Olivia Newton-John

Please explain her double/hyphenated surname. Who's Newton? Who's John? Seems awkward.

[quote]Please explain her double/hyphenated surname.

It's especially egregious coming from her. The double-hyphenated name is for upper crust British people. She's from that slave colony Australia.

[quote] It's especially egregious coming from her. The double-hyphenated name is for upper crust British people. She's from that slave colony Australia.

She's associated with Australia, but she was actually born in Cambridge, UK. Her father Brinly "Bryn" Newton-John was an MI5 officer on the Enigma Project at Bletchley Park; her maternal grandfather, Max Born, won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

R1 & R2 just gag and die because of R3 hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[quote]The pinnacle of her career was Grease, wasn't it?

Not even close. She had about seven years after Grease where she scored hit after hit. Physical was the biggest hit of the 1980's.

Grease is a great movie, but it's got to be annoying to ONJ when people act like that made or defined her. She had already won several Grammys and a couple of number one albums before doing Grease.

She never did Broadway because it would've exposed the weakness of her breathy voice...

R1, back for more gagging (FU, R3!). Please explain her father's double/hyphenated surname. Seems so wrong.

[quote] (FU, [R3]!).

You wish to be blocked, you say?

Your wish is granted. Long live Jambi.

Wasn't her pinnacle Physical, which was #1 on the charts for weeks.

Olivia was able to reinvent herself many times. She started out as a very young folk-singer type with her first hit , Bob Dylan's "If Not For You". Then she hit with country songs like "Let Me Be There" and "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)". Then she became the pop balladeer with "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow". Grease let her become a movie star for one brief moment. Then harder edged songs like "A Little More Love" "Heart Attack" and her biggest hit "Magic" changed her image.

DAME Olivia Newton-John.

Shame on you, OP!

She gives off a nice vibe, plus no one has had any stories about her being mean to staff or other people. Her daughter is a mess though, a pothead who’s into plastic surgery.

And didn't her lover stage a disappearance and death but then showed up in Mexico?

"Physical" was ONJ's biggest hit single. It was also her last #1 on the Billboard Charts. Her previous #1s were "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow" during her saccharine sweet, soft pop/country phase; "You're the One That I Want" from Grease; and "Magic" from Xanadu.

She was a big recording artist in the 1970s and early '80s, but in the MTV era, I think she was done in by cheesy music videos that made her seem unhip amongst the younger artists.

She still had another good 5 years OP. But people quickly tired of her sexy image, which was a stretch at 35. Madonna happily took over and Olivia soul kissed us goodbye.

[quote]in the MTV era, I think she was done in by cheesy music videos that made her seem unhip amongst the younger artists.

Kind of ironic, since she made a video for every song on the Physical LP, much like Blondie did for Eat to the Beat. And like Debbie Harry, she was a crucial late 70s/early 80s precursor to Madonna. Without the insane drive and ambition, of course, which few others have ever possessed.

She was offered Blood Brothers but turned it down.

Once you're a female pop singer and you've been playing the virgin forever, and then suddenly act like you're slutty, you get an ENORMOUS sudden rise in popularity. But then it's all over because people get quickly tired of it.

Basically the same thing happened with Christina Aguilera and with Miley Cyrus.

The Soul Kiss cover art shot by Helmut Newton showed us a sexier (kinkier?) side to Olivia. But it was 1985, and the music world was already saturated with hypersexed pop tarts in skimpy clothes--Madonna, Dale Bozzio, Terri Nunn, Vanity, Apollonia, the Mary Jane Girls, etc., so poor Olivia went and covered herself up on her next album.

and Sheena Easton

[quote]But it was 1985, and the music world was already saturated with hypersexed pop tarts in skimpy clothes

But you could say that Olivia started that trend by wearing that black leather outfit in Grease. The whole world could see her hoo-hah.

[quote]Olivia soul kissed us goodbye.

It’s funny because I thought the Soul Kiss album was way better than the Physical album.

R21, Grease was a huge international hit, so I don't doubt that Olivia's transformation from wholesome high school teen to slutty Cinderella influenced a lot of impressionable young ladies.

Olivia had a couple years' great run as a skank, from 1978 in "Grease" to 1981 with "Physical," but then it got old, and so was she.

Every boy in the world was in love with her in 1978.

Even mic-ed, her voice could not do BroadWAY.

nah r26. She has a strong voice in concert. She could easily have done a Broadway show.

Xanadu is the personal pinnacle for me.

A monumental misfire turned beloved, misguided masterpiece four decades later.

I genuinely love it now. I loved the soundtrack then.

Olivia's putting her arms over her head than slowly lowering while rocking to the music at the .24 mark is about as close to perfection as you can get on earth. +

and her future husbands gyrations at 2:24 are pretty good too.

R29 thank you for that in all these years of loving Livy and Xanadu, I have never been able to spot Matt in that movie.

He gets the most screen time of the male dancers!

I think her voice is underrated. it's not exceptional but pop singers rarely are. She sings live and sounds pretty good.

It's a pretty voice, for a pretty woman.

Why on earth would she have to do anything on Broadway?

Why would she even want to?

DiDi Cohn was her gf.

Broadway is not very renumerative, and its exhausting if you're not used to doing it.

She's a pop star but not a legitimate actress.

Her voice is very pretty with an unusually sweet sound. Yes, she is too breathy but like Diana Ross she can sing the quiet breath part of a song with great intimacy and no loss of control or intonation. It's hard to do. If she's not the world's greatest Broadway of popstar belter and her voice lacks a bit of resonance, it doesn't really detract because she is powerful enough in her belting voice and it get more clear and pretty and melodic at the top of her range - like Ross she became a better and more powerful singer as she aged. A light lyric soprano. Her big fame is before my time, but I think ONJ is kind of underrated as a singer. It's no accident that Olivia, Karen Carpenter and Dionne Warwick were all good friends. Understated and underrated singers. Carpenter and Warwick were much better vocalists, but what a very pretty and evocative sound Olivia had. RIP.