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Gold

Olivia Newton-John - Gold Audio CD

A fair review of the Olivia Newton-John "Gold" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Olivia Newton-John reviews here, or go back to the Olivia Newton-John tabs.

Band: Olivia Newton-John
Title: Gold
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-06-14
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: If Not For You 2: Banks Of The Ohio 3: Let Me Be There 4: If You Love Me (Let Me Know) 5: I Honestly Love You 6: Have You Never Been Mellow? 7: Please Mr. Please 8: Something Better To Do 9: Let It Shine 10: Come On Over 11: Don't Stop Believin' 12: Every Face Tells A Story 13: Sam 14: Making A Good Thing Better 15: Hopelessly Devoted To You 16: Summer Nights 17: You're The One That I Want 18: A Little More Love 19: Deeper Than The Night 20: Dancin' 'Round And 'Round 21: Totally Hot 22: Fool Country 23: Xanadu 24: Magic 25: Suddenly 26: Physical 27: Make A Move On Me 28: Landslide 29: Heart Attack 30: Tied Up 31: Twist Of Fate 32: Livin' In Desperate Times 33: Soul Kiss 34: The Best Of Me 35: Can't We Talk It Over In Bed 36: The Rumour 37: Reach Out For Me 38: Deeper Than A River 39: Grease Mega-Mix 40: I Honestly Love You

ARTIST REVIEW: Oliva Newton-John [Cambridge, England].

I picked up this 2 CD set today and I told the casher with a tongue-in-cheek remark 'Don't tell anyone that I bought it'. I reserve my 5 star ratings for my personal favorite CDs so don't be slighted by my 4 star ratings.
CONFESSION: When I started reviewing her I had an attitude of a macho man that was brought up in a rock/punk/garage world and didn't expect much from her.
But after listening and refining my ratings she won me over. I guess I'm a softy after all. LOL.

What you get is 40 songs, 2:26:56 total time of music.
What I got was 29 songs, 1:46:35 total time of above average music with 8 songs that stand out.

When she first started out she had a Country-Pop sound not unlike Linda Ronstadt and if you liked that you will like Oliva's early stuff.

In iTunes I always add a lot of information to make compilations easy to do and the below HIGHLIGHTS from this set is representative of it. What's not showing is where she came from:

I Honestly Love You - Newton-John, Olivia - No. 01 for 2 weeks on 8/24/1974. 10 weeks Top 40 - "Gold hit. AMG Pick. #1 Adult Contemporary hit (3 weeks). Las Vegas performer Peter Allen hooks up with Brill Building legend Jeff Barry to create a slow and moody masterpiece for Olivia Newton-John. "

Have You Never Been Mellow - Newton-John, Olivia - No. 01 on 2/8/1975. 11 weeks Top 40 - "Gold hit. AMG Pick. #1 Adult Contemporary hit (1 week). Even hard rockers who may have found Olivia Newton-John a bit too slick for their tastes approved of the perfect melody, impeccable production. "

Hopelessly Devoted To You - Newton-John, Olivia - No. 03 on 7/22/1978. 15 weeks Top 40 - "Gold hit. AMG Pick. From the movie Grease starring Newton-John and John Travolta. Is put together in such a lovely way that it is instantly irresistable and one of Newton-John's finest moments. "

You're The One That I Want - Newton-John, Olivia & John Travolta - No. 01 on 4/8/1978. 16 weeks Top 40 - "Platinum hit. AMG Pick. From the movie Grease starring Newton-John and John Travolta. It was an "instant oldie" and holds up as such decades after it was recorded. "

A Little More Love - Newton-John, Olivia - No. 03 on 12/9/1978+. 17 weeks Top 40 - "Gold hit. AMG Pick. Some deep bass guitar riffs. "

Magic - Newton-John, Olivia - No. 01 for 4 weeks on 6/14/1980. 16 weeks Top 40 - "Gold hit. AMG Pick. #1 Adult Contemporary hit (5 weeks). From the movie Zanadu starring Newton-John. "

Physical - Newton-John, Olivia - No. 01 for 10 weeks on 10/17/1981. 21 weeks Top 40 - "Platinum hit. AMG Pick. 'Physical' became such a monster hit -- not just a hit, but a pop-culture phenomenon that was impossible to escape. "

Make A Move On Me - Newton-John, Olivia - No. 05 on 2/27/1982. 10 weeks Top 40 - "Gold hit. AMG Pick. At her most SULTRY. What most guys want to hear. LOL. ".

Olivia gets her proper due in this wonderful retrospective!
Among those and standing quite tall was an English born Aussie singer by the name of Olivia Newton John. Amid the 70s Disco craze were a coterie of artists that were bucking the trend and succeeding wildly.
John was no stranger to the music business having been struggling since the early 60s. Her big break came in 1971 when she released her album"If not for You" and its' title track became an international hit. With her fresh face and high lilting vocals Olivia became an "instant" fave on the music scene. In the 70s she seemingly could do little wrong with such great songs as "Let me Be There","If you Love me Let me Know","Please Mr. Please" and so many more. Many of these early efforts were tinged with a country flavour and as a result won acclaim in that field as well as the pop field. In the late 70s the movie "Grease" blasted Olivia into the musical stratosphere and in the process changed her sweet image into something else. In the latter part of the movie she appeared dressed in a pair of leather pants that looked like she had been poured into. In the ensuing years she re-invented her image before our eyes and her songs took on a decided "edge" with songs like "Physical"(the video is a hoot),"Heart Attack" and "Totally Hot". She also appeared in the movie "Xanadu" and spun three subsequent hits out of that,the title,"Magic" and Suddenly" w/Cliff Richard.
The early 80s were unfortunately the end to Olivia's salad years as far as hits were concerned. Her late 80s efforts like "the Rumour" charted badly and "Can't we talk it over in Bed" didn't make a dent in the charts at all. In the the late 90s she charted one single and that was a remake of "I Honestly Love you" with Babyface,that did moderately well.
Of course this isn't a perfect release folks. In all such cases there seems to always be something that gets missed. Here I can see the absence of "Love is a Gift","Taking a Chance" w/John Travolta and" "I Can't Help It",w/Andy Gibb,just to mention three. Howevere this is the first time all of these songs have been included in the same package,and for that we must be grateful. The earlier tunes especially were the subject of a long and protracted battle over rights between Olivia,the publishers and MCA records. Thankfully it was finally resolved and the result is this release.
I found some wonderful gems I hadn't heard in years and had forgotten about like the whimsical "Something Better to Do",the plaintive "Come on Over" and the soulful string backed ballad "Sam",my personal favourite. There is something for every Olivia fan on these two discs,filled with multi million selling hits. And all have been transferred from their original sources wonderfully. You will also find a wonderful booklet filled with a nice overview of Olivia's career,precise release dates,sources for all the recordings and all rounded out with several pics from Olivia's various albums.
All in all this a fine and deserved release and tribute to one of the greatest vocalists of the latter 20th century and I invite you,if you haven't already,to get reacquainted with this pop superstar.

GAVE ALL FOR 1 SONG
i have waited forever to hear the full version to these songs, to only find out they were only recorded in part, theres also other awsum songs in hear i didnt have on cd yet, or in any other album. all i wanted was the "rare" "FOOL / Country Medley" song, and it was worth it, i made my own full mixes of each song, they are now sounding like 1 full song , each, you would never know i edited them, they sound awsum the way i mastered them on my studio program.

Best There is, but not perfect
Sound quality is excellent, across the board, and it includes for the FIRST TIME ON CD Fool Country, from the Xanadu film. This is without a doubt, the best anthology currently available For ONJ. This track was not on the Xanadu soundtrack, but was a b side to one of the 45's. Its a shame, they didn't put You Made me love you, another B side, from the same film. Olivia's reading, is stellar, but unfortunately, will go unheard to most people.
The other glaring omission, in my opinion, is Take A chance, with Travolta, from the 2 of a kind Soundtrack. It was a AC hit, but dismissed unfortunatly for this set.
I had everything on this set on cd, except for Fool Country, I bought it for that one song. I am glad i did, its an excellent overview, of her career, and a good place for beginners, before delving into individual LPs. (Physical being my recommendation to start).

Awesome Collection of Songs!
There are two songs on this CD that I'd never heard and I love them! One is:"Deeper Than a River," and the other one is: "The Best of Me. I grew up listening to Olivia Newton-John songs when I was a teenager and I've been in love with her and her music ever since! This collection of her best songs is the best CD of hers I've ever seen! I have a bunch of LPs of hers and have been wanted all her best hits on one or two CDs for a long time. " If you are a devoted Olivia Newton-John fan, I highly recommend this two-disc CD. You won't be disappointed! .

You can see a complete list of all Olivia Newton-John discography, or go back to the Olivia Newton-John tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.