Olivia Newton-John Single by Single Thread

Here is the live version of this single.

 

Yes! She sang the 1998 version of 'I Honestly Love You' around that time instead of the original and also included 'Precious Love', 'Love Is A Gift' and the title track.


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So many spotty releases after the mid 90s. I'm not aware of half of them! Trying to collect this stuff will be a nightmare!

 

I didn't get the singles from this but I did buy his CD for the Olivia tracks. I'm not crazy about Change of Heart and only ripped IHLY and Valentine to my iTunes library. I didn't know the CD single had the live version until I uploaded it here, not surprising since I wasn't crazy about the song.

 

You and me. I know the other fans love it, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Gaia is a depressing listen. Like I said before, I understand it was the album she needed to do to help herself through a rough time. I loved No Matter What You Do and enjoy the remixes.

 

I don't think it would have even helped if she had released Gaia in the US at the same time either. I wonder what her reason was for only releasing it in Australia? Maybe it was finding a label to release the album or that she wrote it there, I don't know.

 

That album had more potential with a decent cover, and title.

 

Blink and this thread leaps forward. I don't know why I don't get the notices.

Quick back up for me. I'm going to quickly comment on a few singles. No one mentioned the Don' t Cut Me Down single from Gaia. My copy is from Australia. It's okay but sounds so sad. My wife just heard me playing it and she liked it. Surprised me a bit. I like the CD sleeve.

Warm and Tender was a single in Japan at least. I don't know if it wss released elsewhere. Again, it's okay but a tad slow to match the album. Man, Warm and Tender really needed sn upbeat song or two to break it up. I prefer the second song on the single, When You Wish Upon A Star and would have made that the A side. I actually really like her rendition.

I don't care for the Back With A Heart album but I bought the singles that I could find. I don't understand the point of I Honestly Love You. I got the commercial single with the remix which I don't care for at all. I also got a promo single with the song on it three times. I don't quite know why. The first track is a second long than the other two. I don't hear much of difference between them.

Back With A Heart isn't a bad song, especially since Olivia co-wrote it. Kind of catchy but just falls short. I prefer the other track on the single, Precious Love. Seems more typical Olivia but I like it. The album is still a dud for me. I don't haie it but I don't really play it much.

I didn't like Olivia's dance with Jim Brickman, who is actually from my area. I was in a Barnes & Noble and he was there playing and signing records and a bunch of ladies were all excited. I had a blank expression on my face and one of them said "You don't know Jim Brickman?" No, I responded. She said he is the greatest singer around. He apparently has quite the following. Shortly after that encounter he came out with the Olivia duets. I didn't like them. I bought his album to get them and, Song4U, I too only ripped the Olivia tracks. I wasn't able to track down the promo singles and, well, didn't really cared. They were going for high prices from the start, sadly more because of him than Olivia I believe.

Are we going to talk about the Grease Mega-Mix or the Grease the Dream-Mix? Both singles in the UK. Also, Have You Never Been Mellow got a re-release in Japan in 1998 due to being used in a commercial there but no reason to discuss it again. Great sounding single though. Take Me Home Country Roads and If Not For You are also on it.

 

It wasn't a commercial album. I'm sure no one wanted it. Yet, it contained a decent single. I'm surprised nobody would at least have released that.

 

Here is the 2nd single.

2001
Valentine
CD Single Promo

 

I guess I was concentrating on her US singles, to be honest I never followed all her import single releases. I think I mentioned early on that if someone wanted to post up a single from another country it would be great to discuss but no one ever did and it all gets fuzzy for me on releases outside the US.

Don't cut me down is a song I really like, she performed it live at one of the concerts I attended in Clearwater FL. It was made even more emotional hearing it performed live with the video screen and lighting and helped that I was in the 2nd row.

The Grease Mega mix is not a favorite of mine, probably because I'm greased out. It was cool when we got the instrumental of YTOTIW, brilliant track by JF nice to hear the underlying track and how it hooked you in.

 

This is one of my favorite readings of her hit I Honestly Love You surprised this didn't make a single off Jim's CD. Her vocals are really nice here. Great piano work by Jim on this one.

 

I love the song in general, and the intro sounds even more like the intro of an ABBA song. (Which is rather pertinent, as the "Totally Hot" album was released on ABBA´s label POLAR in Scandinavia, and there was a "tit-for-tat" exchange of ABBA appearing on her TV special and ABBA promoting her in Europe.)

 

I was actually a fan of "Valentine" when it first came out. However, the original version was by Jim Brickman with Martina McBride in 1997. I thought Martina McBride absolutely nailed the vocal.

Olivia's version was less exciting, mainly because it was a live recording and therefore less polished than a studio version would have been. It's not bad, but it just doesn't have the impact that the original has. Olivia and Jim's original, "Change of Heart," is a nice song as well, although I also wish they'd done a studio version of it as well.

I've known about Jim Brickman since he first started releasing albums back in the mid-'90s. Not a huge fan, but I do enjoy some of his songs. My husband is a bigger fan of his than I am, and I've gotten to see Jim Brickman in concert a couple of times because of that. There's a definite little-old-lady factor to his audience, almost like he's a modern-day Liberace.

 

Pizza had mentioned the single for Don't Cut Me Down earlier and it reminded me of one of the special things about that song, it's the use of the chinese instrument called the Erhu (google it), it gives this song a very unique sound. It can be seen at about 2:52, this was from Sept 1994 on the Ray Martin Show and is a live vocal, listen to the ache in her vocals.

 

Isn't the version of Change Of Heart that is on Valentine a studio version? I don't have the album so I really don't know.

 

Change of Heart is a studio version from his CD, it's different than the DVD version which was live. I was confused when David G said that too.

Edit:
My apologies...David G is correct, the video version of Change of Heart synches up exactly to the version on the CD, so it's the same. Now I'm confused because what is the shorter live version on the CD single?

 

It's an edit of the live version. There is a full verse edited out at about 3:28. (the verse that starts out "No matter how far I travel"

 

I mean 2:38! The section from about 2:38 to 3:17 is edited out in the short edit.

 

Since we briefly spoke about her first Olympics appearance and song back in 1984, here Olivia appears in the Sydney 2000 Olympic games at the opening ceremony singing a duet with John Farnham, Dare To Dream. Here is a rare CD single that was pressed for this Australian only release. This put Olivia back into the spotlight "worldwide" I like this song. Does anyone actually own this rare CD?

2000
Dare To Dream (duet with John Farnham)
CD Single Promo (Australia)

 

Here is a nice copy of that performance, Olivia looks radiant.

 

I don't have that single, but I did buy the album of music from the opening ceremonies, and the song is on it. I like the song, but I've almost never played it, according to my iTunes play count.

It was thrilling to see Olivia's participation in the opening ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. I watched it on TV, and a whole bunch of my friends and family called to ask if I'd seen it. It's always good to see Olivia in the spotlight, but this was a really, really big deal, since the whole world was watching.

 

There's an extended vocal edit adding more of Olivia's vocals to the beginning and end of this song, it runs at 5:36 vs 4:55 on the original, I have it in my iTunes library but I'm not sure where I got it.

 

Olivia's next studio album will be another release in Australia only titled "2", apparently there were a few CD singles issued in Australia.

2002
Tenterfield Saddler (duet with the late Peter Allen)
CD Single Promo (Australia)