Godspeed Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John, who had a string of hit songs from the Seventies into the Eighties and starred in the movies Grease (1978) and Xanadu (1980), died on August 8 2022 at the age of 73. The cause was cancer.

Olivia Newton-John was born on September 26 1948 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. She was six years old when her family immigrated to Australia. She attended Christ Church Grammar School in South Yarra, Victoria and  the University High School in Parkville, Victoria.

Olivia Newton-John was only 14 when she and three classmates formed the all-girl group Sol Four. She was still a teenager when she became a regular on the Australian television shows Time for Terry and The Happy Show. She was also a regular on The Go!! Show. Miss Newton-John won a talent contest on the Australian show Sing! Sing! Sing!. In 1965 she appeared in the movie A Funny Thing Happened Down Under. It was in 1966 that Decca Records released her first single, ""Till You Say You'll Be Mine."

Olivia Newton-John became part of the music group Toomorrow, formed for the movie for the same name, released in 1970. The film received poor distribution and produced no hits from its soundtrack. Fortunately for Miss Newton-John, her first album, If Not for You, was released in 1971. The first single from the album, "If Not for You," proved to be a hit, going to no. 1 in Australia, no. 7 in the United Kingdom, and no. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Her third album, Let Me Be There, would produce another hit. In 1973 "Let Me Be There" went to no. 2 in Canada and no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would be followed by even bigger hits, "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Ever Been Mellow," in 1974 and 1975 respectively. This began a string of hits that would last for the next few years.

Olivia Newton-John's career would become even more successful following the release of the movie Grease. Her singles regularly reached the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100 until the mid-Eighties. She continued to record throughout the Nineties, Naughts, and Teens. She ultimately released 26 albums throughout her career.

Of course, Olivia Newton-John also had a career in film and on television. It was after appearing in A Funny Thing Happened Down Under (1965) and Toomorrow (1970) that Olivia Newton-John appeared in Grease (1978). The movie proved to be very successful, as did its soundtrack. She followed Grease with Xanadu (1980. Xanadu did not do particularly well at the box office and received negative reviews, but the soundtrack (half of which were by the Electric Light Orchestra and half of which were by Olivia Newton-John). She starred in the movie Two of a Kind(1983). Like Xanadu, the film failed at the box office and received negative reviews, but the soundtrack performed very well on the charts. Miss Newton-John would later appear in the feature films She's Having a Baby (1988), It's My Party (1996), Sordid Lives (2000), Score: A Hockey Musical (2010), A Few Best Men (2011), and The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (2020).

On television Miss Newton-John appeared in the TV movies A Mom for Christmas, A Christmas Romance, The Christmas Story: A Story on Ice, The Wilde Girls, and Sharknado 5: Global Swarming. She guest starred on the shows Snowy River: The McGregor Saga, Ned and Stacey, Murphy Brown, and Bette. She was a regular on the show Sordid Lives: The Series.

As a kid I had a crush on Olivia Newton-John, even if I didn't  necessarily like all of her music. Of course, I am probably not the only person who had a crush on Olivia Newton-John as a kid, and I know she has a legion of fans who love her songs and some of her movies. Olivia Newton-John certainly had a beautiful voice. She also had the ability to literally light up the screen, regardless of the quality of the material in which she appeared. Quite simply, she was a great performer. The whole reason I still have a soft spot for Xanadu is that in the various musical sequences Miss Newton-John is simply incredible. I think if she had been born a few decades earlier, she would have been a major musical star.

Of course, Olivia Newton-John was more than a singer and actress. She was also a humanitarian. From a young age she advocated for animal rights. She was also an environmental activist. She founded the Olivia Newton-John Fund for cancer research. The world was a better place for Olivia Newton-John having been in it.