Olivia Newton-John. Yay or Nay?

I agree. Can't believe she's 67. I can remember her doing interviews to celebrate when she turned 30!

 

Which was right around when she was playing a high-school senior in Grease!

 

Yes, the irony wasn't lost on me.

 

And she's still doing interviews! Even in your neck of the woods, @Bobby Morrow... did you catch this one for Good Morning Britain a few weeks ago?



And here is one she did last week in Australia about the success of 'Two Strong Hearts Live', 'You Have To Believe' (a Billboard charting dance hit, no less!) and her fundraising for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre in Melbourne.


x

 

I saw the first one. Crushed she didn't mention her Grease audition...

 

On a road trip in the 90s with my parents to Ålborg, Denmark, my father bought this:



I remember he played it a lot, and I really liked "Banks Of The Ohio".

 

I don't have this comp, though I must have most of the others.

Banks Of The Ohio is a nice one. She was a little bit country back then.

 

It's a typical low-priced compilation, with the same photo used on the back and inside. And that photo!

Yeah, country-Olivia is what my father wanted.

 

Yes, considering how good-looking Olivia is, they seem to have found the worst picture they could for that cover.

A lot of people would agree with your dad. She had 2 phases to her career. The first half was ballads/country. The second half pop/rock (ish). Most people have a preference out of the two. I like both though.

 

They could have used a photo like this which was from the same era. The comp might have sold a few more copies then.

 

Me and my sister was surprised to hear Olivia singing country, as we only knew her from Grease at that point.

Haha! Isn't that just typical. I have a 3CD set of Amanda Lear (another beauty, IMO) with the most horrible cover.



That photo for the slipcase and each of the 3 CD's inside it. I wonder who designs these low-priced compilations.

I think this compilation did pretty good in Norway:



That's a great cover!

 

All I remember about Amanda Lear is the UK press debating whether she was once a man or not. I'm assuming she wasn't.

Yes, that picture of Olivia was used before on her 1977 Greatest Hits LP. It's got a beautiful gatefold sleeve that's worth getting even if you hate her music.

 

The worst part of that story is the fact that she had broken up with her boyfriend a month earlier and I knew it at the time, but I didn't have the nerve to ask her out.

 

She looks more like Leah Thompson there! Also a lovely woman, but not a patch on Olivia, of course.

 

This is the back cover of that 1977 LP.

 

I love both phases. She has such a great voice she could sing the phone book and it would sell.

 

And it did for a good while.

 

She's singing 'I Need Love' on stage in that photo. I remember seeing the clip.

 

I'm pretty sure Amanda was a man, and Salvador Dalí took her to Morocco and paid for her sex change. Several transsexual entertainers have come forward and claimed they knew and worked with Amanda in drag shows in Paris, before her sex change. My dad looked pretty disappointed when I told him, as he bought most of her LP's, and not really because he liked her music.

Haha! What's included on that 77's GH? Her country/ballads?

 

Haha, you're right! To me it doesn't look like Olivia at all.

 

So it was true?! I thought it was the UK press just being the UK press..

Your poor dad.

Yes, it's all her early stuff. The album was released just after she'd filmed Grease in 1977, so none of those songs are on it. It's a nice comp. Your dad would love it.

 

She has never admitted it, but I think it's true.



Those LP's usually featured topless photos in the gatefold and one of them included a topless poster my dad had on his teenage bedroom wall. I think I shattered his teenage dream.

He might even have it! I'll have to check in his collection some time.

 

Wow. I had no idea.

Amanda was a good looking guy and girl.

 

Well...at least we know Livvie is 100 percent all female!

Still...for all of Amanda Lear's male fans who she (he?) helped into puberty....this is for you.





Sorry couldn't resist.

 

I will likely spin my GOLD comp from front to back later in honor of her birthday and crank it up loud! (thankfully I live in the middle of the country without anyone around close!)