Olivia Newton-John Single by Single Thread

This so deserves a mention, Shaking You from the Two of a Kind soundtrack. Olivia did an official video. I love love this song!! It's leaves me melancholy her vocals are so nice here. She belts it out on the 2 singles above but brings it home on this ballad.

 

That was the problem with laserdisc I remember when I had them that once it's there it's there. My physical laserdisc had it but it was still a sharp picture but lots of random artifacts especially at the beginning or end of the disc it seemed.

 

It seems since this thread I have learned a lot of stuff I didn't know. I'll probably get the Face to Face single 45 just because I want to hear how it sounds on vinyl or maybe better off to get the LP. I also just bought the Japan 45 of Twist of Fate which includes the live version of Jolene which is the same as it was for the UK. I didn't know about this live version and she nailed it in concert. It shipped so I should get it next week.

 

Mine did too so I had to import the Japanese LD of Physical. It still plays perfectly but it's a CLV instead of a CAV such as the US one.

 

Yes. I've learned a lot too. I also learned I need to play everything that I buy. I can't believe the hidden treasures that's on some of her 45s!!

 

Before we move onto the next studio album of singles, I thought it was important to indicate that Olivia appeared on the live broadcast of the 1984 Olympics to sing, I Still Call Australia Home which was broadcast to the US via satellite. I really like this song and wondered why it didn't appear on any CD's as it sounds like a studio recording.

 

And Dare to Dream

 

I recorded this special, and I was SO thrilled to hear Olivia singing something that was unfamiliar. It's a great song written by Peter Allen. It absolutely should have been a single, at the very least. It's certainly sitting in a vault somewhere, and it's unfortunate that it has never turned up as a bonus track anywhere. They could have even used it for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

 

Since we are covering her recording career in chronological order before I put up the next single, I was wondering how many of you got to visit her retail store, Koala Blue she opened in 1983/84. I recorded the entire show when she was on Merv Griffin where she opened her store on Melrose Ave. It was also a plug in for her movie Two of a Kind. When it aired, I found out a couple years later that she was going to open a store in Boca Raton FL just an hour or so from where I lived. I visited that store about 10 times, I even sat at the Aussie Milk Bar and had several Aussie milkshakes (that are quite different than US milkshakes) I bought a Koala Blue watch still have but doesn't work several t shirts and a sweatshirt, coffee mug and other cool stuff. I remember sitting at the Milk Bar asking so will Olivia show up? lol They said it's possible, I was so naive.

 

Here is the next U.S. single....I hope to read some interesting reviews here

Oct 1985
Soul Kiss
Electric (b side)

Soul Kiss (Promo Stereo)

 

Billboard Soul Kiss Lp Review Oct 12, 1985



Billboard Image Change Article Oct 19, 1985

 

Billboard Soul Kiss Single Promo Ad Debut Single Sept 28, 1985



Billboard Soul Kiss Promo Ad Oct 05, 1985

 

Billboard Soul Kiss Phonogram Promo Ad Oct 26, 1985

 

I became a fan with Physical and by the time Soul Kiss was out I had caught up with most of Olivia's previous exploits. So I was rooting for a big comeback when this came out. I was lucky to score a US vinyl (which was not easy to find when living in Seoul, Korea in the 1980s) within a week of the release and listened to the album from start to finish hoping to hear a hit. Alas, I was disappointed to find "a mixed bag of soft rockers and ballads."

However, I came to like this bag and in particular the single eventually and I still listen to it from time to time. The gorgeous pictures on the LP really add to the experience, too, I gotta admit.

 

The album cover pic is great, though it now looks really dated in that 80's way, but I still like it.

 

If you notice the 45 single of Soul Kiss is an edited version of the album track, has this 7" version ever appeared on CD? I have the 12" LP but don't believe the 7" appears on that one.

The article above pretty much confirms directly from Olivia that they were going into Soul Kiss trying to mimic what occurred with Physical in that it was suppose to be a video to accompany each of the songs. I will say that Olivia's vocals on Soul Kiss are probably at the height of her career, just listen to the entire album and you can hear her reach some notes I never thought possible with such strength and in some cases much emotion. I still think the hidden gem on the entire album is "Emotional Tangle"

Ashlee mentioned the photos are terrific and I think actually compliment the content of the songs. I think for the time, this material was very adult content coming from Olivia, where Physical kinda played off the lyrical content with exercise, Soul Kiss is really right out there and direct, then with Culture Shock, yeah that was a shock. Ha

The b side, Electric is really great, I was so happy to finally get this on CD much later actually as I didn't get the German CD with this track as a bonus.

 

I love the album jacket. Stylish, sultry. Never understood the hate for it.

Sadly, I don't feel the same about the song, Soul Kiss. This is my least favorite A side by her. I can't stand it. The moment I first heard it I thought game over. And it pretty much was.

The B side is a different story. I enjoy Electric. With this being the age of music videos, there wasn't much chance for this B to become the A. Probably wouldn't have done much better. I think Olivia's time was up. The 45 picture sleeve didn't help any. Very dreary, creepy shots.

 

Again, another single edit I never noticed. I really need to finish doing needle drops of her singles!

 

Never been to one. I always wanted to and bought a mug on eBay. They were scheduled to open a franchise in my city but then the wheels fell off. I got the promotional material they gave to potential investors. When things went south I thought I read somewhere that the company suggested that folks who bought a franchise should not have invested based solely on Olivia's involvement. (Can't argue with that.) Still, that promotional material pushed her brand as a selling point.

 

I think maybe people didn't like it as it was very different for Olivia, she wasn't even smiling. I agree with you that by this time Olivia's time was up really.
And so is mine. Somebody obviously does not want me on this thread as two of my most recent posts have been reported, so I am bailing out to save them the bother of having to do it again.
Bye everyone and see you on some of the other threads.

 

I didn't even know what Koala Blue was until this week. I had to look it up!

It's an interesting interview with her. Strange to hear Toughen Up referred to as a ballad that was passed over for Soul Kiss, which sounds more like a ballad to me.

I think for me, this period was definitely style over substance. Davies really sent her two bummers with Soul and Toughen. His focus was clearly on Tina and Olivia was getting the cast offs. If this was the best of material on the table I'd have looked a lot harder and if my manager sent me those two songs we'd have been having a frank conversation about his priorities. All said, they're still the best two songs on the record. Moth To A Flame, with a better chorus/a proper chorus, could maybe have done something.

Soul Kiss is actually a very pretty song, beautifully produced, but such a downer track to launch an album. It was at best a 3rd single from an album. It at least needed a vibrant picture sleeve to stand out and it didn't even get that on the 7". She looked like she was off to grannies funeral. The lovely red shot though looked stunning on 12".

I don't even remember Soul Kiss as a UK single. It got zero promo here.

The b-side, which I only heard on the CD, was ok. Nice I'm sure to get a non album b-side for a change.

So, a single that sold on goodwill, and the album probably lost MCA a ton of cash.

 

I wasn't much of a fan of "Soul Kiss" (the single or the album). It was OK, but it just seemed like an odd song. I was well aware of the controversy surrounding it, but the controversy didn't seem to have the impact it did with "Physical," which was to increase the song's popularity. With "Soul Kiss," the controversy seemed passé, tired, unoriginal.

"Electric," the b-side, was a different story for me. I loved it! Partly because it was a non-album track in the U.S. (I didn't get the Mercury CD from Europe until a couple of years later), and partly because it was just a fun song that felt more in line with what Olivia had been doing in the '80s.

The 12" remix of "Soul Kiss" wasn't much better. It was very different, for sure, but I just never really warmed up to the song. It's still one of my least favorite tracks on the album. Here's the 12" extended remix:

 

Also, it illustrate my point on sub-par material. It's worth noting the guy who wrote Soul Kiss also co-wrote Automatic for The Pointer Sisters. I'd have wanted an Automatic quality song from him.

 

I never made it to the original location on Melrose in L.A., but a good friend went to the L.A. Olympics in 1984 and went to the store to buy me some stuff. She brought me back a t-shirt, a mug, a button, and a jar of Vegemite (which I love). I saw several TV promotions for the opening, including one with Alan Thicke visiting Olivia in the store.

Houston got a Koala Blue store in the Houston Galleria in 1988, which was when I was able to go to the grand opening and meet Olivia. I bought a whole bunch of stuff from that store while it was open -- t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other assorted stuff. It's all in a box somewhere in storage. I should at least dig out the mug.

 

I had a large poster of this red pajamas pose framed and on the wall of my dorm room in college. I believe I still have the poster in the frame, although I'm not certain about that. I had several posters that I rotated through on the walls, and my roommate liked this one the best. He wasn't exactly an Olivia fan -- especially not Soul Kiss -- but he wasn't there much, so I could pretty much play whatever music I wanted.