Her vocals are amazing on many Soul Kiss tracks. I’d love to hear a mix that puts them more up front. I have a new appreciation for her vocals on Physical and If Not For You thanks to the remasters.
FYI.. Totally Hot (45th Anniversary) is now available to download 24-bit/96 kHz Hi-Res from Qobuz.com: Totally Hot (45th Anniversary), Olivia Newton-John - Qobuz
Soul Kiss remastered too, for what it’s worth. Soul Kiss (Remastered 2023), Olivia Newton-John - Qobuz
The picture disc is a clever move to gauge interest, especially being limited to a run of 1000 copies. The challenge with Olivia is that she just isn’t a big seller and there has to be some financial incentive to invest in the curation of these reissue projects. I’d love to see more in the future but the sales have to justify it, so I appreciate some thinking outside the box here. The Aussie vinyl release of ‘Friends For Christmas’ is a pleasant surprise too. I know it’s not an essential album for most fans, but I enjoy the novelty of having a CD-era album on vinyl for the first time. x
Absolutely. And I would love it if there were some 'alternative mixes' of some of these tracks. It would be interesting to hear them in less synth-heavy, more acoustic settings. I'm also fascinated to know more about the development of the project. In the EPK for Soul Kiss, Olivia mentions that they had found a few songs (and a single) then had a break and found another cluster of songs and then of course found Soul Kiss right at the end and decided to make that the single. From piecing together things gleaned online, it seems that the album was originally going to be called Queen of the Publication (a theory made more believable by the fact that the previously unseen 1984 Greg Gorman photos that appeared on eBay in recent months had 'QOTP' scribbled on the back of them). Was the title track going to be the first single, or was it to be something else? And which songs came first? Acoustically, I have a feeling that QOTP, Emotional Tangle, Driving Music, You Were Great How Was I, Electric, and The Right Moment 'go' together and may have been the early cluster - with Soul Kiss, Toughen Up, Moth To A Flame, Culture Shock, and Overnight Observation coming later - but that's pure speculation. This is the kind of stuff a great liner note could reveal! And why WAS the album's title and aesthetic changed - especially after they seem to have begun the process of acquiring album photo art? I get that they may have felt that Soul Kiss was the best choice for lead single (I'd have gone with Toughen Up, myself) but they could have done that without changing things so dramatically. The most obvious answer is the ascent of Madonna and the early/mid-80s wave of new female pop stars. I've always felt that album cover idea owed more than a little to the aesthetic of Madonna's Like A Virgin LP; and Olivia's hair on the cover owes more than a little to the inspiration of Tina Turner. Was QOTP a lost opportunity for a 'true' Olivia album? Was Soul Kiss a tilt towards feeling the need to 'keep up' with emerging trends? It's a shame that John Farrar and Roger Davies have been conspicuous by their absence in the re-release campaign so far. I'm sure that even if Olivia was still with us, she wouldn't remember (or care to talk about) some of these details - but surely they would? I'm surprised neither has at least given a retrospective interview about their time with Olivia as a means of boosting the re-release campaign. The closest we've got is that excellent Pop Matters article on the Physical album.
Nice. Maybe I will grab this. But is it true that the list price on this is $22.99 for one cd with no extra material?
No sign of the (supposedly) remastered Totally Hot on (U.K.) Spotify today. It’s the same version that’s been there since it first became available on streaming.
Because it’s the U.K. edition, you’ll get charged more where you are. It’d be the same for me if I ordered the US version.
If this is true, I’m glad the Queen Of The Publication version never happened. The song wouldn’t have made a decent single and I don’t think it’s an even a good album title. Of course, I am a little biased as I really hate the squawking on that song. So many of the SK songs are spoiled for me by the vocal choices she made. And while, I don’t think Soul Kiss was a strong single, though I understand why they led with it, I do think it’s a good album title.
Qobuz has the "Totally Hot" 45th Anniversary HiRes remaster available for purchase. I only purchased "A Little More Love" to test the waters. The downloaded artwork has "OLIVIA" in black, but omits the red square outline and anything outside of it. I opened the track in Sound Forge - it is brickwalled and it is an upsample as there is no audio information above 20KHz. Off topic but relevant - the column that Olivia is leaning against on the cover photo is probably just a piece of kitchen countertop laminate adhered to a wooden frame. If you look closely you can see the horizontal seam at Olivia's shoulder - probably a couple of 4 x 8 foot sheets were used.
Just listened to the new Totally Hot reissue on Apple Music. Oddly, A Little More Love is the only track that is in Dolby Atmos, and you can definitely tell they tinkered with the guitars and vocals. Wonder why that is the only track getting the Dolby Atmos treatment?
CD has just arrived. No remastering credits. In fact, the only credits are the ones that were originally on the back of the LP sleeve. There’s an 8 page lyric booklet and the poster is tucked (loosley) inside.
The photos have been retouched as expected. They’re smoother now and she’s considerably ruddier of cheek. Especially on the front cover where she looks positively shame-faced.
I’ve just remembered in high school art class, we had to bring in a favourite LP cover to replicate in paint. I chose Totally Hot, possibly because that and Soul Kiss were the only two Olivia LPs I owned at the time. I don’t know what happened to that painting (I’m sure it wasn’t very good) but I *do* remember my art teacher absolutely slating the album cover designer. “Putting the album title so close to her name is a TERRIBLE design choice! It makes it read like it’s called ‘TOT. AL. LY. HO. T! Rubbish!” This really quite offended her sensibilities, as I recall!
It’s definitely remastered. I’ve compared it to the MCA CD and it’s much louder than that. It’s closer to the 2010 SHM CD, but is fractionally louder than that too! I’ve only played snippets of tracks, but haven’t really listened to it yet. I don’t have any DR numbers, but I’m guessing this will be too loud for some. It sounds a lot ‘fresher’ though, which others will like.
Remember the days when there was one version, one mix, one album artwork? I miss it. At least for the artwork, the Japanese box set replicated the originals. I’m so glad I have it. I resent all of this tinkering by people who weren’t around when the originals were released. I can still remember buying this album the day it was released and holding it in my hands like it was the Holy Grail. Studying it. Reading all the liner notes. And of course, listening to it.
I’ve listened to the Apple Master on iTunes. I know it sounds different, but I’m not exactly sure how. I will leave that to you experts. I’m glad the primary wave version at least sounds “fresher.” I have liked their remastering up till now. I think they do sound fresher, and I hear things I didn’t hear before. Please don’t shoot me. But I guess the actual MCA CD will be different than the Apple remaster that I am listening to on iTunes. So confusing. So many versions.
As of yet, we don’t have the Apple Remaster on iTunes here. It’s just the regular version that’s been there for ages.
