Olivia Newton-John Appreciation Thread.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Bobby Morrow, Feb 10, 2019.

  1. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Soul Kiss was a major flop, and got its gold certification from overshipments for the holidays. It was in cutout bins for years.

    Don’t Stop Believin’ was a bit more successful than its predecessor, Come On Over, because of “Sam” and her first big television special.
     
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  2. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

    Location:
    USA
    I understand how you feel. Luckily it’s just a couple of albums, unlike the Beatles that had more different releases. At first, I didn’t know about the original Pye releases. I found out about them accidentally. There was no internet back then. I went to the opening of a brand new Peaches record store by me. They had a giant import section (something new to me) and I found Long Live Love and that started my research and search for her import albums.

    Oddly, I found First Impressions in an US department store in a cutout bin. It was so cheap I bought all three copies.

    I think I learned about Australia’s Great Hits from an Olivia music sheet book and that there was a color vinyl variant that I eventually found.

    My first copy of the import version of Let Me Be There album was the version I ordered from Japan. I was thrilled to see the different cover. I didn’t know about that or the track list.

    If PW keeps doing the US reissues, the bonus disc will capture the stray tracks, though it would be interesting if they released the US AND the UK versions of these albums together. That would make me happy.
     
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  3. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

    Location:
    USA
    I’m still numb. I haven’t been able to play her music. I opened up my copy of INFY, looked at it and placed it on the shelf. Maybe next year I’ll be able to revisit her music.
     
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  4. leicbri

    leicbri Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham, UK
    I’m noticing another side effect (from a personal perspective) of Olivia’s life and career having reached their culmination: now that I can see it all “in the round”, I’m much more accepting of choices I saw as major career mis-steps at the time.

    For example, I really wasn’t impressed with the Warm and Tender era back in 1989. I saw it as tantamount to driving a stake through the heart of her chance for a serious pop comeback.

    Now, I look at it and just see it for what it was: the work of a woman who had already far surpassed her expectations of popularity and success, and who was increasingly intent on following her heart and her artistic muse. I can enjoy it now at a level I never could at the time.

     
  5. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    I agree. I was disappointed at the time as well, but looking back with the benefit of so many articles and videos now available online, it’s obvious how much of the big pop moves were out of a sense of obligation, even successful ones like the Physical tour. That 1985 Billboard interview where she straight up says that Soul Kiss wasn’t the album she wanted to make. The social consciousness of most tracks on The Rumour. The signs were there that she was ready to leave that world behind and make music that was more meaningful to her.

    I just wish the compilations that were meant to solidify her legacy had not all been derailed by horrible timing. Back to Basics by the cancer diagnosis, canceling the tour. Magic by its horrific release date of September 11, 2001. And now the Primary Wave reissues of her hits collections, which are arriving months after her death and weren’t available for casual fans and curious listeners to stream.
     
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  6. leicbri

    leicbri Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham, UK
    Another factor that comes to mind is that we know now something we didn’t know at the time: she did honour her own musical legacy by never ‘disowning’ it, and by touching on it in her live shows.

    By the late 80s, I wondered if she maybe actively disliked her pop era, and would never speak of it again! That fear wasn’t entirely disabused when she first returned to touring and tended to focus on her early songs; but in later years she seemed happy to embrace ALL of her history.

    In fact, it’s of particular poignance to consider that the final thing she promoted during her lifetime was the re-release of the Physical album.

    I’m with you on the hits collection issue. I still think PW missed a trick by not commissioning a whole new hits anthology. (But who knows what’s coming?)
     
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  7. Rosewater

    Rosewater Forum Resident


    Okay, so then we'll take the other songs that were never released in the US as bonus tracks on the other CDs, i was hoping for the UK/AUS chronologically order, but this will be fine too as long the sound is good enought for me. :)

    Yes i deside to skip the Japan Greatest Hits for now, maybe i will change my mind someday, but for now it's a big pass for me. :)
     
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  8. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Regardless of what Primary Wave does, all the files will be organized in my library to reflect the UK/Australia releases. I kept the US artwork for If Not For You, though!

    I personally think that they should double up the studio albums from the 70s, with bonus tracks on each disc.
    • Olivia/Let Me Be There
    • Long Live Love/Have You Never Been Mellow
    • Clearly Love/Come On Over
    • Don’t Stop Believin’/Making a Good Thing Better
     
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  9. TimM

    TimM Senior Member

    If they are determined to try to make everything a "deluxe" edition, your idea would be a good one. It is very hard for me to picture most of her individual albums being worthy of a deluxe edition on their own, but combining two of them together might make it feel like good value to some people.
     
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  10. David Campbell

    David Campbell Forum Resident

    Location:
    Luray, Virginia
    Yeah. Its almost two months now and it still is a little hard to wrap my head around that she isn't here with us. I was born in 1979 and she's literally has always been out there in the world. And...now she's not. It definitely reminds you that nothing is forever.

    Having these reissues is really a gift and is a way to celebrate her career and life. The consolation i have is that she's at peace now and no longer in pain.
     
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  11. NoYesMaybe

    NoYesMaybe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montreal
    Really? I have been listening to her music as much as I ever been since her passing...
     
  12. NoYesMaybe

    NoYesMaybe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montreal
    I pre-ordered both Greatest Hits so I'll let you know... I am not so sure about the 65$ Japanese SHM-CD one anymore but Paypal already took my money so...
     
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  13. NoYesMaybe

    NoYesMaybe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montreal
    I bought a CD on eBay from the UK last Thursday and I just received it! Almost as fast as Amazon and it was plain regular mail... I am impressed!
     
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  14. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    Good idea to speed up the releases and offer value for money.

    But I don’t like two-fers. They seem ‘budget’ to me and I always feel shortchanged by them.

    I just know if this happened I’d look down on the releases and they wouldn’t feel official to me.

    Though hopefully Primary Wave would do a better than those 2 weak MCA efforts in the 80s.

    :)
     
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  15. SCan

    SCan Well-Known Member

    Location:
    New York, NY
    It would make sense for Primary Wave to follow Olivia's American discography after "If Not You You." Both "Let Me Be There" and "If You Love Me Let Me Know" were # 1 country albums and yielded Grammy winning songs. Of course, "If" also topped the Billboard 200. Her albums overseas during this era did not rival the success she was having in the United States. The tracks never released in the US that were on "Olivia," "Let Me Be There/Music Makes My Day" and "Long Live Love" could easily add to the original albums and/or fill out bonus discs on deluxe editions of these US albums. The songs from those albums that were unreleased in the US include:

    Olivia
    1. If We Only Have Love
    2. Winterwood
    3. My Old Man's Got A Gun
    4. I'm A Small And Lonely Light
    5. Why Don't You Write Me
    6. Behind That Locked Door
    7. What Is Life
    8. Everything I Own
    9. Living In Harmony
    10. I Will Touch You
    Let Me Be There/Music Makes My Day
    1. Amoureuse
    2. Brotherly Love
    3. Heartbreaker
    4. Rosewater
    5. Feeling Best
    6. Being On The Losing End
    7. Music Makes My Day
    8. Leaving
    9. If We Try
    Long Live Love
    1. Angel Eyes
    2. Someday
    3. Loving You Ain't Easy
    4. Have Love Will Travel
    5. Hands Across The Sea
    6. Long Live Love
    Add in the B-sides that never made an album ("Maybe Then I'll Think Of You" and the original "Sail Into Tomorrow") and...fingers crossed!...some unknown treasures none of us know about and I believe this is what we should expect.
     
  16. Rosewater

    Rosewater Forum Resident

    I think i will keep my UK and AUS releases apart from the US releases, so i can experience the albums both differend ways.

    I don't know abour double up the studio albums, but releasing them with some new bonus and unreleased songs is something i really like to see.
     
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  17. Rosewater

    Rosewater Forum Resident

    Okay, yes please let me know how the album looks and sounds like, the cd here coast around 21,- euro and the vinyl coast 53,- euro, that's a lot for a album with songs that we all know already, maybe the vinyl will have some suprise for us.
     
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  18. Rosewater

    Rosewater Forum Resident

    Yes i'm all for speeding up the releases but like you i don't like two -fers releases too, they look like a cheap budget release indeed, I just want them to see releasing them separate.
     
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  19. xanadude

    xanadude Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis
    The real credit should go to Vinny Vero. These have a been a labor of love (for his work, and as a friend of Olivia's) for him. PW just puts it out, he pulled it all together, with Olivia's help/direction.
     
  20. xanadude

    xanadude Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis
    While I can't tell you what song it is, I will say it was Olivia's final recording (done Dec 21/Jan 22)
     
  21. leicbri

    leicbri Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham, UK
    I think it may have been a bit earlier than that - one of the Dolly news sites was reporting it a few months earlier, and I seem to recall they picked it up from an even earlier announcement. Unless of course, they had heard the rumour but the duet hadn't yet been recorded?

    [​IMG]
     
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  22. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    I remember all the promo Olivia and Chloe did for Window In The Wall in January 2021. It was the best I’d seen Olivia look in years. She was so bright and full of life and clearly really believed in the song and was thrilled to be working with her daughter.

    Sadly it wasn’t long after that she practically disappeared. She did some promotion for the Physical deluxe later that year, but it was obvious by then that her health had taken a turn for the worse.

    Looking forward to the Dolly duet.
     
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  23. Chris_Sydney

    Chris_Sydney Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    I’m all for following the US release order because it means we will get to enjoy that beautiful ‘If You Love Me, Let Me Know’ artwork all over again. As an album it plays much better than the US ‘Let Me Be There’ which always felt like an odd bastardisation of her debut, but to be fair I don’t think the UK ‘Olivia’ would be considered one of her best early albums by many folks either. Get the deluxe ‘Let Me Be There’ out next year and let’s then move forward with the other anniversary releases!

    The Dolly duet will be a treat. I believe there are some other surprises to look forward to as it was being treated as a major ‘new’ release for Olivia rather than just a catalogue project. It will be bittersweet for the album to be released without her but it will be an enjoyable rollout when it happens.


    x
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2022
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  24. Chris_Sydney

    Chris_Sydney Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    He did an excellent job on the release.

    I also want to give Bob Stanley a shout out for that fantastic liner essay. Not only is it the first time an Olivia inlay features the ‘f’ word (!) he provides thoughtful, interesting commentary on the music that presents it as a significant body of work. So much of Olivia’s catalogue is underappreciated or, in some cases, ignored altogether, so I found it moving to read glowing commentary where songs like ‘In A Station’, ‘Lullaby’ and ‘If I Gotta Leave’ are taken seriously.


    x
     
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  25. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Got my estimated Amazon delivery dates for ONJ GH Deluxe (US Edition.)

    - CD coming to NYC - October 26 (ordered on 8.20)
    - CD going to Kentucky - November 9 (ordered on 10.2)
    - Vinyl coming to NYC - Delivery Date Pending (ordered on 8.20)
     

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