The timeline shows a linear progression of Olivia's career development with time. .
|home | biography | awards | albums | singles | movies | TV | videos |
| Album Releases |
Events - Professional | Events - Personal | |
| 2007 |  | Christmas Wish
CD released in Target stores Live in Sydney DVD from her 2006 Australian tour released and shown on PBS television. Attends Xanadu stage play premiere in New York Tours Asia in April and Canada in October |  First seen out with John Easterling in July at the Xanadu Broadway opening. Supports her daughter Chloe in her recovery from anorexia. Olivia's friend Billy Thorpe dies unexpectedly. |
| 2006 |
| Stronger
Than Before is released in Australia and Japan. Olivia tours Japan and Australia in March. The Australian dates are recorded for a live DVD release. Olivia touring America in August and October/November. Grease is re-released on DVD "Grace and Gratitude" CD is released in Walgreen Stores in America in the Fall. | Olivia part-owns an
Australian racing horse called "I Got Chills" Olivia receives Lifetime Achievement Award during the Penfolds Gala on Australia day Olivia receives Order of Australia. She received the OBE in 1979. Olivia's cancer support centre appeal hits half its goal to raise $50 million. |
| 2005 |
| Olivia
performs Magic at the Australian
men's tennis finals. Olivia's Indigo CD is released in the UK and Olivia comes to the UK for a short promotional visit in April. Stronger Than Before is released in Hallmark stores in North America. Gold DVDs are also released around the world Olivia tours the USA in April and the Fall. | Olivia opens her
Gaia retreat in Byron Bay,
Australia Olivia's boyfriend Patrick McDermott goes missing whilst on a boat trip. |
| 2004 |
|
Olivia continues her Heartstring tour, touring in February 2004
and Fall 2004 Olivia's first music video DVD is released containing five of her videos. Olivia's Indigo CD is released in Australia, Olivia covers female artists that have influenced her throughout the years. Olivia performs at the Royal Variety Performance with Cliff Richard in December. |
Olivia promotes her Livkit in Australia and USA |
| 2003 |
| Olivia
takes her Heartstring tour around the world. Starting
in January 2003
on the East Coast of America Sordid Lives movie is released on DVD in March 2003 Olivia tours Japan and Australia in Spring 2003. More touring of the USA follows in the later part of 2003. The Grease album is re-released for it's 25th anniversary with bonus remixes. |
Olivia's beloved mother,
Irene, dies aged 89 surrounded by her family. Olivia promotes her Koala Blue wine products - photos |
| 2002 |
| Olivia
and Chloe spend the first part of the year in
Australia. Millennium Collection compilation CD released. In May Olivia's 1994 very personal Gaia album and her One Woman's Live Journey CD get long awaited releases in the USA A Symphony US tour for September and October is undertaken. Duet album
entitled "2"
released in Australia in November promoted by a TV Special
for Australian TV. | Olivia
does charity work for the environmental charity ARK in Australia. Olivia and her longtime friend Pat Farrar launch Koala Blue wine. Olivia starts to build a cancer support centre in her home town of Melbourne. |
| 2001 | 
| A
quiet start to the year following an eventful
2000. In June Olivia teamed up again with John Farnham and
Anthony Warlow for a couple of Main Event dates in Australia for their
Centenary Of Federation Celebrations. A limited edition of the Main Event CD
and DVD
were released in Australia. In April Olivia filmed TV movie with daughter Chloe called Wilde Girls. This premiered in November on Showtime in the USA. Filmed new wildlife TV One World
documentary for about the Galapagos Islands. Releases a greatest hits album Magic and her first Christmas album | Appearing on her
charity's CHEC's new educational video, visiting Washington DC
and TV appearances all to launch CHEC's Childproofing Campaign and video. Olivia and Chloe spend a few months in Australia over Christmas where Chloe is attending classes and working on her own music and acting career. |
| 2000 | 
| Fans
are treated to a 14-date Millennium
tour
with a new set from her Greatest Hits. In August she toured Hong Kong and Korea. In September Olivia performed to her largest audience ever at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Sydney. John Farnham joined Olivia to sing Dare To Dream. The live CD of her 1999 American tour is released in Australia. Olivia teams up with Vince Gill for a Christmas CD exclusive to Hallmark stores in the United States | In
February Olivia performed Somewhere
Over the Rainbow for the Pope in the Vatican, Rome at a
special charity concert. Over the Summer months Olivia appears at various events for her charity CHEC. |
| 1999 | Olivia is cast in the film
production of the stage play Sordid Lives,
directed by Del Shores. She sports a new short hairdo and is cast as a
ex-con and barfly singer Bitsy Mae. A larger 30-date Summer Tour
follows on from the earlier success of the mini-tour earlier in the
year. Olivia starts the year in style with a live concert at Las Vegas, then tours a number of smaller American venues with a Greatest Hits tour. | Olivia receives awards from the American Red Cross and the Women's Guild of Cedars -Sinai hospital for her work supporting charity. | |
| 1998 |
| The
uptempo album Back
With A Heart is released in May
- the single is a remix of her old favorite I
Honestly Love You with Babyface singing backup. Olivia
received a Daytime Emmy for her song "Love Is A Gift". In January and February she tours Australia with Cliff Richard, and Australians are treated to more Olivia live from October to December with the Main Event, a three-way tour with two other Australians. Grease celebrates it's 20th anniversary, re-released to cinemas throughout the world. |
|
| 1997 | Olivia signs to the country division or her old record label, MCA/Universal. In November she duets on the track "Falling" on the Raybon Brothers' eponymous album. | ||
| 1996 | In November Olivia hosts
Lifetime TV's Lifetime Applauds - the Fight against Breast Cancer and
performs songs from Gaia
to a US audience. In December Olivia appears on Home Shopping promoting the Marae range of beauty products. | ||
| 1995 |
| Olivia guests
on 5 tracks of the Cliff
Richard soundtrack for his stage show "Heathcliff". In November
Olivia and Cliff performed the song "Had to Be" at the Royal Variety
Show in London. Gaia
is released in Europe and Japan. Olivia hosts the Australian wildlife series Human/Nature, and has a small part in the low-budget movie "It's My Party" directed by Randal Kleiser of Grease fame. |
Matt and Olivia separate and then divorce |
| 1994 |
| Olivia surprises both her fans and critics with the Australian release of a deeply new-age album Gaia in November - this has become one of her best-loved albums. The record is released in a fragmented way via small record companies as Olivia has no major record label at this time, and as a result the album is still unreleased in America. She performs some of the songs at the charity concert "Best for the Bush" in aid of drought-stricken Australian farmers and stars for three episodes of the Australian soap "Snowy River" and the TV movie "A Christmas Romance" | Rumors circulate of difficulties between Olivia and Matt Lattanzi . |
| 1993 | While recuperating from her treatment in Australia Olivia starts to write material for a new album. Co-writes a children's' book A Pig Tale with an environmental theme. | ||
| 1992 |
| Back To Basics is to be Olivia's comeback album - a greatest hits retrospective spiced up with four new tracks, and a major tour of the US is planned for July. All plans are off when Olivia is diagnosed with breast cancer and operated on. She then goes to Australia to recuperate. | Koala
Blue files for bankruptcy in the US. Olivia loses her father to cancer
- on July 2 she learns that she has breast cancer and needs surgery. Olivia's charity CHEC launched with her best friend Nancy Chuda after the death of Nancy's daughter for a rare form of childhood cancer |
| 1991 | The Koala Blue chain of boutiques, which had been set up as a franchise, began to lose money from a combination of business mismanagement highlighted by recessionary pressures. | ||
| 1990 | Becomes UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Environment, and stars in the Disney TV movie A Mom for Christmas. | ||
| 1989 |  | Warm and Tender, and album of children's' songs and lullabies marks a move to Geffen Records, then still an independent label. | Voted Celebrity Businesswoman of the Year for Koala Blue. |
| 1988 |
| The Rumour reaches #62 in the US, and the album, co produced by Elton John, reaches US#67. A long-form video of the album with a general theme of the Australian Bicentennial is made titled "Down Under". Performed at the Bicentennial Concert in Sydney with Cliff Richard in front of HRH Prince and Charles and Princess Diana. | |
| 1987 | Olivia rings in the New Year 1987/8 with "It's Always Australia for me" televised from her living room along with Matt and Chloe. | Olivia attends Paramount's 75th anniversary | |
| 1986 | Soul Kiss reaches UK#66 in March. In July, Olivia duets with David Foster for the song The Best Of Me, reaching US#80. Sang at the Australian Grand Final, visiting Australia for the first time with baby daughter Chloe. | Daughter Chloe Rose Lattanzi born 17 January | |
| 1985 |
| In November the single Soul Kiss makes US #20, while the album of the same name gets to US #29 | |
| 1984 |
| Twist of Fate reaches US#5 in January,
while the parent album Two of a Kind OST
charts at US#26. The next single from the album, Livin' in Desperate
Times peaks at US #31 in March. Olivia hosts a reception for the Australian Olympic team in August and performs I Still Call Australia Home for the Olympic TV gala. | Olivia opens a store selling
Australian memorabilia and clothes in Los Angeles called Koala Blue
with Pat Farrar nee Carroll, her erstwhile singing partner. Olivia marries Matt Lattanzi in December. |
| 1983 | UK record buyers send I Honestly Love You to UK#52 on
its UK reissue in January. In February
the second bonus track on the Greatest Hits Vol.2
album, Tied Up,
reaches US#38. Physical is voted the Best Video (for 1982) at the 25th
Grammy awards - though the short-form pop video had been popular for
some time since Queen popularized the format with Bohemian Rhapsody,
the long-form video featuring all the songs from an album was still a
relatively new concept. Olivia teams up again with John Travolta, this time for the movie Two Of A Kind. This one is even less successful than Xanadu, but yet again the soundtrack saves the day. Twist of Fate reaches UK#57 in November |
Matt Lattanzi and Olivia are seen together more... | |
| 1982 |  | This is the year of Physical - singles from the album rain down upon the charts. Landslide hits UK#18 in February, Make A Move on Me makes US #5 and UK#43 in April. July sees Landslide at #52 in the US, coinciding with the start of Olivia's Physical tour of the US, which is filmed to become the home video Olivia Live!. Heart Attack, one of two extra singles on the Greatest Hits Vol.2 album out in November, reaches US #3 and UK # 46. The album itself charts at #16. | |
| 1981 |  | Suddenly reaches US#20 in January. Olivia gets a star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame (it is just outside Mann's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard) on August 5. The single Physical is released in November and becomes an instant hit remaining at the top of the US charts for 10 weeks. The album Physical peaks in December at US#6 and UK#11 - that month a TV special featuring the songs from this album is screened on American TV. | |
| 1980 |  | Reaches
US#12 with Andy Gibb on the duet I Can't Help It in May. Tops the UK charts with the title song from the movie soundtrack Xanadu in July, and the album charts at #1 in the UK. The immensely successful soundtrack which is a collaboration with the band ELO is the only successful thing about the Xanadu movie, which is panned by the critics and not greatly attended at the box-office. Olivia gets a US #1 in August with the single Magic from the album, which peaks at #4 in the US album charts in September. Magic gets to #32 in the UK. ABC TV screens Olivia's third TV special "Hollywood Nights" just after the Oscars in Los Angeles. Observant viewers noted that though the program was produced by Lee Kramer Productions, Olivia's future husband Matt Lattanzi was to be seen in the finale. Olivia teams up with her early Seventies counterpart Cliff Richard for a UK #15 in November with Suddenly, also from the Xanadu album. Performs "Hopelessly Devoted to You" at the Royal Command Performance at Sydney, Australia |
Meets future husband Matt Lattanzi on set of Xanadu. |
| 1979 |  | At the
beginning of the year A Little More
Love from the album Totally Hot
soars to UK#4 and US #3, while the album reaches US #7, UK #30. The concert "Music for UNICEF", is held in the General Assembly hall of the United Nations in New York, and Olivia sings Rest Your Love On Me, a duet with Andy Gibb, and "The Key". NBC TV airs the show as "A Gift Of Song" in January. An album of this concert is released, with the royalties going to UNICEF. Deeper Than The Night reaches US#11 and UK#64 in June, and the title track of the Totally Hot album gets to US#52 in August. Shooting begins for the fantasy movie Xanadu, in which Olivia stars as a muse - the movie is broadly based on the 1947 movie Down To Earth starring Rita Hayward as Terpsichore. |
Olivia is nominated by the Australian Prime Minister for an OBE for services to Australian Music. She receives the award from the Queen of England. |
| 1978 | 
| January
sees the release of the album Olivia Newton-John's
Greatest Hits which sells more than a million in the US to
chart at #13 and UK#19. US station ABC TV airs "Olivia" her second US TV special in May, this is subsequently issued to home video on MCA Discovision, an early LaserDisc release. At this time Olivia sues her US record label, MCA, for "failing to adequately promote and advertise" her records. You're The One that I Want tops US charts in June, selling over 2 million to win a platinum disc. The single takes up residence on the UK charts for 9 weeks, selling over 1� million UK copies. The movie Grease opens in the US, and in July the soundtrack tops the album charts, remaining there for 12 weeks. Summer Nights tops the UK charts for 7 weeks and reaches US #5 in September, and Olivia's solo Hopelessly Devoted to You makes US#3. It reaches UK #2 in December. |
|
| 1977 |  | Olivia begins a tour in April,
as the single Sam reaches US#20. For Olivia's live debut at the New
York Metropolitan Opera House, concert-goers on the opening night each
get a red de-thorned rose from Olivia! In May
she stars in the UK's Big Top Show at Windsor Castle with Elton John as
part of the Silver Jubilee celebrations. Making A Good Thing Better performs less well than usual in June - peaking at US#87, but Sam peaks at UK#6 in July. The album Making A Good Thing Better is released in August and peaks at US#34, UK#60. The BBC screens "Only Olivia" a TV special recorded in England. Filmmaker Alan Carr approaches Olivia to see if she is interesting in taking the female lead for a new film based on the 50s Broadway musical Grease. Olivia is not the first name suggested - Marie Osmond had also been approached. Olivia has some reservations, and requests a screen test with the male lead, John Travolta, fresh from his success with Saturday Night Fever. Record buyers show that they still can't get enough of I Honestly Love You, sending a December reissue to #48 in the US charts. |
Lee Kramer and Olivia make up personally and professionally in October for another gala year of music |
| 1976 | 
| Olivia starts
the year with a duet with John Denver (who wrote her earlier hit Take Me Home Country Roads),
called Fly Away which
charted at US#13. Her own single Let
It Shine/He Ain't Heavy... charted at US#30 in January.
In May the album Come
On Over charts at US #13 and UK #49. September sees the
release of another topselling album Don't Stop
Believin' which reaches #30 on the US charts. Every Face Tells A Story
reaches US#55 later in the year. ABC screens Olivia's first TV special, "A Special Olivia Newton-John" in November - the hour-long special features many of Olivia's hits and many songs never put on her albums. Olivia tours with Don't Stop Believin' - in Japan she performs at the Tokyo Festival Hall in December. Part of that concert is televised by Japanese TV, and a recording is made which will eventually become Olivia's only official live recording, a Japanese release in 1981 under the title "Love Performance" |
In May Lee Kramer resigns as Olivia's manager and the couple's personal relationship breaks up. |
| 1975 | 
| In March
Have You Never Been Mellow
reaches #1 and the same
titled album tops the album charts with a gold disc. In the
UK the album
charts at #37 in April. Olivia runs into some controversy when she wins Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association. Some CMA old-timers resent having their crowns taken and with bad grace try to form another country association. Bruce Welch-written song Please Mr Please is a fifth consecutive million-selling US single for Olivia charting at #3 in August. Her second 1975 album and gold disc Clearly Love gets to US #12 and Something Better To Do charts at US #13 in November. |
This year Olivia moves to the United States with her entourage of boyfriend/manager Lee Kramer and producer/songwriter John Farrar (from the Shadows) to develop her phenomenal chart success in America. |
| 1974 | 
| In February
Let Me Be There tops
the Country chart and crosses over to hit #6 on the pop charts in the
United States. This is to be the start of Olivia's serious success in
the USA. The US album of the same name reaches #54 in the US. Album chart success in March at #37 with Music Makes My Day in the UK, followed by a move from Pye to EMI for the LP Long Live Love charting at #40 in June. Olivia sings for the UK entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in June with the song Long Live Love which charts at 11 in the UK. Competition is unusually strong in 1974, and Abba make their international debut with the song "Waterloo" which wins. Olivia has her own TV series of poetry and music on BBC TV. Some of her guests included Cliff Richard, Labi Siffre and Neil Sedaka. I Honestly Love You is Olivia's first US #1 single in October, and reaches UK #22. The US album If You Love Me, Let Me Know tops the US album charts. | Olivia meets and falls for Lee Kramer while holidaying in St Tropez in the South of France. Kramer already has a successful shoe import/export business and is destined to apply his business skills to managing the most successful part of Olivia's career in the United States for the next four years. |
| 1973 | Take Me Home Country Roads reaches UK #15 in February. In June Olivia scores a miss on the UK charts with Let Me Be There which fails to chart - but the song is destined to storm the American charts in the following year. Collectors of Olivia arcana may observe that Olivia has her first session musician credit for playing recorder on Marvin, Welch and Farrar's album Music Makes My Day. | ||
| 1972 |  | Second
album simply titled Olivia
released in the UK.  Olivia
becomes a resident guest star for 13 weeks starting in January
on Cliff Richards' BBC TV musical variety show, and a regular live
performer in London. The single What
Is Life reaches UK #16 in April - in August the single
Just A Little Too Much is released in the UK but fails to chart. |
Bruce Welch and Olivia break up in April - possibly attributed to Welch's alcohol problems at the time. |
| 1971 |  | In
January Olivia performs a
duet with Cliff Richard called "Don't
Move Away", and tours Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and
Germany with him. If Not For You, Olivia's second single, reaches #7 on the UK singles chart in April on Pye. Cliff Richard invites Olivia to guest on his holiday TV special "Getaway with Cliff" in August The single If Not For You debuts in September on the the US charts at #25. In October Cliff Richard invites Olivia as support when he starts his live season at the London Palladium. In December Banks Of The Ohio reaches #6 on the UK singles charts and gets to US # 94. First album titled Olivia Newton-John released in the UK on PYE records Played at the 1971 Tokyo Music Fair - Japanese music lovers have had a soft spot for Olivia ever since... |
Olivia with Bruce Welch of the Shadows |
| 1970 |  | The Toomorrow movie is ill-received - opens and closes very quickly in August, and the quartet are disbanded after some promotion. | |
| 1969 | Olivia is approached by Don Kirshner of "Monkees" fame to take part in "Toomorrow" - a similarly manufactured film/band combo. | ||
| 1968 | |||
| 1967 | Olivia becomes engaged to Bruce Welch of the Shadows in England and they set up home together in Chiswick, West London | ||
| 1966 | Strikes a one-off record
deal with Decca Records in May. Her debut
45rpm single is a slightly brash rendition of Jackie DeShannon's "Till You Say You'll Be Mine" on
the A side. The B side, "For Ever"
is more typical of what audiences will come to know and love as
Olivia's unique vocal style. In September she meets up with the Shadows
and Cliff Richard after a concert in Bournemouth. She is offered a
chance to play Cinderella but passes to return to Australia for
Christmas. In Australia stars in the Australian movie Funny Things Happen Down Under - shows early predilection for musical numbers in movies with a rendition of Christmas Time Down Under. |
Pat Carroll's visa expires and she returns home, leaving Olivia to forge her solo career. |
|
| 1965 | Olivia travels to the UK with her mother, Irene Newton-John. Olivia finds herself lonely and homesick in the London of the Swinging Sixties. Things improve when fellow Australian Pat Carroll (later to marry Olivia's record producer and member of the Shadows John Farrar) comes to London - initially Pat is more ambitious and the girls for a live vocal due "Pat & Olivia" playing pubs and clubs in England. | ||
| 1964 | Olivia wins an Australian talent contest hosted by Johnny O'Keefe. Prize is a trip to England, but she delays it to continue at school. Stands in as host on Australian TV show titled "Lovely Livvy". | ||
| 1963 | Olivia forms "The Sol Four" with three other girls. This is soon disbanded because it interfered with school work. Olivia started to sing in her brother-in-law's coffee lounge. | ||
| 1958 | Olivia's parents divorce and Irene Newton-John had to find work outside the home which was unusual at the time. | ||
| 1953 | Olivia's family move from Cambridge, England to Melbourne Australia | ||
| 1948 | Daughter Olivia is born to Irene and Brin Newton-John on September 26th at Cambridge, UK |
