I first heard her in 1971 with the Bob Dylan penned If Not For You. I thought nothing of her until 1974 & the country tinged If You Love Me Let Me Know & Peter Allen’s I Honestly Love You & 1975’s Have You Never Been Mellow when she became an object of my derision. I would make fun of her breathy singing, including a duet with John Denver- Fly Away, in which I did an uncanny & unnerving imitation of both their vocals, which I thought of as pure drek.
Olivia Newton-John won me over a bit with her performance in the film version of Grease. Her presence was loved by the camera & she seems to simply glow on film. I appreciated her physical & vocal transformations from good Sandy to bad girl Sandy & she had real chemistry with John Travolta. Even though I got through plenty of aerobics classes to the ubiquitous Physical, I have never owned an album by her (not even the soundtrack to Grease, the best selling soundtrack of all time). Olivia Newton John won me over in 2000, when she appeared in a dramatically different role as Bitsy Mae Harling, a lesbian ex-con country singer, in Del Shores' Sordid Lives, an all time favorite of the Husband & me. Newton-John reprised her role for Sordid Lives: The Series which aired 1 season on the LOGO TV network. The series featured five original songs written by Newton-John specifically for the show. I found her to be more beautiful in her 50s & her heavier & newly husky voice was surprising & expressive, & her acting was impressive & often touching. So… it took me nearly 30 years to appreciate her good looks & talent. Maybe I need to go back & reexamine Xanadu? I hear that she has a gay & lesbian following...
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