Xanadu - An Overlooked Masterpiece?

We now think of Xanadu as a disaster, but actually it wasn't. The movie gave those involved a slew of hits, including Olivia's second -biggest song of her career, "Magic". It was the same with Neil Diamond's "The Jazz Singer". Widely derided, but it gave Diamond 3 top ten songs, something he never had in his career before or after.

Also, Xanadu has the last filmed dancing performance of Gene Kelly, which is wonderful.

Agreed. It was viewed as very chic, modern and fabulous upon its release in 1980, and when the 90's happened, everything "80s" was viewed with disdain as being tacky, including Xanadu.

But as history proves, many of the things that were approved for collective disdain from the 80s have such a strong nostalgic value, we have to look more kindly upon fare such as Xanadu.

All that said, it indeed was everything R1 says it is, and such an innocent and fun piece of entertainment. Yes, the dialogue is pretty simplistic and silly at times, and certainly laughable, but damn they really created a roller skating film that was the best of its lot. Far superior to its contemporaries (Roller Boogie, Skatetown USA, Get Rollin').

never seen it.

Olivia has said she would’ve been disappointed if the soundtrack flopped. Sounds like she knew what she was getting into doing it. It was a showcase for her singing and beauty no doubt. Gene Kelly only did it for the quick cash and he lived close to the filming locations. It was a big dumb, fun movie that has that rewatchabilty factor.

I really like it. The opening scene of the muses coming out of the mural is beautiful and amazing. 🌈💃🏼💃🏼 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼🌈

I was eleven at the time and no judge but I found it to be the most FABUlous thing ever

I still think the film is terrible and non-sensical but I love watching Olivia in it. She looks gorgeous. Xanadu is basically a crossover from the '70s to the '80s. And the soundtrack is absolutely terrific. Xanadu, Suddenly, Magic, I'm Alive, All Over the World. Such tunes!

I wonder if Andy Gibb was high on coke during all his scenes?

[quote]It was viewed as very chic, modern and fabulous upon its release in 1980.

No dear, it opened and bombed horribly. By the third week, it was at the local $1 movie theater where I'd skip school to go watch it and at times, be the only person in the theater.

The soundtrack went through the roof though.

[quote]I wonder if Andy Gibb was high on coke during all his scenes?

Fuck you.

LOVE Xanadu. Just watched it on Blu-Ray the other night. Just looking for the scenes with Matt Lattanzi are worth a watch.

I always wondered if KC was ever considered for the male lead? He would have been better than Michael Beck, I think. And he could have sung a song or two. But he would have had to kiss a woman on the lips...hmmm....

R9 soundtrack went to number 4 on Billboard. Wouldn’t call that through the roof. But it had five top 20 hits between Olivia, Cliff Richard and ELO. So it did pretty well, but not through the roof. Olivia was still hot from Grease, so naturally she had the only number 1 from it-Magic.

I love that Kira is a sadistic muse who convinces some knucklehead to invest everything he has into an adult skating rink. Poor Sonny probably lost everything within a couple of years. They should do a sequel where Kira convinces a guy to invest in a chain of Blockbuster Videos.

R13 Sonny didn't invest a dime. Danny GAVE him half of the place.

Sony and Danny invested their time and lives on a doomed form of entertainment. Good going Kira.

Still, R12, Five top twenty singles and 36 weeks on the charts. Nine months is impressive.

However, once you step outside the U.S. borders, it becomes a phenomenon. Peaked #1 Australian, Austrian, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Swedish and US Cashbox and Record World and #2 in the UK. Double platinum in United States, Canada. Platinum in Hong Kong and New Zealand. Gold in Germany and the United Kingdom. Olivia's single Xanadu was # 1 in Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and the UK. Magic was just #1 in the US and Canada.

So, yeah, through the roof.

Just imagine if it had been the intended double album instead of the one LP.

Sonny's Hawaiian shirt change button holes during his "Don't Walk Away Number".

The New York skyline used in the "Suddenly" duet reappear as the backdrop when Sonny sees Kira in the b&w television episode.

Matt Latanzi plays the young Gene Kelly in the Whenever You're Away from Me" duet.

I thought it sucked when I saw it as a kid.

Hold up, R15. Like Norma Desmond, Danny McGuire (a salute to one of his MGM film roles) was wealthy as shit and this was an investment. If it failed, not a big deal. And had they changed with the times and made it more a dance club than roller disco, it could've lasted a few years at least.

Plus, Danny knowing that Sonny's Kira was his muse from the 40s, he's changed his will to leave Sonny his fortune.

I think of I t as a cross between Mary Poppins and Saturday Night Fever.

When I was in 6th grade I begged my aunt to take me to it in the theater. The writing was on the wall at an early age for me.

The song always takes me back to Sunday beer bust at Timberline in Seattle. A big screen would come down from the ceiling and they would play the entire extended version from the last scene of the movie.

My parents won't admit it, but they would put my older brother and me in front of the television and played the video tape of Xanadu to babysit us for one reason or another. We loved it and started to sing a long with the movie. it was magical for us.. We always laughed when the Tubes showed up with the military girls and mixed rock and roll with 40s big band music. But my personal favorite was the last song, Xanadu. I was never long enough for me. My dad got me the record album ( just a couple of years before we got a cd player) and I would play it over and over again. We never knew it was a bad movie, we just enjoyed the heck out of it.

Xanadu is still one of my guilty pleasures. Once a year or so, my brother and I will get together to watch it and relive days of our childhood. Yep, two 30 something and now 40 something men watching Olivia and Gene having fun.

I like the stand-alone video version, apart from the movie.

After seeing this, I wanted to immediately move to L.A. and become a graphic artist. Had I, probably would have died in first wave of AIDS cases cause I was a cutie at nineteen. Wisely stayed on East Coast and had reasonably successful career in advertising & design finally making it out to the West Coast and lived a little of the dream.

Minus the roller skates and leg warmers.

But headbands were a thing.

Who directed the musical bits? At the end of the big Xanadu number ONJ's face is blocked from the camera by the twirling trapeze artist's boot. Judy would have slit her wrists if someone tried to do that to her at MGM.

Yeah, Xanadu was dated before it was released. It was a huge flop. However, when it started running on HBO in 1981 I was enthralled by it. Between that at Mommie Dearest, early '80s HBO was a camp classic.

The problem for me with this movie is that it is absolutely not a camp fest. It is really cut-and-dried, and pretty ordinary, and although some of the songs are catchy, the script and execution is dull and unimaginative.

Having heard so much about it, when it was screened at Hedda Lettuce's Chelsea Classics, we all went in with high expectations, and I remember the audience's excitement quickly dropped and it was deathly quiet throughout most of the screening, and we all left the theater quite subdued, especially compared to our high spiritedness beforehand.

I enjoyed this piece that discussed the film in connection to the Broadway musical opening.

[quote]Produced by a young Joel Silver, the film was directed by Robert Greenwald, whose previous efforts (the TV movies Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold, Sharon: Portrait of a Mistress, and Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers) had not prepared him to depict the ambitious post-disco universe required. The screenplay, where evident, is a bewildering mash-up of forties swing and eighties proto-punk, mortal and supernatural elements, tap dancing and roller-skating. The last half-hour is basically an opera, indicating surrender in the editing suite; it all ends in a production number involving five mimes, two tightrope walkers, six dozen roller skaters, and Olivia Newton-John gamely singing “Open your eyes and see / What we have made is real” in a medley, wearing a bronze jumpsuit, cowboy regalia, and what appears to be a thin sheen of vegetable oil.

R25 Robert Greenwald directed-- I assume he directed the musical numbers as well. Kenny Ortega was the choreographer, fwiw. Greenwald obviously had never directed a musical before-- in the Xanadu doc on the blu-ray, Gene Kelly's widow says that Gene was pissed that his legs weren't shown while he was roller skating.

R17 Matt Lattanzi shows up frequently in the film. You could make a drinking game out of it, lol. He's in the turquoise tank top in "all over the world", he's in the purple satin pants in the tubes scene in "dancin'", he's in the maroon jacket dancing behind ONJ in "Xanadu" (also dancing with the Asian woman in the purple top), and he's in a cowboy hat near the steps to the stage for the "country" song near the end.

If there was no talking in it, Xanadu would be the greatest movie musical ever made!

R11 KC would have been an interesting choice...but could he roller skate? And yeah...he would have had to kiss ONJ on the mouth.

But they could have incorporated "please don't go" nicely into the film. Sonny pleading with Kira not to leave...

KC and ONJ together. Just a taste of what might have been, lol.

"No dear, it opened and bombed horribly. "

Actually a film bombs when it loses money. It made a modest profit of $3MM. Not a bomb at all.

Just because it got some bad reviews it didn't mean it wasn't a popular film to go see on a Friday night, and indulge in the "Magic". It was indeed a big splash when I saw it with friends. It really felt like a big deal, because everyone loved ONJ at that time, and roller skating and Greek Mythology were also en vogue at the time. I recall seeing it in the theater when it came out, and at least where I was watching the people loved it, and then everyone went out and bought the soundtrack. It had a nice long life on HBO afterwards too. It was indeed seen as glamorous, fun, and light-hearted. At least that was my experience of it.

I was 9 when it came out, and I remember the soundtrack being Hot Hot Hot. Seems like everyone had it.

It the late 90s it was impossible to get the soundtrack on CD, I ended up getting a Japanese import one from a specialty music shop in NYC. It was the most money I had ever paid for a CD, but I needed my Xanadu fix.

I remember one of the reviews - maybe it was Leonard Maltin - who said it revealed Olivia's total lack of screen charisma. Which is odd since she showed personality in her TV interviews.

It is a great bunch a songs to roller skate to.

Screw Leonard Maltin all you negative queens.

I looked online & saw the film was budget at $20 million but made back only $23 million at the BO. A $3 million profit is not what hits are made of, particularly when you consider that not included in the cost of the $20 million is the high cost of promotion.

I got a laugh from the Wiki article:

Universal cancelled press screenings of Xanadu, suggesting that they were not confident in the film and it went on to receive negative reviews. Variety called it "a stupendously bad film whose only salvage is the music". Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, describing the film as "a mushy and limp musical fantasy" with a confused story, redeemed only by Newton-John's "high spirits" and several strong scenes from Kelly. Moreover, Ebert criticized the choreography, saying "the dance numbers in this movie do not seem to have been conceived for film." He noted that mass dance scenes were not photographed well by cinematographer Victor J. Kemper, who shot at eye level and failed to pick up the larger patterns of dancers, with dancers in the background muddying the movement of the foreground.

It also said this:

With a combination of contemporaneous and modern reviews, Xanadu today holds a "Rotten" rating of 25% from Rotten Tomatoes, based on 40 reviews, and the consensus states "Not even spandex and over-the-top musical numbers can save Xanadu from questionable acting, unimpressive effects, and a story unencumbered by logic." The German television show Die schlechtesten Filme aller Zeiten (in English The worst movies of all time), in which the hosts Oliver Kalkofe and Peter Rütten present a bad movie in each episode, featured the movie in its third season. Janet Maslin wrote in her review "Like The Wiz...Xanadu is desperately stylish without having any real style."

And this:

A double feature of Xanadu and another musical released at about the same time, Can't Stop the Music, inspired John J.B. Wilson to create the Golden Raspberry Awards (or Razzies), an annual event "dishonoring" what is considered the worst in cinema for a given year.[8] Robert Greenwald won the first Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director, and the film was nominated for six other awards.

cAn't Stop the Music was a huge bomb

Michael Beck was cast because he was hot after The Warriors but he said after Xanadu the doors the first film had opened then closed.

"Can't Stop the Music," now THAT is a perfect example of a classic camp fest. It has style, it has verve, it has eye-popping visuals, catchy tunes and a sincerity and complete lack of self-awareness that is the hallmark of a so-bad-it's-good movie experience. It may have bombed at the box office (most camp classics did) but it is the Citizen Kane of bad movies compared to the turgid murkiness of Xanadu.

With CSTM Allan Carr TRIED to be campy. But in his failed attempt- it became camp anyway. Unintentionally, not in the crowd-pleasing, blockbu$ter way he'd hoped.

The theater production does a good job of playing Xanadu as camp. With the right cast.

Zanna, Don't!

Cant Stop The Music is my go to feel good movie. I love Olivia and Xanadu, but I tend to get bored with ot during the middle.

it's a boring film

but FABULOUS

[quote]I love that Kira is a sadistic muse who convinces some knucklehead to invest everything he has into an adult skating rink. Poor Sonny probably lost everything within a couple of years.

Hey, I'm not the goddess of economic forecasting you know.

I do have some regrets about Movie Pass though.

Loved the musical for obvious reasons.

sexy sluts

Olivia wanted Mel Gibson for the Michael Beck part. She knew he was going to be a huge star.

Gene Kelly basically directed his own dance scenes. He was a perfectionist, but otherwise pleasant to work with.

Who the fuck is KC?

Full Broadway show. Saw it three times. They had stage seats. One time Whoopi Goldberg was subbing for two weeks and while she was waiting behind us tickled my friend shoulders. It was a lot of fun.

Met Olivia while she was filming and she called it a roller disco movie.

James Carpinello was originally cast as Sonny but after this was filmed broke his ankle and was replaced by Cheyenne.

R51 "Who the fuck is KC?"

I'm the King of Disco, bitch. Who the fuck are YOU?

SHAKE IT

[quote]Actually a film bombs when it loses money. It made a modest profit of $3MM. Not a bomb at all.

Perhaps flop would've been a better choice of words.

Jane Krawkowsi was supposed to be the Olivia role in the original theater production - but 30 Rock hit big and she became “unavailable”. She would have been great in that role.

Matt Lattanzi is the luckiest stiff on the planet.

He got to pluck that delicious Aussie peach, Ms. John, at the peak of ripeness.

It seems to me Lattanzi was the one who was really ripe . . .

R58 Yes, she was very lucky, while it lasted. He was scrumptious.

I used to Jack off evey time I saw Matt lattanzi on TV movies or magazine pics.

There was a much, MUCH better stage version of Xanadu produced by Amy Pietz of Caroline in the City in LA in 2001. The Broadway one was a POS.

Production cost of 20 million and a box office gross of 23 million is a flop or bomb by any measure.

(are we still having this discussion about what makes a motion picture financially successful?)

This did not account for video sales and rentals. Xanadu sold well.

No. It is not.

$23 million was US only. It played you guessed it All Over The World.......

Universal didn't report the international gross and reports of the domestic and international being the same number is wrong. Universal might have ben playing with the books like Paramount got caught by Eddie Murphy in the 80's . But with the grosses and home video, cable/airline/ hotel revenue and soundtrack it certainly didn't lose money.

R65 It had to have done well in Australia right?

It did well in my ass

Aren’t you special

Practically no one looks like they’re AT ALL enjoying themselves in OP’s clip.

Were Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly the only ones directed to smile??

I watched it a few years ago expecting a camp spectacle and it was so boring. I imagine the theatre production was more fun and campy.

The music, though, is fantastic.

R24 Made this thread about HIS accomplishments

He thinks HE'S an overlooked masterpiece

I remember it as a huge flop a la Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Effectively ended Andy Gibb's movie career.

… and then he died.

I just watched the Blu-Ray special features for Hell Night starring Linda Blair. In an interview, Blair mentions she was supposed to do a movie called "Welcome to Xanadu". This was the late '70s. Then it was cancelled and she went on to make "Roller Boogie". She goes on to say that the movie she was supposed to do was revamped into "Xanadu" with ONJ and the one Blair was supposed to do was not a musical. Interesting.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Will always LOVE this.....til eternity!

Does Olivia have cankles?

[quote]Does Olivia have cankles?

Hence, the leg warmers.

I watched this again recently and it kind of understand now why it got the bad rap it did. The musical numbers are great, Olivia and Gene are charismatic, but the movie dies when Michael Beck is on the screen. He’s charmless and his acting is so wooden.

Unfortunately, he’s in almost every scene of the movie.

With a better male lead, they could’ve overcome the problems with the script and the plot.

[quote][R24] Made this thread about HIS accomplishments

He thinks HE'S an overlooked masterpiece

Oh, sweet pea, did you carry that grudge all the way from 24 to 71? I'm so proud of you. Such a big, heavy thing to carry such a long way. Go wash up. It's time for your nap. When you wake up, we'll get you a fresh ditty, then have cookies and kool-aid.

It was featured in a book called "The Worst Movies of All Time." It WAS a terrible movie. But it had a successful soundtrack.

Gene Kelly ruined it. Why they put a 90 year old man into a hip disco roller skating movie never made sense.

I feel it would have done better if the producers had done a tie-in with a new designer drug of the same name.

Newton-John's voice presaged the vapid styles of the present. This is one of those movies that's too dull to be a true campfest, but too campy to be taken seriously. It came out at a time that was a sort of cultural dead zone, filled with crapfests, including quite a few failed "modern" musicals (The Wiz, Tommy, etc.).

I liked that shit.

R76 He's taking a selfie 40 years ago. I wonder with what? It was common with Polaroid Instant cameras, but that's not one.

He brings out the animal in her and this is why I am most envious of him.

UGH! Too bad there's no leaked sex tape!

Matt had a nice cock

[quote] UGH! Too bad there's no leaked sex tape!

Darling, for that to happen, there would have to be sex. He's gay, she's a lesbian. And Chloe was grown in a test tube.

[quote]Matt had a nice cock.

And, a nice ass. Remember “Rich & Famous”?

I have seen Matt naked. He’s hung.

Deets, R91

Matt was the real beauty in that family.

[quote]And Chloe was grown in a test tube.

Did they spill some, scoop it up and pour it back in? Something is off with that girl.

R94 The poor girl is very disturbed; body dysmorphia, anorexia, etc., etc. Comes with the territory when mom is famous, beautiful and talented (and out of town a lot), unfortunately. Chloe was a cute girl (looked like dad), but she had a ton of weird and unnecessary plastic surgery (face and body implants, injections, etc.) at a VERY young age. She's really fucked up.

Xanadu and Grease 2. I can't really put my finger on why, but I really do enjoy them both.

The song can be gayer it seems ...

didn't alan carr follow up "can't stop the music" with another campfest of homoerotica "where the boys are 84"?...

something must have been "in the water" in the early 80's with these campfests and the spring break movies and teenage sex movies (lattanzi in my tutor!).. the only classics emerged unscathed from this time period that still hold up in my opinion are "fast times at ridgemont high" and "risky business"...

Oh, Where The Boys Are ‘84 is on YouTube. I always wanted to see this. Russell Todd was hot hot hot in the 80’s. Is it true he’s gay?

Alan Carr offered Olivia a starring role in Can’t Stop The Music and she rejected him. She chose Xanadu instead. Alan was upset with Olivia for some time after she turned him down.

[quote]Xanadu and Grease 2. I can't really put my finger on why, but I really do enjoy them both.

The same endorphins why people eat donut bunned hamburgers and smoke.

Grease 2 was ok. It was a far cry from having the same energy as the original .

Xanadu was meant to be everything it wasn’t. A fantastic entertainment that brought the best of the 1940s musicals (along with Gene Kelly) and married it to the 80s. There were Xanadu boutiques inside of New York City Bloomingdales stores selling replicas of the original costume designs. Xanadu was poised to be a multi media blockbuster in the summer of 1980. Universal pre-hyped it to death with heavy TV, print and radio marketing. The movie soundtrack featuring Olivia and ELO had multiple singles at or near the top of the charts prior to the movie’s release. Everyone who consumed “pop culture” in the summer of 1980 knew of the film prior to it’s release. I was only 8 years old at the time and remember absorbing all of it with glee.

And then, thud.

I wonder who thought of the director of a movie about the 1972 Olympic massacre in Munich would be a good choice for a lighthearted romp as a follow up

Every terrible movie eventually is lauded as a "masterpiece" or becomes a cult movie or is reevaluated and deemed, well, not so bad after all. The godawful movie musical by Peter Bogdanovich "At Long Last Love" is now being said by some to be a funny, stylish, entertaining movie. "The Fearless Vampire Killers," the "horror comedy" by Roman Polanski has been heralded as some kind of masterpiece. Truth be told, both of those movies were truly crummy. But it something gets old enough, it's frequently looked at and reevaluated more favorably, even if the movie is truly a piece of shit. Sometimes it becomes one those movies that's "so bad it's good." Anyway, Xanadu is a terrible movie, and is by no stretch of the imagination "an overlooked Masterpiece."

"La La Land" was the 21st century version of "Xanadu."

[quote]I always wanted to see this. Russell Todd was hot hot hot in the 80’s. Is it true he’s gay?

He was when he auditioned.

i wonder if karen carpenter (and her brother) good friends with olivia was jealous of her success and "hot" fame in the early 80's when she and her brother's career had cooled off from both inaction, (karen's and richard's physical and mental issues), subpar music and no hits for a few years... especially when she and richard were super hot in the early to mid 70's and churned out hit after hit (in fact, more then olivia i believe)...

was karen jealous of her friend because of her success and the cooling of her own career and of course olivia's looks too? especially when karen and OLIVIA HERSELF had to know that karen had a waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better voice then she and that olivia was riding on her looks and "pretty voice" and upped sexual persona for her great fame in the late 70's/early 80s. i would like to think karen was at least confident in this one aspect of her life and knew her talent was for all time and all time great and that olivia was a "passing fad"..

R105, Xanadu has some great moments though. The opening number with the mural, the Don Bluth animated number. The musical numbers are entertaining. It’s unfortunate that the movie around it and its male lead don’t work.

R100 - Carr made the notorious remark about Olivia's rejection - who does she think she is? Streisand?!

Karen was very attractive herself. Her problem wasn't Olivia, her problem was her controlling family. She would have made it movies years before Olivia if she had accepted the Kim Darby role in True Grit.

And Olivia was hardly a passing fad. She had the biggest hit of the 1980's and fourteen years of top forty hits and hit records.

"Karen was very attractive herself."

No. She was very plain. I think that was one of her demons, her lack of sexual appeal. She had a low opinion of her physical attractiveness. It's no wonder she became anorexic.

Karen wasn’t attractive in the 80s

No mention of Muse #1 Sandal Bergman the "All That Jazz" "Air-otica " lead dancer?

KAREN carpenter was attractive in the typical girl next door kind of way, naturally attractive and had a great funny personality to boot! plus the one in 2 lifetimes voice and drumming skill.. sad she couldn't see this...

olivia was a "fad" in that i meant she was SUPER WHITE HOT FAMOUS from grease to a few years later before the hits and the movies dried up herself.. in regards to talent, olivia is only mentioned because of her fame and success for a few years, while karen carpenter's talent and voice then and now will always be for all time and classic.. olivia is NEVER MENTIONED in any circles as one of the greatest voices of all time, whereas karen's is ALWAYS mentioned. let's face it if olivia didn't have her looks, her blonde looks in particular and upped the sex appeal and sexuality of her persona at the time, just how far would she have gone with just her "pretty voice"...

i watch the merv griffin episode on youtube with both karen (and her brother) and olivia and john travolta.. olivia wearing a mini skirt sold her looks and sexiness, whereas karen showed off her talent and her witty funny personality.

Karen was only white hot after she died of anorexia.

Watching it now on HBO On Demand and I'm having a swell time.

Xanadu was fabulous at the time, and still a lot of fun to watch.

Anyone who finds it 'boring' is probably the type who always finds themselves stuck staring at their phone during any movie or TV show, 'multitasking'.

[quote]olivia was a "fad" in that i meant she was SUPER WHITE HOT FAMOUS from grease to a few years later before the hits and the movies dried up herself..

Olivia was already a well established music star before Grease. She already had two number one albums and two number one hits and won three Grammys. Grease added another dimension to her success. And she rode Bad Sandy to even bigger success. That's what pop artists do, change with the times.

[quote]olivia is NEVER MENTIONED in any circles as one of the greatest voices of all time,

Madonna, Mariah, Cher and Britney Spears have mentioned her as an influence. Julianna Hatfield just did an entire tribute album of her material. Aussies sing her praises all the time. She's Royalty to them.

And what great success would the Carpenters have found in the 80's? Even if Karen was well, at best they would have racked up a couple of Adult Contemporary hits before going to the Branson Missouri circuit in the 90's. Karen may have had a great voice, but it is not adaptable to a wide range of material. Could you imagine her singing Physical or Strut? Their legacy is huge because of the tragedy.

R119... yes, of course olivia was a established singer before grease and movie fame, but she was NOT super fame until then..

it's one thing to have other singers state that olivia is a "influence" it's quite another for other singers to PRAISE the voice that countless male and female singers have said about karen carpenter...

as far as the 80's if dionne warwick could have a string of adult contemporary hits then so could the carpenters.... (never mind, i judge on talent not just on fame and hits!).. and no, the carpenters would not have gone the branson route either...

and i don't karen carpenter would WANT to sing physical or strut! they would be BENEATH her... hmm, imagine olivia singing anything karen carpenter sang would be the real outlandish spectacle.... imagine oliva singing "ave maria".. even in the 1 song that olivia sang that was the carpenter's "yesterday one more" or "rainy days and monday's" it's pitiful compared to karen's version, the mash-up of their voices on a video on youtube of "close to you" shows the greatness of karen's voice and the pretty but nothing special of olivia's voice.... i think Olivia herself would recognize simply based on talent she wasn't in her friend's league.

Olivia may not have a voice like Karen Carpenter but she does have a very nice voice. And it was strong and vibrant when it needed to be - Xanadu, Sam, Make a Move on Me, Hopelessly Devoted to You. Her covers album is pretty good.

Dionne had Clive Davis who helped her pair with the likes of Barry Manilow, Isaac Hayes, The Bee Gees, and Luther Vandross.

None of that would have happened with the Carpenters, because the brother was the one who was producing everything and was hung up on maintaining "The Carpenters sound". While Dionne was the in the midst of her comeback and hitting gold and platinum, the Carpenters stalled at 52 with their album, which didn't even sell enough to get certified.

Girls! Girls! 122 posts and no one has mentioned the divine cocoa-olored muse known as Dildohead?

"KAREN carpenter was attractive in the typical girl next door kind of way, naturally attractive and had a great funny personality to boot!"

"A great funny personality?" She always seemed very dour and glum to me. And her singing! She always sang like she was very depressed, even in uptempo numbers. She didn't have "girl next door" attractiveness. Look at her face! It was PLAIN. And I don't think she ever had a good hairstyle in her life.

She and Olivia Newton John were supposedly good friends. I guess that's because they were both big pop singers. Their friendship seems kind of strange though; Olivia, beautiful, upbeat, smiling, living with her lover, and Karen, plain, still living with her parents into her twenties, tagging along on her brother's dates. What on earth could they have talked about, except their careers?

Um, Strut was Sheena Easton’s song. Not Olivia or Karen fucking Carpenter.

Sorry R2 - but to compliment something by calling it "better than Roller Boogie" is industrial-strength damning with the faintest of praise.

Jesus, the Karen Carpenter loon on here is pushing MARY to its ultimate limits.

Take it down a notch, honey. The ONLY reason anyone remembers Karen Carpenter these days is because of her fucked up family and her death from anorexia. The Carpenters were over before Karen died and she even tried a solo career that resulted in an album that was shelved until well after her death and when it was finally heard, it was unanimous that it should have stayed buried.

Roller Boogie was excellent!!! r 126

Olivia was one of the first pop artists to really reinvent herself. She went from a folksie/country western singer with a Doris Day type image/personality to a coquettish vamp singing pop songs. She created the template that's still being used among women in music today and she doesn't get enough credit for it.

R118, I was in a revival theater full of queens hoping for an enjoyable experience, and we left feeling like a wet blanket have been thrown on top of us

[quote]I think of I t as a cross between Mary Poppins and Saturday Night Fever.

More like a cross between "Can't Stop the Music" and "Grease 2."

R130 it was your breath

Me reexamination is the opposite - I liked it at the time, but when I've watched it over the years, it gets worse.

The Tubes scene.

Fee Waybill and the Tubes. White Punks On Dope, anyone? Fee will be 70 this year.

A flop musical but a really great movie, One From The Heart

Making of video.

2008 revisit.

Sorry but One From the Heart is another stinker, and I never miss a Frederic Forrest musical.

R80 It makes me wonder how Beck got cast in the first place. Everybody mentions his resemblance to Andy Gibb...was Gibb considered? I agree KC would have been an interesting choice, but his acting would probably have been even more wooden than Beck's.

Supposedly, Matt convinced Olivia to branch out and do Physical. She didn't want to, originally, because she thought it was too much of an image-shift.

^Like Gary talked me into doing Mame.

R141 Big mistake, darling.

[quote]I was in a revival theater full of queens hoping for an enjoyable experience, and we left feeling like a wet blanket have been thrown on top of us

Where in the world do you live where a theater full of queens hadn't seen "Xanadu" yet?

Michael Beck had appeared in The Warriors the year before. It's a great film and Beck was good in it. So the buzz must have made him seem like a good choice but he wasn't a good fit. Xanadu pretty much ended any momentum he had gained.

The Academy ignored the music...

"Fame" Winner

"9 to 5"

"Out Here on My Own" from "Fame"

"On the Road Again" from "Honeysuckle Rose"

"People Alone" from "The Competition"

R145 If Xanadu had been a blockbuster, the Academy would have recognized the soundtrack.

[quote] [R145] If Xanadu had been a blockbuster, the Academy would have recognized the soundtrack.

Because Honeysuckle Rose and The Competition were such massive hits.

R147 No, but they were critically acclaimed. Same thing, according to Academy snobs.

[quote] [R147] No, but they were critically acclaimed. Same thing, according to Academy snobs.

Mmmm.. they really weren't, especially Honeysuckle Rose.

After 40 years...who the fuck remembers (or cares?!)

Clearly you do, since you keep arguing the (incorrect) point.

Troll alert.

R122, i agree with you in that for the carpenters to have hits again, they would have had to have branched out to other producers, songwriters and so on, like dionne did, if not, then karen would have to go solo, which she probably couldn't because of her family, so in this regard perhaps she truly was STUCK.

R 124, karen DID have a great funny personality.. watch her interview with olivia on the merv griffin story. she was a "hoot"!.. and yes, she was attractive before anorexia really got a hold of her, attractive from let's say 1975 to 1980 or so.

R127... everyone who loves music remembers karen carpenter NOT just because she passed from anorexia... perhaps not the younger generation, but baby boomers and up remember and love her voice and music.. end of story.

I love when fun threads become humorless arguments between two or three posters with mental health issues. It's a Datalounge tradition.

ONJ never looked lovelier. I like the song but it should have had better choreography - at least judging from the skating OP. Where's Busby Berkeley when you need him?

[quote]Where's Busby Berkeley when you need him?

Fuck you.

Look, OP, it's WATCHABLE. Does that make it a masterpiece? Go fuck yourself.

I can't put up with shit in this atmosphere.

R134, Fee and The Tubes posed full frontal for After Dark. The photoshoot was pretty hot, but seems to have vanished from the web.

overlooked and undercover

Livvie!!! I remember reading that she would only do 1 print interview for Xanadu.

They also did a music video they sold on VHS where Fee was full frontal too.

R143, it was at Hedda Lettuce's Chelsea Classics, so I guess the queens that already saw it stayed away, and the 150 of us there that night were very disappointed, even with Hedda's caustic running commentary. After a while, there was nothing for her to even say anymore, it was just that dreary.

R162, methinks that Hedda ruined it and overhyped it for you.

Just smoke a bowl and watch it in your livingroom!

Poop poop de doop. Poop poop de doop.

It's a 90-minute long music video. Just ignore the acting and enjoy the great music!

Can you anyone pull up those pics of The Tubes full frontal in After Dark? There used to be an archive of it somewhere online.

R160: you definitely had to have lived during that time to understand that line on People magazine "look ma no gas tank".