Audio CD review:
Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta - Two Of A Kind (1983 Film)

Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta - Two Of A Kind (1983 Film)

Band: Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta Title: Two Of A Kind (1983 Film) Rating: Release Date: 27 January, 1998 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Twist Of Fate - Olivia Newton-John 2: Take A Chance (Duet) - Olivia Newton-John/John Travolta 3: It's Gonna Be Special - Patti Austin 4: Catch 22 (Two Steps Foward, Two Steps Back) - Steve Kipner 5: Shaking You - Olivia Newton-John 6: (Livin' In) Desparate Times - Olivia Newton-John 7: The Perfect One - Boz Scaggs 8: Ask The Lonely - Journey 9: Prima Donna - Chicago 10: Night Music - David Foster

Customer Reviews Career killer! Many people are oblivious to the film's existence which gives some idea of how well it was received back then. This half-hearted soundtrack accompanied John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John's second pairing in the 1983 movie of the same name (obviously). 20th Century Fox actually banned journalists from seeing the film! They didn't over-react. . . Olivia has spoken at great length over the last 20 years about her other 2 mainstream movies, Grease and Xanadu, but clearly can't bring herself to elaborate on this clunker which effectively ended her big screen career. Olivia isn't the only bad thing about the film, old Travolta doesn't discuss it much either, but to my mind she was never worse as an actress than in TOAK. Grinning, gurning, squealing and over-acting madly, Olivia was annoying and strangely for her, rather unlikable. The script and plot were dreadful and one can only wonder what possessed the then hot stars to appear. What must the other films they were offered have been like?! Then there was the music. The lead single, Twist Of Fate, became a top 5 hit for Olivia and was perhaps her finest pop hit since Magic. Produced and co-written by David Foster, it was a frenetically paced dance song unlike anything she'd previously recorded. 2nd single (Livin' In) Desperate Times was more of the same though it didn't fare as well chartwise. Sadly, here it's been given a dire remix (why?) which quite ruins it. Travolta joins Olivia for the ballad Take A Chance, pleasant enough but a bit routine. Olivia's lovely multi-tracked vocals help divert attention from John's weak, girly tones. O's last track, Shakin' You, is a fan fave though I've never thought much of it After this, it's mostly all downhill. Steve Kipner's Catch 22 is a goodie but lame AOR by the likes of Chicago and Journey were never going to save the day. They aren't even GOOD Journey and Chicago songs! Foster's ultra dull Night Music winds things up not before time. As an 'Olivia' album, this is hardly amonsgt the best, though the soundtrack did go platinum, it was the last time the artist was to receive that honour. For me the TOAK film and soundtrack were huge disappointments. It took Travolta 10 years to recover from it and Olivia never really did. The great sadness is that with a better film maybe the duo could have made movies for years to come. Video It arrived very fast. My daughter was very pleased with the video. Thanks,. This CD is one of a kind The Two of a kind soundtrack is just. Another 80s gem. . . well, could "awesome" fit ? From track 1 onwards, it's just about 40 minutes of musical pleasure. The Patti Austin track is very uplifting, the Boz Scaggs ballad is plain awesome, not to mention David Foster's "Night Music". Call me biased, but the highlights for me are the 4 Olivia Newton-John tracks. "Shaking you" is one of the most powerful ballads she's ever recorded, "Livin' in Desperate times" and "Twist of fate" are amongst Olivia's most energetic performances ever and the duet with John Travolta, "Take a chance", is far better than the Grease duets. . . A must have. Really. . You can see a complete list of all Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta discography, or go back to the Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta tabs