Olivia Newton-John is our great music chameleon

From Physical to Let Me Be There, why we were hopelessly devoted to ONJ's music.

From Physical to Let Me Be There, why we were hopelessly devoted to ONJ's music.

She left behind an unimpeachable, far-reaching, and bizarre musical legacy. Olivia left no genre — disco, country, show tunes, old folk murder ballads, soft-rock, synth-pop — uncorrupted. 

At 14, she formed her first pop group, Sol Four, with three girls from school. At 15, in 1964, she began performing solo, under the pseudonym Lovely Livvy. 

In 1970, she joined Toomorrow. The group starred in a titular science-fiction film written for them, where she played the singer of a pop act abducted by aliens and recorded the film’s soundtrack. The project was an undisputed flop, but that didn’t matter, Olivia was our great musical chameleon. 

Olivia Newton-John with her music group, Toomorrow.

Her first breakthrough was with her debut 1971 album If Not For You, which marked a pivot into country music. The record compiled covers of songs from artists of the 1960s and early 70s — Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Rush, and Jackie DeShannon. The lead single and title track, a Bob Dylan cover, peaked at number 6 in the UK. In 1973, she controversially picked up the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her song ‘Let Me Be There.’ She enjoyed several years as a pure and wholesome soft-rock sweetheart.

In 1978, along came Grease, and everything changed. So with that, let's take a look back at her illustrious musical legacy, with her seven best songs. 

‘Physical’

The song that captured the decade. Turned down by both Rod Stewart and Tina Turner, it was the biggest quantifiable hit of Olivia's career. It was also the biggest song of the entire 1980s decade. It spent 10 weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Charts in late 1981 and early 1982, despite being banned by some radio stations. It’s been covered by everyone from Kylie Minogue (her nearest touchstone), Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Delta Goodrem. Doja Cat and SZA borrowed the melody for their 2021 song ‘Kiss Me More’, and Dua Lipa interpolated the lyric “let’s get physical” on her 2022 hit ‘Physical.’ The activewear-clad accompaniment defined music video aesthetics for decades. 

‘Xanadu’ 

The musical fantasy Xanadu was objectively a turkey, but for those that aren’t afraid of letting joy into their life: it’s gloriously cheesy and worth revisiting. Roller dancing with a foxy, cyborgian Olivia Newton-John and eternal song and dance man Gene Kelly (it was Kelly’s final time dancing on screen), neon everything, and, most significantly, a smashing soundtrack collaboration between Olivia and Britain’s Electric Light Orchestra. ‘I’m Alive’, ‘Don’t Walk Away,’ ‘All Over The World,’ and the fantastically filthy ‘Magic’ are the best tracks from the record. The soundtrack went double-platinum, it was the fifth most popular soundtrack of 1981, and ‘Magic’ commanded Billboard’s No. 1 spot for four weeks. 

‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’

“But now there’s no way to hide since you pushed my love aside—I’m outta my head, hopelessly devoted to you.”

Just one of the most effectively saccharine, perfectly sung, love-ridden ballads ever. The crown jewel of the Grease soundtrack. A moppish and squeaky-clean Sandy, singing ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’, captured the life-or-death stakes of love as a teenager. The song peaked at Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Grease its sole Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. 

‘Twist of Fate’ 

This song is perfect. Following the success of Grease, Olivia reunited with John Travolta for the 1983 film, Two of a Kind. The film was a bomb but the soundtrack was a blockbuster. ‘Two of a Kind’ is a blizzard of flamboyant synth, propped up with production by David Foster. “It’s gotta be a strange twist of fate/Telling me that heaven can wait/Telling me to get it right this time/Life doesn’t mean a thing/Without the love you bring.”

‘Let Me Be There’ 

Following stints with various teenage music groups, she released her debut album Let Me Be There in 1973. The album’s country-indebted title track was her first Top 10 single in the US, peaking at No.6. It controversially won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocalist. 

'Banks of the Ohio’

This 19th-century murder ballad, in which a woman rejects a marriage proposal and is subsequently murdered by a river bank, has been covered by Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Arlo Guthrie. Something about the doe-eyed innocence of 1970s Olivia makes it so haunting. 

'Soul Kiss'

Soul Kiss was Olivia at her sexual music peak, with the titular track, a thinly-veiled, moody ode to oral sex. Well, I get down on my knees (and beg you, baby) / Get down on my knees.

‘I Love You, I Honestly Love You.’ 

Newton-John’s first number-song single in the United States and Canada, off her fourth studio album Long Live Love. A lachrymose ballad about unrequited love where the emotions verge on operatic — “If we had both been born, in another place and time / This moment might have ended with a kiss” — oh, the drama!