist. Here's the song, for reference:
I've always loved this song, as it's a delightfully formulaic pop/rock song that Osmond's strong vocals sell from start to finish. (It also sounds a lot like Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step" from 1988, but copyright lawyers didn't give two shits at the time about any melodic and/or rhythmic similarities.) Each lyric contains banalities stacked on top of banalities, like a staid greeting card factory gained self-awareness and began spitting out cut-up prose the just happened to rhyme. Here's a sample of the lyrical flow, tripe turning to transcendence right before your ears:
So you heard that I'm a rebel with a heart made of stone
I got a restless spirit that nobody can own
If a picture tells a story won't you listen to mine
I'm searching for the answer but it's so hard to find
You'll see much deeper when you read between the lines
'Cause there's a fire burning in my eye
Like a thief in the night, who can't get enough
I am willing to fight, 'cause I'm a soldier of love
Like a shot in the dark when the going gets rough
It's a state of the heart when you're a soldier of love
Love can be so heartless when you turn out the lights
A mutual surrender in the heat of the night
Life's an empty picture when you're living alone
Well, maybe that's the reason every heart needs a home
Each time I fall down, I get on my feet again
I'm gonna win this battle in the end
...and repeat the chorus. I mean, you can see the genius, can't you? Even if this song's only gift to the world was the second half of the chorus, it would be a wonder unto humanity.
"Like a shot in the dark" -- Ozzy Osbourne!
"When the going gets rough" -- Billy Ocean!
"It's a state of the heart" -- Rick Springfield!
How awesome to just take song titles from other artists, string them together, and make a earworm chorus out of it all. Not surprisingly, Donny wasn't able to hit the upper reaches of the charts again, but it did put some new wind into the sails of his long and varied career. When he made it onto The Masked Singer this year, I was sooooo hoping that he'd break this song out, but this "Soldier" was MIA everywhere but my heart.
A Top 30 hit in the U.K. in 1988, "Soldier Of Love" was not initially released in the U.S., as Osmond did not have a record deal in America at the time. However, a cassette of the song from a British import was sent by an Osmond fan to Jessica Ettinger, the acting Program Director and Music Director at ABC’s WPLJ-FM New York. Ettinger liked the song but was concerned that Osmond, a former child star, wouldn’t be accepted by the current pop audience.
Ettinger, believing the song to be a hit, up-ended the Top 40 music and radio industry by giving it a slot on her playlist. Osmond was not only unsigned by any record label in the U.S., but the song itself was unavailable for purchase in the U.S. at the time. To give the song a fair chance, she created a “mystery artist” promotion, putting the song in rotation and keeping listeners guessing who the artist was for several weeks. Eventually, Ettinger had her on-air talent reveal that the song was by Donny Osmond, who appeared live on the air at the same time.
Osmond was soon signed by Capitol Records, which copied Ettinger’s promotion idea nationwide and released the song as a single. It worked like a charm, as “Soldier of Love” reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989 -- behind Y&R daytime soap star Michael Damian’s cover of “Rock On” -- and Osmond credits Ettinger with re-launching his career by listening to the music and not prejudging whether a song could be a hit based on the name of the artist. Here's the song, for reference:
I've always loved this song, as it's a delightfully formulaic pop/rock song that Osmond's strong vocals sell from start to finish. (It also sounds a lot like Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step" from 1988, but copyright lawyers didn't give two shits at the time about any melodic and/or rhythmic similarities.) Each lyric contains banalities stacked on top of banalities, like a staid greeting card factory gained self-awareness and began spitting out cut-up prose the just happened to rhyme. Here's a sample of the lyrical flow, tripe turning to transcendence right before your ears:
So you heard that I'm a rebel with a heart made of stone
I got a restless spirit that nobody can own
If a picture tells a story won't you listen to mine
I'm searching for the answer but it's so hard to find
You'll see much deeper when you read between the lines
'Cause there's a fire burning in my eye
Like a thief in the night, who can't get enough
I am willing to fight, 'cause I'm a soldier of love
Like a shot in the dark when the going gets rough
It's a state of the heart when you're a soldier of love
Love can be so heartless when you turn out the lights
A mutual surrender in the heat of the night
Life's an empty picture when you're living alone
Well, maybe that's the reason every heart needs a home
Each time I fall down, I get on my feet again
I'm gonna win this battle in the end
...and repeat the chorus. I mean, you can see the genius, can't you? Even if this song's only gift to the world was the second half of the chorus, it would be a wonder unto humanity.
"Like a shot in the dark" -- Ozzy Osbourne!
"When the going gets rough" -- Billy Ocean!
"It's a state of the heart" -- Rick Springfield!
How awesome to just take song titles from other artists, string them together, and make a earworm chorus out of it all. Not surprisingly, Donny wasn't able to hit the upper reaches of the charts again, but it did put some new wind into the sails of his long and varied career. When he made it onto The Masked Singer this year, I was sooooo hoping that he'd break this song out, but this "Soldier" was MIA everywhere but my heart.
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