Sometimes disc jockeys can be too clever. That was the case on March 15, 1972, when Los Angeles police raided the studios of KHJ radio, fearing the station had its own Ides of March.
Police discovered all was well, it was only DJ Robert W. Morgan playing Donnie Osmond’s version of “Puppy Love” for 90 minutes straight.
Morgan was a morning DJ in Los Angeles at the height of his popularity. So was Osmond, who was barely 15. “Puppy Love” was his fourth Top 10 hit.
Tired of all the teeny boppers calling to request the Osmond’s hit, Morgan decided instead to play and play and play the song. Listeners, however, called police, fearing the teenyboppers or hippies had taken over the station.
The police left only with a story to recount.
Paul Anka wrote our Song of the Day, “Puppy Love” in 1960 about his relationship with Annette Funicello.
Anka and Funicello were 17. She was a star on ABC’s TV show the “Mickey Mouse Club.” Adults didn’t take their relationship seriously and called it puppy love.
"Just because we were 17 didn't mean that, for us, our love wasn't real,” Funicello wrote in her autobiography.
Anka’s version went to number two on Billboard’s Hot 100. Osmond’s version reached number three in the U.S. and number one in Canada and the United Kingdom.
The song backfired on Osmond, too. It cemented his teenybopper image. He stopped playing it by the late 1980s, according to songfacts.com. At one concert, fans kept yelling for it, so he told his band to play heavy metal and screamed the lyrics.
Song of the Day is created by Sheldon Zoldan, and produced by Pam James for WGCU. Audio production is by Simon Dunham, WGCU. To receive the Song of the Day in your inbox every day, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
