Olivia Newton-John. Yay or Nay?

It's kind of the same here, although HYNBM is somewhat more common in these parts. What isn't common is finding a decent copy of it.

The one ONJ LP that is really rare is US only LET ME BE THERE, which has the same cover photo and logo as the Aussie OLIVIA lp but a vastly different track listing. In 15 years of record collecting I've only come across one copy, which of course I bought 10 years ago for 2 dollars.

 

I'm still working my way through this now epic thread, but I thought I'd go ahead and relate my own Olivia experience, as inspired by this same thread. I poked in about a month or so ago, when it was still 10-20 pages long, and I became intrigued. I loved her as a kid, and when I was a late adolescent my best friend across the street liked The Beatles and Olivia Newton-John, and only those two acts, and so we would alternate my Who and ELP albums with "Making a Good Thing Better" and "Don't Stop Believin'" while we played Risk and Monopoly and whatever. Loved "Grease" and actually paid to go see "Xanadu" but after 1979 or so it never even crossed my mind to add an ONJ album to my collection of Elvis Costello and Clash records.

But after reading this thread, I began to wonder: maybe there's something there worth discovering.

Within days, I came across five ONJ albums at one of my local records stores, They had a BUY 3 USED GET 4Th FOR FREE deal so I picked up the lot for about $18 total, and brought 'em home. I scored "Let Me Be There," "If You Love Me Let Me Know" "Have You Never Been Mellow," "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Making a Good Thing Better." I've been listening to nothing else ever since. My wife thinks I have taken leave of my senses. My super hip 15 year old, who loves Radiohead and The White Stripes and King Crimson, sits hunched in the car in physical pain the way I used to in the 70s when MY dad tuned into the local Easy Listening station. Oh, and yes, Olivia gets filed in the Easy Listening section, I've now discovered. A week ago, I was digging through the stacks at a local hipster joint and found a SEALED copy of "Soul Kiss" priced, insultingly, at $4.99. I waited until the bearded hipsters at the counter were done talking about whatever band they were talking about, and then approached the counter. "I know this looks like I'm buying a sealed Olivia Newton-John album," I began. The owner lifted his hands and said, "Hey, man, I don't judge." "But in fact," I continued, "this is the very rare and obscure Ryan Adams cover album of this Olivia Newton-John album."

These albums aren't consistent: I find myself intimately attached to about half of each one, with the rest sort of rolling off as filler. But when the songs click, they effing click. I've since picked up "Clearly Love," "Come On Over" on CD, which is available for $5 in its original 80s MCA unremastered form, and "Totally Hot." I've also picked up a handful of the Festival CDs, which are a bit bright, I agree, but I'm a man in the grip of a strange infatuation, and I do not mind. The other day, "Something Better To Do" came on over the car speakers and my wife said, "Is this Norah Jones?" I smiled. She loves Norah Jones and thought it was a new Norah Jones album. And there it is, right there, the ONJ secret. For about half of every one of those 70s albums, she's singing prettily over some conventional ballad melody, and for the other half she's utterly killing it. You look at the tracklisting of "Come On Over" and see a song called "It'll Be Me" and you think, "Oh, another sappy country ballad," and you cue that one up and you get something unexpectedly muscular, sexy, edgy. I'm gonna follow this little obsession a bit longer, to see where it takes me.

 

Hello all...some more ONJ pics for you to enjoy!

 

A pic with the actress who portrayed her younger self in the recent Peter Allen TV mini-series.










Livvie (as Princess Leia)with Mark Hamill (as Luke Skywalker) and Bob Hope (as the saddest Darth Vader I've ever seen) on one of Hope's late 70's tv specials doing a cheesy Star Wars parody. It's a pity Olivia didn't go the full cinnamon bun hair style. I mean, that's lack of commitment to her role!

 

Great post!

Welcome, by the way.

You see, it's never too late.

It reminded me of a friend of mine whom I introduced to Olivia many years ago. When she and her boyfriend had had a row, she'd play 'Please Don't Keep Me Waiting' from 'Totally Hot' on repeat in the car to torture him.

 

The fourth one down, from the 'Back To Basics' era, was one of her best ever looks.

 

Interesting. I have that one, but it's a late reissue, on the plain khaki MCA label with the brown border, which I always associate with "Who Are You," as that was the only Who album to get issued with that label. "Totally Hot" came out the same year as WAY and has the same label, which would put my "Let Me Be There" as a 1978 reissue. Sounds horrible, like it was pressed on toast. But it cost me all of about $2 so no worries.

 

Mine is one of the rainbow label pressings from the early-mid 70's. Sound isn't great with mine either. MCA vinyl wasn't the greatest.

 

Yes, they were a crappy label, in so many respects. In the 80s they reissued everything with that stupid blue cloud label and tossed out all the innersleeves and gatefolds so that everything was packaged in cheap cardboard covers with the artwork pasted on rather than printed. You can still find Who and Elton John and Olivia albums from this period in the bins. The first generation CDs from the same decade were also low grade: you only got the front cover, for the most part. The back of the CD just had the songs listed across this grid design which was either blue, green or pink, and you got no additional artwork, or in some cases even the barest liner notes, on the CD insert.

 

Most of my Olivia CD's are the Festival remasters from 1998, although I have COME ON OVER and GHvol 2 in the cheaply produced manner you describe, although they sound pretty good. The other two MCA Olivia CD's are first pressings of PHYSICAL and SOUL KISS, which have the full art work and are pretty snazzy.

As far as my Olivia (and Elton vinyl) go,I've been lucky as I have had pretty much only the vintage pressings which include the original artwork, liner's etc. One exception is a blue sky rainbow label copy of Elton's Tumbleweed Connection, however, curiously it's in the full gatefold sleeve with the bound booklet. I suspect the copy I have is a Frankenstein...I.E....a later pressing sleeved in an older sleeve that belonged to an older copy.

Eventually I'm hoping to track down the UK pressings of Olivia's LP's, particularly from IF NOT FOR YOU through HYNBM, as her early LP releases differ greatly from the US versions, From HYNBM on the releases synched up worldwide.

 

She lived in both The New Forest and Manly so she has my vote. The debating teacher for one of our offspring claims that he dated her, she was apparently a very pleasant person.

 

Olivia's first 3 UK LPs were on the Pye label. She moved to EMI in 1974 for 'Long Live Love' and 'the First Impressions' comp.

Just remember if you're tracking it down, her first album is called 'Olivia Newton-John' here..

I actually saw the HYNBM LP in a charity shop yesterday.. Not often you see something like this as many of Olivia's albums sold next to nothing here..

 

It's funny, but when I first began seriously collecting Olivia, it took me a very long time to track down If Not for You. Even though it had been released in the U.S., it wasn't in print for long, and it was impossible to find, even less than a decade after its release. I had an easier time finding albums that weren't issued in the U.S. -- a local big chain store had First Impressions and Long Live Love from the UK, and I found a shop that sold imports that had Let Me Be There (which was really Music Makes My Day) and Crystal Lady from Japan. I began to think that If Not for You was just some sort of myth, because I couldn't find any trace of it anywhere. I finally located one at a record show maybe two or three years after I started searching for it. These kids today have no idea what it was like to have to track down this stuff in the old days...

Everything on MCA Records remained in print in the U.S. well into the '80s.

 

I have seen the first three Pye LPs here occasionally at flea markets and charity shops. As I said before, none of them sold well so it's surprising they turn up at all.. The only differences here on her first album are the title, and the cover photo, which is a close-up head and shoulders shot of the one used on the Australian and US LPs.

 

This thread hasn't made it into The Long and Winding Treads yet?!?

 

It can't be far away. Either that or they'll scrap it altogether.

 

Here in Norway, all I find in the second-hand vinyl shops... (Well, the one that still exists.) ... are abundant copies of the Polar edition of "Totally Hot", most of them looking fairly mint. I love the album, and I love the Polar label, but I can´t have several copies of one album, now, can I? Seems I can, but I have managed not to buy this particular album several times. But it does go to show that the album was a big seller in 1978/1979, and many have sold off their vinyl copies. I also find a lot of ABBA vinyl, so there might be a connection. Big-selling artists who were replaced on CD.

 

I was looking through my father's vinyl collection last night and found these:

 

Your dad has good taste.

It looks like the If Not For You album has a different sleeve in your neck of the woods..

BTW, Totally Hot is one of her best albums.

 

Yeah, I did a Discogs check, and it seems my father has the German release/cover. http://www.discogs.com/Olivia-Newton-John-If-Not-For-You/release/3036058

I was surprised to find so many Olivia LP's. He also had two Bee Gees, that I could find. 'Sound Of Love' and 'Here At Last...'

 

Not heard those Bee Gees albums. I think 'Here At Last' is live, isn't it?

Does he have any Andy Gibb?!

Surprised he doesn't have Olivia's 'Physical' LP. That was one of her most popular releases... Unless he'd gone off her by then.

 

Yes, 'Here At Last...' is a live LP and 'Sound Of Love' is half of 'Odessa'.

Haha, no I doubt he has anything by Andy, but he might have some Robin. I know he likes 'Saved By The Bell'.

My father is not really that into 'pop music' though, so maybe he felt he had enough Olivia at that point.

 

The "Sound of Love" is probably a compilation made around the "Odessa" album - the song is at least on that album.

Edit: Oops... I saw Marble Index already cleared up that question. Fast little tyke...

 

This guy shows off his Olivia LPs. Shame it's in Spanish (I think).

I noticed he had The Rumour.. Must be a real fan.

 

Did you manage to get Janet's new CD?