1972
"Long Haired Lover from Liverpool" is a pop song by Little Jimmy Osmond. Written by Christopher Kingsley (somehow credited as Christopher Dowden on the UK release) and produced by Mike Curb and Perry Botkin Jr, "Long Haired Lover from Liverpool" was a UK number one single for Jimmy Osmond. Riding high on the popularity of The Osmonds, Jimmy (the youngest sibling) had a massive hit with the song, in the process becoming the youngest person to ever reach number one on the UK Singles Chart aged 9 years 8 months.
A UK number one for five weeks in December 1972, it was the Christmas number one that year, and has since sold over a million copies in the UK. It also reached no.2 on the Australian Singles Chart and no.38 on the Billboard Hot 100.
When Jimmy's mother first heard Kingsley's 1969 version of "Long Haired Lover From Liverpool" she thought it would be a great song for the youngest member of the Osmond family. The timing could not have been better, as Osmond-mania was sweeping the UK and the Osmond family was embarking on a major UK-European promotional tour.
At the radio station where in 1993 I was set the challange of finding and playing the Christmas no1s, People were encouraged to ring in and donate money while a record was bieing played that they liked. While I was in the middle of playing Long Haired Lover, someone actually rang up and offered us £25 to turn it off!! lol!! I obliged...that was more than we we were going to get in donations in favour of Little Jimmy being played!!
