Chris Cooper and The John Steel Singers

Neither I, nor others I have spoken with are exactly sure how it got started, but somehow Chris Cooper made agitating Donnie Osmond fans part of his radio show on KONO. Everyday Chris would make some remark about either Donnie or Donnie fans that would immediately overload the KONO phone lines with protesting calls. Then Chris developed a brilliant move.

A production music library search yielded an instrumental version of the then current Donnie Osmond hit: “Go Away Little Girl.” Chris wrote new lyrics making fun of Donnie to match the instrumental track. A recording session in the KONO production room followed, which produced: “Go Away Little Donnie” by Chris Cooper and The John Steel Singers in both a single version—about 90 seconds, and an album version for late night airplay at just over 2 minutes. It was fortunate that I happened to be “hanging around” at the time so Chris invited me to be a part of the fun of that recording session; hence The John Steel Singers was added as part of the artist name.

With the “record” production completed, Chris announced: “Effective immediately, all Donnie Osmond records are banned during my show.” As expected, this caused a major reaction from Donnie fans.

The next day Chris apologized for what he had said about Donnie Osmond and Donnie fans. Chris further announced that to amend for his wrongdoing, very soon there would be something very special for all the Donnie fans he had offended.

Pandemonium is the only word that even comes close to describing what happened immediately after the initial “Go Away Little Donnie” airplay a few days later. The single version got daytime airplay and the album version got nighttime airplay for about a week, and then both suddenly disappeared…never to be heard or mentioned again.

John Steel

Jockey John Steel

A note from Rod Tanner concerning Chris Cooper: Chris was a good friend. We kept in touch with each other after we left KONO. I left first and went to KTLK in Denver and Chris went to Milwaukee. Later, I ended up in Houston at KRLY doing mornings. One day I got a call from Chris saying he had taken a job with KILT. I was really tickled that we were going to be in the same market again. He wanted to know if he and his family could stay with me until they found a house. I said "sure" and waited for them to arrive. Two days later I got a call from his wife saying that while on the way to Houston, they had stopped in St. Louis for lunch. Chris had a heart attack and died on the spot. Man what a bummer! A good guy, and a great jock who died way TOO YOUNG.

Editors note: Click here to listen to Cris Cooper tweaking Donnie fans.

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