Olivia Newton-John Album by Album Thread (part2)

UK labels like Cherry Red, Driven By The Music and Edsel have done fantastic reissues of albums by the Go-Go's, Belinda Carlisle, Donna Summer and Bananarama in recent years. All with bonus discs and DVDs. It's whether they want Olivia's catalogue or are prepared to pay enough for it to suit her, I suppose.

 

Bobby is right. If La Toya Jackson albums have gotten deluxe reissue treatments, why not ONJ?

 

Hip-O had the rights to her back catalogue a few years ago. There was a press release about the special editions of 'albums like Totally Hot' they were preparing. Sadly, aside from a couple of comps, nothing was released.

 

Taylor Dayne, Bros, Nick Kamen, Limahl and Haircut 100 all have great special edition CDs out. Why not Olivia indeed.

 

Seriously! The woman has sold 100 million records. Her fans deserve deluxe editions or at least a great box set with DVS's!!!

 

The 2010 Japanese SHM box is the best we'll get for a while, I'll bet.

 

"I Honestly Love You" was also appended to all versions of HYNBM in Japan on Lp & cd.

 

I was the person who made this video. Ive
always liked Olivia's vocals on this song and was disappointed they cut much of it in the TV special so I just got the footage they used, slowed it down considerably and added the full length song to its soundtrack.

 

I was playing Indigo the other day and quite enjoyed it. Don't know if I'm coming down with something.

 

Doesn't sound good. Better see a doctor.

 

Coming after (2), it always seemed better than it probably was.

I wish the production wasn't so sparse and that there'd been some multi-tracked backing vocals, but I do like quite a few of the songs. I moaned at the time of release that she'd chosen obvious songs that had been covered to death already and that still stands. The only track I really don't like is Alfie. I've never cared for the song, but I don't think Olivia sings it especially well.

 

Luckily there's a healing album coming up so I should be OK.

 

I've never heard that one Bobby about a press release. I think that was just some fans projecting their hopes for such a release when the box came out. Hip-O allowed Japan to do the box set with the bonus material because the heads at Universal USA and or ONJ's people had no real interest in pursuing expanding those albums at the time. To my knowledge, not much beyond a few alternate vocal takes exisits for the post Grease era stuff so I figure that's why they chopped up Love Performance to pad out most of the albums in the box. Universal has also made it clear they have no interest in "Physical" (pun intended) product so if we're lucky we might get a download only release at best. That's the main reason why Hip-O Select no longer exists as a label. It would just be a name tagged on a download....

 

You could well be right.

I'm going back a good 15 years to the Only Olivia days. I DO seem to think Hip-O did mention expanded editions of Physical and Totally Hot, but it could have just been the fans wishful thinking. I have read that for her 1978 onwards albums, Olivia didn't record extra songs. However, I've heard it said that for the years 1973-77, she does have a number of songs in the vaults. Who knows, though.

 

Well, I say we get a map to those vaults and heist the stuff.

 

It would be nice to think there are some things in the vaults. There must be material from the early years as she was forever recording then.

 

Yeah, I could swear back in the OO days there was discussion from Hip-O that Olivia used to record 14-16 songs for each album (in the early years), from which 10-12 would be chosen for inclusion. Obviously, there were some songs that were completed but unreleased, since we got them in the Japanese box, so it's definitely true that she recorded more songs than were used back then. Whether there are any more in the vaults is what we'd all like to know...

At the very least, there have to be a few other tracks in the vaults, because she was obviously lip-syncing some of the songs on her TV specials. That big medley of songs from different decades in A Special Olivia Newton-John comes to mind.

 

I'd be happy to get the songs from her TV specials. Stuff like the Candle In The Wind duet with Elton and Hollywood Nights would be nice additions. Not to mention Grow Young, of course. I think there must be material in the vaults from 1971-75 at least. Whether Olivia thinks it's of good enough quality to release is another matter. Maybe she thinks no one cares?

 

I hate to say it but maybe she's right and no one does care. I know we do, of course, but the only thing the public wants from older acts are greatest hits packages and even then they want to cherry pick from the hits. Seems like the days of trying to grab lost songs are vanishing.

 

Sadly true. I do think we'll not get all this stuff until after she's gone. If at all.

 

"If at all" being the key phrase here. Unless someone decides to really try to preserve her legacy after she's gone (we're looking at you, Chloe!), we probably won't ever see vault material, or any of the vinyl-only stuff.

 

I think once Olivia has left us, Chloe will write the inevitable tell-all book. That's pretty much the only option left for her.

I'm sure Olivia's catalogue will form part of her inheritance. I hope she has more interest in it that Olivia does.

 

Well the ultimate tease I've ever gotten from someone at Universal is that there are about a dozen more known songs that are complete enough to release from the 1971-1977 period but there are rights issues and general apathy from several parties involved to work out before we get them. Apparently there's more bonus stuff from this period vs. later due to the whole MCA contract where she was to deliver two albums a year so she was always recording to fulfill the deal. Once they worked through the lawsuit and ONJ re-upped with the label, she and Farrar seem to have a leaner approach to recording. They hit the studio knowing which songs were going to be recorded. For the most part any extras that were finished that didn't land on the albums themselves (see: You Made Me Love You, Winter Angel, Electric) were used as B sides to recoup costs on them....

 

How well have those recent re-releases by Bananarama, Donna Summer and Belinda Carlisle sold? I know I grabbed a bunch of it but I have no idea how well they did.

Maybe the ONJ Japan SHM's didn't perform well enough? I assume the SACDs didn't do well. (Though I loved them!)

 

Sorry for bringing back an older topic but I had so much fun doing the album by albums and we talked about this further back when we were discussing the Totally Hot album. Here is the rare live version of "Please Don't Keep Me Waiting" from Live in Amsterdam 1978. I think the band did a fantastic job of re-creating the song live and Olivia does an amazing job on a song that I think must have been quite difficult to sing live and re-create the album sound. What do you all think of her live version?