I suppose during the 1978-81 phase, Olivia didn’t ‘need’ the Bee Gees. She was doing so well on her own and probably wouldn’t have wanted to record a Gibb helmed album. Especially as Streisand had done such a superb job with Guilty. By the time Olivia did need a little help, the Bee Gees were in a worst state commercially than she was.
I feel it would have been a hit. I think it would have done better as the third single rather than Landslide. (And, yes, I like Landslide.)
"Carried Away" was a great song, but could never be a single as it was viewed as a "Guilty" reject. I'm sure MCA did not want to promote a song from Olivia that was perceived as one of Streisand's leftovers. The missed opportunity from "Making" was the single's B-side, "I Think I'll Say Goodbye." I am surprised this was not pushed to country since there was nothing country sounding about "Making." "Think" was released twice as a single by other artists in the mid-1970's. But, neither version rivaled Olivia's and certainly neither artist had Olivia's name recognition. I suspect MCA was giving up on Olivia's country career by this point after DSB recorded in Nashville failed to yield a Top 10 country hit. I have wondered whether "Honestly" was able to re-chart just three years after its initial release because of "Argentina." The airplay was not there for "Honestly" - the song only peaked at #49 on the AC chart in 1977. But, did it manage to climb back to #48 on the Hot 100 because more people were interested in its B-side?
I love it too - it's a pity it was never a single. I think it would have done well for her - it would have appealed to 'older' fans who were looking a bit askance at the newfangled upbeat stuff. I believe MCA were thinking about it as a fourth release from Physical, but after the relative failure of Landslide, they moved swiftly on to GHV2 and Heart Attack.
I agree - and it would have kept her Adult Contemporary audience warm. I love Landslide, but a third upbeat single probably wasn't the right choice. Had the Physical album arrived in the post-Thriller era, when it became customary to release multiple singles from one album, I'm sure we'd have had more releases. Almost every song on the album could have (theoretically) worked as a single, with the possible exceptions of The Promise, Love Make Me Strong, Falling, and Recovery (the latter of which is one of my favourites, but it's a bit too 'odd' for radio, I think.)
Yes, it would have looked a bit like she was aping Babs had she gone straight into a Gibb-helmed album. Mind you, it didn't stop Dionne Warwick, although Heartbreaker charted surprisingly low on the Billboard charts (#25) considering the profile of the lead single. I think the time for her to have worked with them would have been immediately after Grease. They were all hot then. Had she moved to RSO for the post-Grease album, we may have seen some Gibb-involvement there. 'Rest Your Love On Me' (with Andy) and 'Emotion' (with the Bee Gees) could probably have slotted fairly comfortably on Totally Hot. (I'd have booted 'Gimme Some Lovin'' for either of those, frankly!)
Was that known at the time, though? I'm not sure it was. Apparently it was teed up to be the fourth single, but they moved on to GHV2 and ditched that plan. If they were to have released it, it should have been second or third release. I'd have gone with Stranger's Touch first, though. To me, THAT was the huge missed opportunity. Brilliant song, and brilliant video. I think I read somewhere that MAMOM wasn't their original choice for a follow-up to Physical, but they went with it because audiences loved it. It explains why it was given such a banal video by comparison to some of the other tracks that weren't singles!
Make a Move on Me was a great choice for a single. I love that song (one of my faves by her) and connected to it the first time I played the album. Catchy as heck. It is annoying that they didn’t have faith in it when making the videos. Shame they didn’t try to quickly cobble something together for a new video when the decision was made to release it. Doing a couple of songs in the same club setting cheapened the Physical Video Album a tad. It made them look like throwaways.
The ones that worked best were the ones that had some variation - I like that the club went back in time to the 40s in the Stranger's Touch video, and that it's all shrouded in cobwebs in Hopelessly Devoted To You... but MAMOM, Magic, A Little More Love and Love Make Me Strong are all just variations of the same video. They could have at least allowed her to change her frock!
I agree - I just wonder if they thought it might be single 3 or 4 originally. I suspect Landslide would have done better than it did if it had been released second (it did reasonably well as second single in the UK, which was a harder market for her at the time) but it probably wouldn't have done as well as MAMOM in terms of radio play. It's weird that MAMOM was her last ever million-seller.
Landslide was always my favourite song from the album. It wasn’t until I spoke to non Olivia fans who moaned about the shrillness, the harsh vocals and the annoying violin/synth stabs that I realised perhaps it wasn’t ideal single material after all. But Stranger’s Touch was robbed. Great song and a strong video too. I like MMAOM, but would have preferred ST as second single.
It’s not odd. It’s a great song. Her albums and singles took a sharp nose dive in quality soon after. Two of a Kind was the last grouping of tracks that I loved by her but, sadly, wasn’t even an entire side of music. I would have loved an entire album of Twist of Fate type pop songs. That would have been totally hot.
I wonder sometimes if she'd have had any more gold singles if the threshold had been 500,000 instead of 1,000,000 during her heyday. I mean, what a run: Gold (1,000,000) Let Me Be There If You Love Me (Let Me Know) I Honestly Love You Have You Never Been Mellow Please Mr. Please You're the One That I Want Hopelessly Devoted to You Summer Nights A Little More Love Magic Physical Make a Move On Me Platinum (2,000,000) You're The One That I Want Physical I think she definitely could've gotten 50ok gold certifications for "Xanadu," "Heart Attack," and "Twist of Fate." Maybe "Sam" because it had a longer run than its #20 peak indicated. Maybe "Something Better to Do" on sheer momentum. What else? "Deeper Than The Night?" "I Can't Help It"? I was hoping this reissue campaign would get her album certs updated, too. Hard to believe that those early albums aren't at least platinum, and that Hits #2 and Physical aren't at least triple platinum by now.
I like Landslide but agree with the description you gave it. I played Stranger’s Touch for my non-Olivia music friends and they all loved it. Another lost ONJ hit.
Looking back, the tide started to turn with the 2 new GHV2 songs. OK, they didn’t have to be amazing, but were especially mediocre after the Physical album. The videos weren’t great either. As for the TOAK soundtrack, the only song I really thought stood out was Twist Of Fate. I think I associate the TOAK songs with the movie itself. Such a dark time for Olivia fans.
It wasn’t my description, it was what my friends said. But when they said what they did, it made me understand why the song underperformed in most territories. Full-on Olivia isn’t for everyone.
I never met or saw Olivia, but I did get to work on several projects with John Farrar. He was a great guy. As a result of working with him, he gave Thom Wilson and I a shot at mixing You're The One That I Love from Grease, but they went in another direction, largely I believe because of politics. Oh well, that was the closest I ever got to a #1 record.
I don't mean odd in the sense that it shouldn't have been, it definitely deserved that status - I mean odd that it was the last one of her run. Heart Attack and Twist of Fate deserved that merit too. Although I prefer Twist of Fate, I'm more surprised that Heart Attack didn't hit a million. Wasn't it at #3 on Billboard for a month or something like that?
This has got me reminiscing back to the days before I had ANY clue which of Olivia's songs had charted, or how high, or in which territories. I had a sense of which had been hits from her 1982 Olivia's Greatest Hits compilation in the UK, but other than that... For a good portion of my early ONJ-fandom, I was sure that Landslide must have been one of her biggest hits (mainly because I loved it, the video was so memorable, and I had seen it at least three times on UK TV). I was also sure that Silvery Rain must have been a big hit too - again, amazing video, and she sang it in her live show. When I first got books of UK Chart Hits and Billboard Hot 100 hits, I was in for some surprises! Of course, some of those were very pleasant - a whole plethora of US hits I had never even heard of.
That’s it!! John should have penned a song title “Full On” it would have helped fill in the Two of a Kind soundtrack with more pop hits from Olivia. Full On…Baby, I’ve been robbed Full On…Baby, I’m just so clever Full On…Baby, here comes the mob Full On…Baby, chicken livers forever…
They must have run out of cash lol Still she looked so hot in those videos even if the club atmosphere was the same.
Yes, Billboard noted that "Carried Away" was written for "Guilty" in its review of the "Physical" album when it was released. The Bee Gees were a bit toxic at the time "Physical" was released. Their "Living Eyes" album and its singles all bombed at that time. I wonder if this also worked against "Carried Away" becoming a single. Ultimately, I think MCA was not interested in releasing a ballad from Olivia at that time. They worked too hard establishing a new image for Olivia and probably thought it was too soon to release a single that sounded like something she could have released in her pre-"Grease" years...although we would have never seen a video like the one for "Carried Away" in Olivia's Sandy 1 years!
