What's your favorite Olivia Newton John album?

I will echo many others here in saying my 1) is TOTALLY HOT followed closely by PHYSICAL and HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW in third.

My favorite performance of hers on record is probably Boats Against The Current from TH...with Shaking You from the TWIST OF FATE soundtrack. Both stunning ballads that often get overlooked among all the hits.

Here is a video from You tube taken from 2012 singing a medley of those two songs and Suspended in Time . While her voice has aged obviously, she can still pull those songs off, losing very little if any of their original power, and in some respects besting the originals. It's a pity she isn't performing this in her SUMMER NIGHTS show in Vegas. Enjoy!

 

the first one...

 

Nice medley. You know I've never watched her perform live after the 80's. This was a bit shocking to barely recognize her. The plastic surgery is so confusing to my eyes when the recognizable voice comes in.

Vocally, she is struggling for sure on Boats, but gives it her all.

Wow. Don't hear votes for that often. I've actually been getting into that one lately. Might even be her best of the first four. I really, really enjoy those last three tracks that close it out.

 

Music Makes My Day (or the Aussie Let Me Be There) is my favourite of her first 4 albums. She showed real growth and depth on it with songs like Being On The Losing End, Leaving, You Ain't Got The Right and Amoureuse.

Then she followed it with the Long Live Love album.

 

yes indeed!

 

Hey Bobby! Funny to find you here. Lol

 

I like to say my piece.

Olivia needs all the support she can get!

 

Totally Hot & Physical

 

You can't go wrong with those two!

 

Btw, my favorite ONJ album is "Totally Hot," like many others here. Second place would probably go to "Don't Stop Believin'".

 

Well you do have to realize she is almost 67 and has almost constantly been performing since she was in her late teens, so all things concidered she sounds amazing. She still sounds like Olivia Newton-John, and I actually think her voice sounds better now than around the time she did the BACK WITH A HEART album in 1998.

As for her looks....well for a woman of her vintage, she still looks great. Factoring in her age she doesn't look terribly different from what she used to look like. Yes, she has had some "work" done. (She denies it...but c'mon Livvy, we ain't stupid). There are times though she looks...well...a little off...and there are other times she still looks like Livvy, just older. I would blame that on the botox she obviously dabbles in. You can tell when she recently had some "treatments". I will say up until 2005-ish she looked more natural and a bit more like her younger self...and since she's vacillated from looking great to looking weird at times .

It is a shame though that she even felt she needed the work done. I think she was aging well without the "help". I guess though in the business she is in she feels like she has to stay looking youthful through whatever means necessary. She hasn't gone too crazy yet with it all. I hope that she doesn't.

Either way the voice and the personality are still there, and that's the most important thing.

 

DSB is one of her best, and just misses the top 3 in my book. What keeps it #4 is a weaker Side 2. Side one is perfect nearly. While HYNBM has a weaker side 1 than DSB, it overall is stronger. However, I do tend to listen to both all the way through (as I do TOTALLY HOT and PHYSICAL).

 

And you have to remember that in her world everyone looks like she does. It's become normal for them!

 

Yeah, that's true. Hell, compared to some of her peers, she looks downright natural! In the echo chamber of show business, no one really notices I bet.

 

Suzanne Somers and Priscilla Presley spring to mind!

Even Chloe looks more enhanced than her mum... And she's only 29!

As you say, sometimes she looks better than others. I think they've got the dosage right now!

 

Yeah Chloe looks...um...very enhanced. I wonder if Olivia ever broached the subject to her...although I get the feeling that may be a bit of Pot and Kettle there. Also it has to be tough growing up in the shadow of being the daughter of one of the most beautiful women in show business.

As for the other two mentioned....ugh. Those were the exact two I was thinking of...especially Priscilla. I hope Olivia takes a lesson from those two and keeps those in mind IF she ever goes in for more "work". Don't ever go THAT far.

Currently Olivia is closer in the same league as Christy Brinkley as someone who likely has had SOME work done, but still looks radiant and natural compared to her peers. In fact in Christy's case, I think she looks hotter now than she did in her hey day. I'd still take a shot, that's for sure.

Okay...lets try to get this back on track...back to the music. I made a playlist last night including her Xanadu songs, the two off her Greatest Hits 2, and the songs from TOAK. I've titled the playlist "MAGIC: The lost album". Here's a screenshot of it. What would you guys have as the running order for such an "album"?

http://prntscr.com/6ui1i1

That is not my final running order. Just a play list. I probably would see maybe "Dancin'" and "xanadu" as bonus tracks, with the actual LP being 10 songs. Magic would be the first song ...other than that, I'm not sure what would flow best. Any want to take a crack at it?

 

She may look like Hillary now sadly but thank God she still sounds like classic Livvy!!!

 

I picked up a sealed vinyl cut-out copy of Soul Kiss in Fopp Records in London for £3 this week. The record blew me away in terms of how it sounds and how good the mid-eighties songs are....I love it...Second to Physical for me...

 

Well done you!

Soul Kiss isn't a big favourite amongst ONJ fans. I think I can confidently say that! I do like and play it, but it was a disappointment after Physical for me.

 

I can see it being a disappointment compared to Physical BUT I think it sounds very good today...It hasn't dated at all badly....It's like her "Tusk"

 

Agree on Soulkiss. It's a great record, just way too different for most ONJ fans. She was really pushing the envelope with this one and I tend to love this kind of records.

 

Nice version of Boats Against The Current. I always felt she struggled with that song a bit on Totally Hot. She didn't (and still doesn't) have the vocal power to belt that song the way it should be performed. On the album she just sounds like she's shouting on the last couple of choruses.

 

She had a great run up to The Rumour. I still play all those albums from 1971 onwards. Very solid for saying how prolific she was.

 

That's quite a good comparison. Someone else compared SK to Dusty Springfield's White Heat album.

SK was a bit left of centre for Olivia. The album sounds great on CD.