Olivia Newton-John Single by Single Thread

Here is the official video of which seems like the best copy I've ever seen, according to the Only Olivia website, it mentions that this video was filmed at David's home. Olivia is also wearing clothing from her Koala Blue line. I love this video.

 

I think I lied earlier when I said Face to Face was my favorite duet, I really like this one a lot. It's so nice to see Olivia back in her element after the seriousness of her last album Soul Kiss. This video with Olivia and David is terrific, if you notice halfway through David is wearing one of Olivia's Koala Blue shirt. What's neat about this single is not only do they compliment each other so well on vocals, it's hard to know who is dueting with who, it could almost be from one of Olivia's album's if one didn't know it was from David's when hearing it on the radio. I love the lyrics and the opening line from Olivia.

 

I never heard that song before. I'm glad she didn't do it. A little dull.

Same is true for Best of Me. I still like it though. I think the biggest problem is it's David Foster and not a big name singer. You need two superstars for these things to work, especially when the song isn't all that special. Foster's singing is okay and Olivia is doing her thing just fine. Just needed someone with real marque value. Heck, bringing back Andy Gibb might have done it. But this was Foster's album.

 

If you listen to the video above...is it me or does the official video have a different audio track, not their vocals but the backing track/instruments, almost sounds like a snare drum added?

 

I've always been amused that David once told Richard Marx he'd never make it as a singer - only as a writer/producer - when Foster has a plain ordinary voice by comparison. I think that is why this song is good but doesn't rise above the fray. Olivia needed a stronger sparring partner vocally to sell this tune. It's well written just not very exciting. As a sidebar I will mention another Foster tune he wrote and produced in the same time frame for Anne Murray, "Now And Forever (You And Me)" is great - not necessarily can I hear Livvy doing it - but it does prove he knew how to write strong material for female vocalists...

 

It's funny, but when I was listening to that YouTube clip yesterday, that was the exact thought I had -- the 12" really played up the reggae aspects of the song. Not sure if that was the sound Olivia and John were going for in the studio, but that's what it comes across as.

Hearing people talk about "You Were Great, How Was I" has also been interesting. I'm a huge Beach Boys fan, and I really loved that Olivia did a duet with Carl Wilson, but the song was just terrible. It would have been great if they'd used a song (or had a song written) by Brian Wilson, who knew how to write fantastic vocal harmonies.

Speaking of the Carl Wilson duet, I just realized something. I believe "You Were Great, How Was I" was the first time a duet ever appeared on an Olivia Newton-John album. She'd done duets on her various soundtracks (some of which appeared on her compilations), and she'd sung duets that appeared on albums and singles by other artists, but I can't think of any duet that appeared on any of Olivia's original studio albums up to that point. Funny how an artist who has done so many duets over her career could make nearly a dozen solo albums before having a duet appear on one of them.

 

It's a shame that You Were Great has that honor.

Although I still credit the songs on Grease and Xanadu as her official duets despite being soundtracks. They're still Olivia albums in my book.

 

"The Best of Me" was such a welcome song in 1986. After the disaster that was Soul Kiss, this felt like a return to form, and an attempt to try to keep producing commercially viable songs. When it came out, I really hoped it meant that David Foster was going to be working more with Olivia, possibly producing a new album for her. Sadly, that didn't seem to be the case. I think David Foster could have produced a great album for Olivia, but I think her new baby was her main focus by 1986, so she probably wasn't interested in spending much time in the studio, much less taking the time to do the necessary promotion for a new album.

While "The Best of Me" only made it to #80 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it did make it to #6 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It did slightly better in David Foster's home country, Canada. It does not appear to have charted anywhere else, although singles were issued in a number of countries, including the UK, Australia, and Japan. This might be the reason why David Foster was not selected to produce an album for Olivia...

Regardless, this was a song I really enjoyed. David Foster is not a great singer, but it didn't really matter. It was all about Olivia for me. As new songs from Olivia had become a somewhat rare thing after 1981, it was nice to get ANYTHING in 1986.

 

I think the mix is a little different, but I think it's the same backing track. The percussion track does seem to be emphasized a bit more in the video. Perhaps it's just the EQ, with the high frequencies boosted, which would bring out percussive sounds like the drums.

 

Slightly off topic but thinking about the jumpers (sweaters) in the video, I thonk the Soul Kiss video project wasn't helped by Olivia wearing a really naff bright jumper in one of the videos sitting on a chair. I remember it was one of the 2 ballads but when I saw it it put me off the song.

 

She did wear some hideous '80s clothes in the videos from Soul Kiss. Some hideous '80s hair, too. The video for "Emotional Tangle" has her in an outfit with huge shoulder pads and very bright pinks, greens, and blues, so maybe that's the one you're thinking of. It looks exactly the same as the video for "The Right Moment," except the outfit is different (colors are not very bright on the clothes from "The Right Moment" video).

 

Interestingly, she actually has sung it in recent years. Olivia debuted the song in Chile in 2010 - apparently it was a hit there! It remained in her setlist that year when she went to Japan as well, and she noted that she had never sung it in concert before. (Nor since, mind you!) It sounded great and she gave it an appropriately sultry performance.

Nice post - my favourite tracks are the same as yours. I've always thought 'Driving Music' was a really underrated one on the 'Soul Kiss' LP - perhaps listeners just lost interest and never made it that far in the tracklisting! I agree wholeheartedly about 'Queen Of The Publication' too. A clever lyric matched by the inventiveness of Farrar's production and a top-notch vocal performance from Olivia.

Yes, they are definitely amongst her most athletic vocals. Olivia's voice had started to deepen too which gave her a richer tone. Olivia's voice between 1985 and 1994 is actually one of my favourite vocal periods for her. She remarked many years later around the time she was promoting 'Back With A Heart' how 'challenging' the 'Soul Kiss' songs were to sing and she seemed quite fond of them. I imagine she hasn't actually listened to them for many years though; most of her comments about that period have to do with the photographs on the album sleeve. Olivia doesn't seem half as familiar with her catalogue as we are. A fan met her recently and told her his favourite song was 'Livin' In Desperate Times' and she couldn't remember it! Bless!


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I'm not sure if this is worth a mention but in 1987 Olivia appears to have guested her backing vocals on an Australian artists 45 rpm, called Hammerhead by James Reyne. Can you hear her? Perhaps Chris_Sydney can shed some light on this release and can confirm Olivia did provide her backing vocals (although very little) as her name is not mentioned on the 45, I don't have the CD so I don't know if she is listed as credits.

Olivia Newton-John -> music -> albums -> guest albums -> James Reyne: James Reyne »

 

I hear her, or someone sounding like her, blended into his vocal on the chorus. She drags a bit longer on the word hammerhead.

 

Yes, I believe that is indeed Olivia. I've never really heard her voice clearly in the song though.


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One more comment from me on Best of Me. It's more about Foster. I think he needed a different lead off single from his debut album. I'm sure he thought Olivia would bring the record some attention. I certainly bought the 45 and his CD because of her. Still, he needed to build his independence and stature as a vocalist first with a solo track or two as his first singles. Once established, then break out the duet as a single and have a little more authority as a singing partner. Of course the smartest move of all was to have produced an entire ONJ album with Best of Me as one of its tracks.

 

Until this I never knew Foster attempted a solo career as a singer. Always thought he was a songwriter/producer and much older.

John Parr has spoken to me about working with him and how much he enjoyed the experience.

 

Big James Reyne and Australian Crawl fan here. Managed to acquire all his albums and pretty much every single, despite the fact that almost none were released in the U.S. (a couple of trips to Australia helped).

I believe Olivia and James Reyne shared the same manager, which is probably why she did this backing vocal appearance on James Reyne's first solo album. He was also using Davitt Sigerson as a producer -- Sigerson also produced The Rumour. Don't know if there's a connection; perhaps he was already working with Olivia and asked her to do some backing vocals for a fellow Aussie, or maybe Sigerson met Olivia during James Reyne's project, and that's how he ended up working with Olivia.

You can hear her vocals starting around 03:18, where she sings the word "Hammerhead" separately from his vocal. This happens a couple of times in a row there.

 

Count me as another one who bought David's single and Cd just to get the Olivia track. I actually kinda like his Cd this song appears on, it will mellow you out when you need relaxing.

I first found out about Hammerhead on the Only Olivia fan club and at first I didn't believe it but it does sound like her. I guess I never understood why she was on it, thanks David for that info. What does this song mean, it's about drugs and taking you over right?

 

So imagine if Olivia sang the lead on all the tracks. Would Foster's album made a good Olivia album?

 

I must get this and Farrars albums. Are they still reasonably easy to find on CD?

 

I love the live version of Soul Kiss. She sings it so well.

 

Livvy needs to shake things up by doing a deep cuts show. It would re-engage the fans who like her but know the setlist is gonna be all the typical songs that have been in the act for years so they don't rush out to the shows. If Helen Reddy could fill Vegas showrooms until last year with her deep cuts and doing only three hits ONJ can easily pull it off. Do stuff as diverse as "Soul Kiss" "Falling" and " It's So Easy." I might tolerate even a few healing songs mixed in if its surrounded by some forgotten gems.

 

This was a terrific live version of Soul Kiss, watched it for the first time, she never did that at any of the concerts I attended. I love her hair like that natural, I hate the flat iron look now it's too flat. She really pours on the sexy huh? So nice to see the audience supporting this single and what a great song for the band to take part in!!

 

Love this idea!! Please someone fax this over to her quick!! I don't care if she has to look down at the lyrics...terrific idea.