"One Bad Apple" was a #1 single released by The Osmonds in December 1970. It hit the top of Billboard's Hot 100 Chart in February 1971 and stayed there for five weeks; it also reached #6 on the R&B chart.
The song was written by George Jackson, who originally had the Jackson 5 in mind when he wrote it.
The Jackson 5 would go on to record their own version after The Osmonds' version became a hit.
He also wrote the single "Double Lovin'" for the Osmonds. Both "One Bad Apple" and the Donny Osmond-credited single "Sweet and Innocent" are on the 1971 album Osmonds.
In 1997, singer Aaron Carter covered the song on his debut album Aaron Carter.
"One Bad Apple" was also used as the theme to The Osmonds cartoon show on ABC-TV.
According to Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson later told him that the Jackson 5 almost recorded this song first, but chose to record "ABC" instead.
Famous quotes containing the words bad and/or apple:
“... dealing with being a lesbian—and part of that is by being politically activist—has caused me to have a less carefree adolescence. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It has its rewards.”
—Karina Luboff (b. 1974)
“The finished man of the world must eat of every apple at once. He must hold his hatreds also at arm’s length, and not remember spite. He has neither friends nor enemies, but values men only as channels of power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)