More than 40 years into his career, Donny Osmond has released The Soundtrack of My Life, a genre- and decade-spanning collection of his favorite cover songs, from Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” to Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up.” But when it comes to his dream collaborations, there’s one duet partner that Donny has in mind: 2015 BET Ultimate Icon Award recipient Janet Jackson.
Speaking to Yahoo Music, Donny says: “People ask me, ‘Who would you like to sing with?’ And of course, Beyoncé and Rihanna and Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran, all these guys would be fun, but does it make sense? What I think would be really cool artistically, and from a family point of view, is to do a duet with Janet Jackson. Think about it: the juxtaposition between the Jacksons and the Osmonds.”
Donny says this isn’t the first time he’s had hopes of dueting with a Jackson; in fact, back in the ’90s, he almost recorded with Janet’s brother, Michael. “Michael and I were going to do a duet together, and just as everything was hitting the fan for him with all the terrible charges against him, he called me up and said, ‘We’re going to have to postpone it until this blows away,’ and I said, ‘All right, let’s wait.’
“I had the track cut; it was going to be ‘I Wish’ by Stevie Wonder. I played Stevie the track and he said, ‘Oh, this is gonna be great,’ because the lyrics tie in to both of us: ‘I wish those days could come back once more.’ Michael was very excited about it. I went over to Neverland and played it for him, and he said, ‘Yup, let’s get it done, this is going to be perfect!’ And it just never happened. So I think with that in mind, especially with a ‘Donny & Marie’ kind of a thing going on, ‘Donny & Janet’ would be an interesting thing that would make sense.”
At the moment, however, Donny says he hasn’t “even pursued this [with Janet] at all; I just think it would be kind of a cool idea. Change it from ‘Donny & Marie’ to ‘Donny & Janet.’ There you go!”
Meanwhile, Donny’s recent cover of “My Cherie Amour” does feature an appearance by the aforementioned Stevie Wonder. “As the album title states, it’s the soundtrack of my life. These songs were pivotal parts of my life, defining moments of my career and my personal life. For instance, ‘My Cherie Amour’ was the first 45 I ever bought. I listened to KHJ in Southern California, I think I was 9 or 10 years old, and immediately I went to my mom and said, ‘Please take me to the record store, I have to buy this record!’ And I brought it home and listened to it over and over and over again.
‘Just the fact I was able to get Stevie to play on my version of his hit was so cool. I called him up and I told him the story that I just told you, and he said, ‘Send me the MP3, because he wasn’t going to commit to just anything — it’s Stevie Wonder, after all. A few hours after I sent it, my phone rings, and Stevie says, ‘I just heard the track and it’s unbelievable; I love it, I gotta be part of this project, send me the masters!’
“Not only did he play on it, he sent me an MP3 of him telling me exactly how to produce the record. He said, ‘OK, now I want you to put my solo here and I want you to sing this’… he really emotionally got into it, which was really cool for me. I keep that little MP3 on my phone and listen to Stevie talking to me all the time.”
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This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.
