I'm a fan of Don, he made some great stuff. Pie was a great song, but not even my favourite off the album..... His double album solo live is fantastic... and I love the song chain lightening
Her Don McLean and David Gates covers from those early albums are fantastic. I've always preferred that folky-sounding stuff over the more country-oriented songs she recorded on those early albums. We didn't get to hear much of that here in the U.S., since her first two albums on MCA were made up of the most country-sounding of the songs from her UK releases.
I feel the same way - the folk-oriented material on the first three studio albums are the ones I always return to. I know a lot of those songs were covers but Olivia gave lovely, if not necessarily defining, performances of them. I love her take on 'Winterwood'. x
I was over at a friend of my Dad's house. He had a Marantz 4270, a Dual turntable, and a set of Bose 901 Series II's set up perfectly. He put on Olivia's "Come on Over" album. Man was I ever impressed! Not only the sound quality, but that beautiful voice coming out of that system. I became an ONJ fan right then and there. I have most of her albums from back in those days (and even duplicates). She is a class act. Much love.
My memory is somewhat hazy, but I'm pretty sure that I was brought to tears when I first heard her version of Greensleeves. I know that Don't Throw It All Away has had that effect on me on subsequent listens. So many magical moments on that album!
One of my big musical "what ifs?" is: What would have happened had John Rostill lived? He wrote Let Me Be There, If You Love Me (Let Me Know), and Please Mr. Please. I wonder how Livvy's music would have evolved had she had more Rostill songs to draw on in the mid-70s.
The great title cut by the Bee Gees is sensational. Her vocal is just a wonder of understated beauty. That gentle rhythm guitar and fantastic bass that drive that wonderful melody along is one sonic delight to listen to and I never get tired of playing it.
Finally a proper Appreciation thread for Olivia! Quite simply put,she is one of the greatest,and possibly the most criminally underrated female singer of all time. Looking back at her accomplishments and the barriers she broke through for those that followed her it's really a shame that in general outside of us fans she is known mostly for Grease, the Physical single, and her journeys with breast cancer. She wasn't a flash in the pan pop Star like many of her contemporaries, she had a chart career spanning nearly two decades (1971-1991) and many albums and singles before Grease even was a possibility for her. It niggles me that so many people think her career began with Grease and ended shortly after Physical. I try my best to inform those that think that! Most importantly and impressively, the biggest reason I'm a loyal fan of Olivia now going on 22 years is of who she is. Talented singers are a dime a dozen, but there are so few that are not only top tier talents but also top tier people. Olivia is one of those rare gems. With all she's accomplished, with all she's experienced and all she's struggled through and still deals with, it has not jaded her or made her cynical or egotistical or affected who she is. By all accounts she's still the lovely "girl next door" and all round good person. Truly beautiful inside and out. I'm not a religious person, but I say a prayer for her daily. I want her around with us on this planet awhile longer. It may sound cliche' ,but this world needs more people like her.
People throw the word iconic around a lot when speaking about singers in popular music, but she had all the vocal talent, charisma, and beauty that an icon must have in order to have a career that lasts decades instead of months or years. Kenny Rogers once said that you are really lucky if your popularity in the music world lasts more than two or three years. Olivia maintained a legacy over the course of four or five decades.
I think it's universally acknowledged that 'Come On Over' is a particularly sensational album from an audiophile point of view. It's not my favourite Olivia album, but it is exquisitely produced and on a sonic level feels like a real leap forward from its predecessor 'Clearly Love'. The soundstage is wide and rich throughout. You can definitely hear John Farrar refining his craft as a producer on that album. x
I'm going to be the contrarian on this thread and say I absolutely can't stand "Banks of the Ohio". I find the lyrics (especially the constantly repeated "walk" in the opening verse) so lame that I can't enjoy it at all. I was surprised to hear that it was a modest hit in America as I never heard it even once on the radio. My second contrarian opinion is that "Come On Over" is always in my top 2 favorite Olivia albums. It contains my second favorite vocal entrance by a singer ever in the "Here we go..." on "Don't Throw it All Away" (first is Karen Carpenter on "Only Yesterday"). Other than those little issues I have loved Olivia since I was a child. I still remember getting "Totally Hot" on 8 track for Christmas and forcing everyone to listen to it in the car on our way to my nana's for Christmas dinner. My mother played her 8 track of "If You Love Me, Let Me Know" constantly and I would guess that's when the love affair started (I still find it hard to believe that the cd of that is out of print and so hard to find considering how successful the album was). I've seen Olivia in concert twice-several years ago in Atlantic City and again about a year ago at the State Theater in Easton, Pa. Someone upthread had mentioned that "Physical" is often absent from lists of great 80's pop albums and, weirdly enough, if someone asks me my favorite 80's albums I don't think I would ever mention it. Not that I think it is "timeless", but I don't think that it is bogged down with the things people think of when they think of 80's albums. It's not synthesizer drenched, it isn't new wave and it isn't easy listening. It's just a near perfect pop album that I don't think belongs to any particular time and can be enjoyed as much now as when it was first released. I think it should also be noted that if it wasn't for Olivia, there would have been no Sheena Easton and no Taylor Swift. As far as I can tell, Olivia was the first to make such a drastic image and sound change in their career and was able to ride it into the stratosphere.
In 2001, Olivia was scheduled for concert here in Dallas, so at the last minute I decided to go see if I could get a seat. The performance that day of Come On Over absolutely floored me. This was in a symphony hall with very little amplification. The accompaniment was two backup singers and an acoustic guitar. It was so beautiful I think I remember there being a couple seconds of silence after it was over, before we all remembered it was time for the applause. I’ve never been in an audience before or since that seemed to be so enamored with the star of the show.
It was I who initiated the Ronstadt thread. Olivia was my first love. Literally my first crush and my first favorite female artist. Have You Never Been Mellow remains an all time favorite song and the Physical album is pop perfection. I saw her live in Pittsburgh in 1982 when I was 12. The HBO special from the sane tour from Austin is a phenomenal show. I was always impressed with how well she pulled off choreography while not being a dancer, especially in Xanadu. She always had such natural charm. We all know about the magic of Grease, but Xanadu and even Two Of A Kind, she was always magnetic. Her voice was angelic. She too could pull of multiple genres but song selection is important. A lot of her attempts at contemporary covers of Country and Rock fall flat while others are golden.
I got myself my first "nice" turntable in 1980, and the first thing I wanted to play on it was the song "Come On Over" because of its incredible sonics. The bass part shook the walls of the house! I always used that song to test and/or show off any sound system upgrades I made over the years. The day I bought my first CD player in 1984, I also bought ONJ's Greatest Hits 1 & 2 on CD, and I went straight to "Come on Over" to test out the sound from the CD player. It was phenomenal!
That special was indeed fantastic and I saw her on the same tour as well in Irvine, California. I believe the HBO special was taken from a show in Ogden, Utah, if I am remembering correctly.
I think that's right. It definitely wasn't Austin. I remember the irony of that special being filmed in Utah after some radio stations there had banned the song "Physical" from the airwaves.
There was an appreciation thread a few years back (created by someone else). For some reason it didn’t get used much and was closed! I thought it might be time for a new one. The Yay or Nay thread is huge now and has become a kind of all-things-ONJ affair. In fact when someone new answers the Yay or Nay question, it feels out of place and it takes me a moment to realise what they’re talking about.
I guess she yells Hello Ogden at the beginning and not Austin. You can see how they sound similar and since Austin was also one of the cities.
I think all of Olivia’s 70s and 80s CDs sound great. The UK EMI and US MCA ones of course. The only one that has a touch of distortion is Long Live Love, and the 2010 Japanese SHM CD kind of rectified that. Undoubtedly the best sounding of the lot is Come On Over. Just technically fantastic and Olivia in perfect voice throughout.
By 1976 Olivia’s success was starting to flag a little in the States. Come On Over seemed to be an attempt to reinvent her as a mature and serious balladeer. Perhaps trying to recreate the feel (and big record sales) of I Honestly Love You. When I bought the LP I liked it, but not as much as HYNBM and Music Makes My Day. I feel that at 27 she should have been trying to branch out into more upbeat pop territory, but I suppose she and John Farrar were afraid of upsetting (what was left of) the apple cart. Luckily with Grease a couple of years later, she’d be given the perfect opportunity to upgrade her sound. The transition between Making A Good Thing Better and Totally Hot would have been almost impossible without the movie.
