Junk Box Jury

Taken from the LP ‘The Plan’ | (MGM SUPER 2315 251) September 1973

‘The Plan’ is the fifth studio album by The Osmonds, released in 1973. The album contains songs that are about the Mormon faith; its name derives from the Plan of Salvation, a key tenet of the Mormon faith.

It reached number 58 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Two of the album’s singles, “Goin’ Home” and “Let Me In”, both peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The album’s third single, “Movie Man” (an experimental synth-pop cut featuring Alan Osmond on lead vocals), did not chart.

According to Alan Osmond, ‘The Plan’ was written while on the road both as a statement of faith and an ambitious effort to create a work on par with The Beatles‘ “White Album”.

During the writing of the album, a fire at a hotel in Tennessee destroyed much of the original manuscripts, forcing the family to restart from scratch. 

He stated that although “Crazy Horses” was his favourite song to perform, he considered ‘The Plan’ to be the group’s best album and its magnum opus. 

The Osmonds | “Traffic In My Mind” | (MGM)

Alan took the name of his autobiography One Way Ticket from a track on ‘The Plan’, “One Way Ticket to Anywhere,” which he said was based on the family’s life philosophy of persistently pushing forward toward their goals and never conceding defeat.

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Donald A. Guarisco gave the album a mixed 2.5 stars out a possible 5. He wrote, “Anyone who thinks of this family group as a bubblegum soul outfit will be bowled over by this incredibly ambitious outing, which attempts to explain the family’s Mormon beliefs through a series of songs that cut across a wide variety of pop genres.”

The Osmonds proved themselves versatile at tackling a variety of musical styles, according to Guarisco, but the album was ultimately a “misfire” because the creative diversity led to a lack of cohesion for ‘The Plan’ as a whole.

The Osmonds | “Traffic In My Mind” | (MGM)

Sean Ross of RadioInsight noted that the Osmonds’ singles in 1973 had fallen in popularity and radio airplay compared to 1971 and 1972, in part due to increased teen idol competition from The DeFranco Family.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considered the album a major success; by 1976, the quintet had increased the number of new converts to Mormonism by tens of thousands per year, and for this reason, the church exempted the brothers from the requirement to serve a traditional mission on the grounds that their music had evangelized more effectively.

Singles taken from the album:

“Goin’ Home” / “Are You Up There?” (MGM 2006-288) 07/73
“Let Me In” / “One Way Ticket To Anywhere” (MGM 2006-321) 10/73

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cost of record: 50p
from: charity shop