The B-side, songwriter Kenny ("I Like Dreamin'") Nolan's "Flirtin'," was a brother-heavy track taken directly from the Osmonds LP featuring the line "I'm gonna get a rope and tie you down."
But this was an appeal that enabled such bubblegum treats to cross over into easy listening chart territory, which most of Donny's future hits would do. In the mouth of Osmond, the sentiment of passing on a girl because she's too "sweet and innocent" for the grizzled likes of him sound both cute and absurd, having the appeal of a child pretending to be an adult. The song first appeared as a laconic 1958 B-side for a different Big-O -Roy Orbison, before he became a regular chart institution -with different verse lyrics and a "Teenager in Love" feel. Perhaps other "flower" offerings by those writers exist somewhere. "Flower Music," co-written by Goldstein and the British hipster DJ Lord Tim Hudson along with Russ Regan, happened shortly after the same team had a go with "The Flower Children," a single showcasing Marcia Strassman ( Welcome Back Kotter's "Julie") that bubbled under at #105. In Osmond-friendly England, though, it would reach #12 as a 1974 reissue. Although the record went nowhere in '67, it made a quick dent at #96 in Billboard as an early '71 cash-in after "One Bad Apple" took off. McCoys singer and guitarist Rick Derringer did his first freelance session work on the two songs, and recalls in a 2002 book called Gallagher, Marriott, Derringer and Trower how Goldstein warned him to watch his language because the brothers were "gentlemanly" and "very religious." Both sides of the record -the A-side "I Can't Stop" with its catchy Donny-centric "stop" hook, and the B-side "Flower Music" -feature the lead vocals of brother Alan, which sound a bit strained in comparison with the soon-to-be familiar rasp of Merrill. Just before the release of those two albums, though, the five brothers recorded a single with former Strangelove and McCoys manager Jerry Goldstein on the Uni label (owned by MCA).
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