Hopelessly Devoted to Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John
Spread the love

If you grew up in a home that was that was tuned to AM radio during the 1970s and the early 1980s it is likely that the clear, crystalline voice from Olivia Newton-John who died on Monday at the age of 73 on the age of 73 at her Southern California ranch, were the mainstay of the soundtrack to your childhood.

This was true especially when you were a child in Australia which is where we were eager to claim her as our own even though ONJ had been born in Britain and relocated together with her parents to Melbourne at the age of 6. I’m just thinking about her breakout hit in 1971 with a soft, romantic country love track written by Bob Dylan called “If Not for You,” to begin playing it in my head in an endless loop for several days. “Let Me Be There,” from the same album is a song that has the same lasting impact over me like “Banks of the Ohio,” the 19th century murder ballad that is down-to-earth, sung with a sweet, soft simple pop and tight harmony.

Olivia is the Australian alternative for Karen Carpenter, whose melodic middle-of-the-road sound had made waves within the U.S. just a year or two prior. Her success was akin to the success of Helen Reddy, another essential Australian female vocalist who pounded in the American music market major way. She was also instrumental in empowering the Newton John’s international ambitions.

Hopelessly Devoted to Olivia Newton-John

Like many teenagers who are desperate to look cool and be popular, I rebelled against my early ONJ affection for a time by adopting more psychedelic art rock such as Pink Floyd as well as Yes and snorting at the sugary sentimentality of Newton John’s famous hits, “I Honestly Love You” and “Have You Never Been Mellow.” However, the Nashville-influenced songs like “If You Love Me, Let Me Know” and “Please Mr. Please” made me tap my toes whether I enjoyed the song or not. It’s still happening.

The key to Newton-John’s success was her leading role alongside John Travolta in 1978’s Grease that provided her with a massive boost like other pop stars from Australia and Britain like The Bee Gees the year prior to another Robert Stigwood-produced film which also featured John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever.

With her musical career going well, ONJ was reluctant to take on another movie disaster after her first venture into film, a piece of pop-sci-fi-inspired insta-kitsch dubbed Toomorrow that was destroyed and crashed. However, her co-producer Allan CarrCarr encouraged her to go for it and adapt the role of stage musician Sandy to suit ONJ by making her persona an Australian Exchange student.

Two songs composed and recorded by her longtime co-worker John Farrar, “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and her duet with Travolta, “You’re the One That I Want,” were added to make the soundtrack a blockbuster.

Although Grease was the most-grossing film in 1978, and was at the time, the most-grossing film musical in the history of cinema, its fun nostalgic ’50s-inspired “Frankie and Annette” vibe caused some critics to be cold. ONJ was a pop princess in Australia and I’m still thinking about the national resentment in the beginning when first critiques came from Los Angeles, with headlines such as “Olivia Newton-John ‘Bland’ in First Major Film Role.”

However, there was no sign of discontent in the enthusiastic crowd response at Sydney’s one-screen Paramount movie theater , where my friend and I saw the film during the opening weekend. This started a tradition that went on for what seemed like a few months, when we came back each Friday night, like dedicated baby gays making an excursion to see it again, often in thrift-store finds from the 1950s. We didn’t just know each song, but all the lyrics by the heart.

The way Newton-John’s voice is presented might not be the most wide performance, but it’s perfect to play the part, as it evokes the innocent squeaky-clean innocence that was Doris Day or, as it is more clearly portrayed in one track, Sandra Dee. Sandy’s glam-girl transformation during the final carnival -spandex was hot at the time! It sparked a flurry of excitement that lasted into her pop career after she shed her attractive-girl image and hot songs that were sexy such as “Physical.”

The fun music video for the song was a pre-80s riff to Jane Russell’s “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The video featured an angry Olivia seeking the attention of men who were focusing on their workouts at the gym while slyly addressing her gay fans . It ended with two men leaving hand-in-hand.

The passionate grease fan that I am -I can’t get through it when it’s available on cable or any streaming service — was shaken by the experience of watching the next ONJ film that was a disaster in 1980, Xanadu that aired during the opening weekend. The glittering fantasy of an artist struggling to make ends meet, Venice Beach encounter with a Greek woman who skates – Newton-John’s Kira is acknowledged as the nail that pierced the coffin for the film musical, as well as offering an undeserved screen salute to another of genre’s most enduring famous actors, Gene Kelly.

However, my feelings towards Xanadu has changed in the years since I’ve come to see it as a classic that is trashy. Years of film reviews will show you that critical thinking isn’t necessary when it comes to beloved films from childhood. My companion is eleven years younger than me and has been a one of Xanadu fans since his mom invited him to see it when he was a child and was literally playing the cassette until he died. This was following their mother-son bonding session through the Grease musical. (She did not seem to take the boy to only musicals that were raunchy like “Can’t Stop The Music! (Or horror movies however that’s a topic for a different column.)

Returning to Xanadu (under the threat to divorce) has deepened my affection particularly for the soundtrack, featuring hits from ONJ as well as Electric Light Orchestra, whose co-founder Jeff Lynne wrote the album together with Farrar. The album features Olivia’s “Magic,” “Suspended in Time,” the title track as well as “Suddenly” (a duet with Cliff Richard, who had been instrumental in launching her career by bringing her on as an opening artist a few years before at the time in England) are all classics as are “I’m Alive” and “All Over the World” are top-quality ELO regardless of what war-related choreography is taking place on screen.

The movie’s resurgence was helped by the hilarious 2007 Broadway musical comedy of the same name that starred Kerry Butler played Kira with an exaggerated ‘Strayan’ accent. Cheyenne Jackson paid winking homage to the woody hunkiness Michael Beck, his big-screen predecessor as Sonny Malone. Olivia was a good actor, appearing in the performance in the theater and giving it a jolly thumbs-up at the beginning of its run.

The Xanadu incident proved that even the most mediocre movies can be the catalyst for major hits for Newton-John. The gorgeous 1984 fantasies “Two of a Kind” that reunited her with Travolta in a snarky tale of an angry God who is threatening to end the world, and angels who are sent to save it via the love story of an struggling inventor and bank teller, was largely not listened to. However, it was the inspiration for the fantastic pop gem “Twist of Fate,” that, like the other great ONJ song, “A Little More Love,” contains top notes that could be a recipe for humiliation at the karaoke bar. This is my personal my own experience.

Newton-John’s screen career became more scattered in the years following — even although she was in television and film adaptions from Del Shores’ beloved Texas-trash comedy, Sordid Lives and has earned it an cult following. The recording career of Newton-John mostly did not take precedence over her work to promote breast cancer awareness. She began her long battle against cancer when she was diagnosed in the year 1992. She continued to speak out about her health concerns in public following her diagnosis with a normal grace and candor as she became an early advocate of cannabis use to treat pain. She also founded an Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne.

Her public and private lives were discussed through the lens of the new Lifetime film (condensed of an Australian mini-series) Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You In the film, she was portrayed in a different golden-voiced Australian pop singer, Delta Goodrem. It was about as typical an bio-drama as one could imagine, however my companion and I sat through it with the attention of the people in the church choir.

The news that Olivia’s cancer was back in 2017, and had spread onto her back, it felt as if a knife had been inserted into the stomach of all of us who been devoted to her throughout our lives. Although we may imagine our own personalities in the role of Rizzo or Cha-Cha DiGregorio we’re all Sandy Olsson at heart.

70031MPS68945

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *