But I bet you appreciated it when you did get it! I’ve never been able to get a legit copy of Barry Gibb’s Now Voyager. Every CD I’ve seen has been a bootleg. It’s not even that good of an album, but it’s so annoying that I can’t find it.
Happy the search is over, geesh... There's a few promo singles I've been after for decades, it's one thing when an astronomical price is set to it, but when zero even show face ever you start to question your sanity I'll keep an eye out for that Gibb for you when my locals start opening back up!
Yeah. Back in the '80s, I went to the local record stores every week to check out the new releases. Any time I spotted a new Olivia CD in the racks, I'd grab it. Some titles were kept in stock for a couple of years, but others seemed to be gone for good within a month or two. Some titles I swear I only saw one time -- when I bought them -- and then never again.
I was even more lucky than I thought then. In 1987 the only Olivia CDs available here were Soul Kiss and Olivia’s Greatest Hits (the 15 track one). I’d seen an advert in Record Collector for a company who imported US CDs to the U.K so I wrote to them asking for a list and there was a whole batch of albums by her, Linda Ronstadt and The Carpenters! Some titles were missing from Olivia’s list like Have You Never Been Mellow and Making A Good Thing Better, but they came along a couple of years later. I hate to say it but when they came I was disappointed with the packaging on most of Olivia’s titles... You could tell they hadn’t put much thought into them. As I recall, the best looking one one the first GH. At least that had all the original artwork.
Yeah, having access to a number of large chain record stores in a couple of big cities was a huge advantage for CD shopping back then. I think Have You Never Been Mellow was one that I never saw again after I bought it. Seems like the stand-alone Don't Stop Believin' was another that was quite scarce. The 2-on-1 albums stuck around longer, if I recall correctly. The day I bought my first CD player in 1984, I picked up GH1 and 2 at the same store. They were quite nice -- nicer than most of the later MCA releases in terms of packaging -- and they sounded so great on CD. I was disappointed with the artwork on all the later MCA releases, too, up until Physical. I don't recall any other labels putting out such shoddy artwork at the time, either. Seems like most labels gave you decent artwork to go along with the premium price you paid for the CDs, but not MCA with their "Compact Disc Compact Price" line. I don't recall the MCA releases being any cheaper than anything else, either. Back in the '80s, almost every single-disc CD was $14.99 here. (With the lies from the record labels that CDs would get cheaper as more people bought CD players.) Funny how the artwork on those MCA CDs doesn't seem so bad when you compare them to the Festival remasters! At least we have the Japanese box set of mini-LPs to give us some really nice artwork on Olivia's catalog.
The mini LP replicas are quite beautiful for Olivia's 40th Anniversary Collection. It remains one of my very favorite CD box sets out of the dozens in my music library. The sound is pretty grand too in my opinion. Wow, and I managed to get number 40 in like new condition, and I did not have to take a loan out on the home to buy it. I see they are listed on Discogs for close to one thousand dollars right now, and I see none available on eBay at the moment.
Yes, the (minimal) cover art they used on the MCA CDs was mostly of good quality. Apart from Come On Over and Clearly Love (too dark) and MAGTB (unnecessarily cropped front cover). My GHV2 has a pink background with ‘Fed Up’ wrongly listed on the back. I’m assuming this wasn’t the original release.
Just bought this Japanese edition of Olivia’s GHV2. Olivia Newton-John = オリビア・ニュートン・ジョン* - Olivia's Greatest Hits Vol.2 = O.N.J.グレイテスト・ヒッツ Vol.2 Looking at the photos on Discogs, mine seems to be missing the picture of her laying back with her eyes closed (6th pic along). Was this a poster included with the CD or just a mistake on Discogs? Mine has the full booklet with lyrics. No OBI obviously.
Anyone know the answer to the above question? I know some of you Olivia die-hards will have that Japanese CD.
I have that one, too (black triangle!), but I don't have the photo you reference there. It must have been included as a separate insert -- or not all the copies of the CD included it.
Thanks. I suppose it could be a mistake. Like the poster they have listed as part of the 2010 Clearly Love SHM CD package...
I watched Hollywood Nights on youtube last night, which I’d never seen before and a really great performance of Magic on Midnight Special (I think). She sounded great on both and on the Magic performance was surprisingly sexy.
Hi everybody! I have the LP version of the same item and I have to say the "eyes closed" picture looks suspiciously like the one in the gatefold spread. Tracklisting is the same as the CD's incidentally - halfway between the meagre US 10 songs and the European 20 songs versions of the album ( it contained pre Grease hits too).
It’s a great sounding CD. As you’d expect. Nice to get the edited version of Landslide too. Haven’t had that on CD before.
