![]() ![]() Objectively speaking, Newton-John’s performance might not have the widest range, but it’s perfect for the part, recalling the squeaky-clean wholesomeness of Doris Day or, as is more explicitly evoked in one song, Sandra Dee. ![]() We knew not just every song but every word by heart. That kick-started a tradition that lasted what seemed like months, where we went back every Friday night like devoted baby gays on a pilgrimage to see it again, sometimes dressed in ‘50s thrift-store finds. ONJ was pop royalty in Australia and I still remember the collective national disappointment when the first reviews were reported out of Los Angeles, with headlines like “Olivia Newton-John ‘Bland’ in First Major Film Role.”īut there was no trace of disappointment in the effusive audience responses at Sydney’s single-screen Paramount movie theater where my best friend and I caught the film on opening weekend. While Grease became the highest-grossing release of 1978, and at that time the top-grossing movie musical in history, its fun, ‘50s-throwback “Frankie and Annette” vibe left some critics cold. Two songs written and produced by Newton-John’s longtime music collaborator John Farrar, “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and her duet with Travolta, “You’re the One That I Want,” were added, helping to make the soundtrack a blockbuster. But Stigwood’s co-producer Allan Carr convinced her to take the plunge, adapting the stage musical role of Sandy to fit ONJ by making the character an Australian exchange student. With her music career already chugging along nicely, ONJ was reluctant to risk another screen flop after her first foray into film, a bit of pop-sci-fi insta-kitsch called Toomorrow, crashed and burned. The game-changer for Newton-John was her starring role opposite John Travolta in 1978’s Grease, which gave her a stratospheric boost not unlike that of fellow British-Australian pop kings The Bee Gees the year before from another Robert Stigwood-produced film that also starred Travolta, Saturday Night Fever. Please” had me tapping my toes whether I liked it or not. Like many nerdy teens who desperately want to be cool, I pushed back against my childhood ONJ love for a while by embracing headier art rock like Pink Floyd and Yes, while cringing at the syrupy sentimentality of Newton-John’s ubiquitous smashes, “I Honestly Love You” and “Have You Never Been Mellow.” But Nashville-tinged hits like “If You Love Me, Let Me Know” and “Please Mr. Her success coincided with that of Helen Reddy, another essential Australian female-vocal export who cracked the American market in a big way and was instrumental in encouraging Newton-John’s international aspirations. Olivia was the Australian answer to Karen Carpenter, whose melodic, middle-of-the-road sounds had broken through in the U.S. “Let Me Be There,” from the same debut solo album has a similar lasting hold over me, as does “Banks of the Ohio,” a 19th-century down-home murder ballad rendered with sweet, supple pop simplicity and twangy harmonies.Īva DuVernay's 'Origin' Wows Venice With Nine-Minute Standing Ovation I just have to think about her 1971 breakthrough hit, a wistful, soft-rock country love song by Bob Dylan called “If Not for You,” to start it playing in my head on a loop for days. ![]() This was especially true if you grew up in Australia, where we eagerly claimed her as our own, even if ONJ was born in Britain and moved with her family to Melbourne when she was 6. If you were raised in a house tuned to AM radio in the 1970s and early ‘80s, chances are that the crystalline vocals of Olivia Newton-John, who died Monday at age 73 at her Southern California ranch, were a big part of your childhood soundtrack.
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