Olivia's First Album Revisited
Back in the 70s, me and my wife (now ex-wife) had this habit of buying an album each whenever we went shopping for a new album. Back in November 1971, she bought Tapestry by Carole King, and I chose Olivia Newton John’s self-titled first album! By the time her album was released, Olivia had already come to British pop prominence with two top twenty singles, that were both featured on the album. She had also recorded a duet with Cliff Richard the year before, done the backing vocals on the Shadows version of Cliff’s The Day I Met Marie on their From Hank, Bruce, Brian and John album in 1967, and was appearing regularly on Cliff’s BBC-TV Saturday night series, It’s Cliff Richard! One year after her album hit the shops, she was touring the UK as a support act with Cliff and the Shadows, who with John Farrar, had reformed as Marvin, Welch & Farrar. But Olivia’s climb to fame had started a few years before, not that I was very aware of it, or even who she was!
In 1966, Olivia released her debut single on Decca Records, a cover of Jackie De Shannon’s Till You Say You’ll Be Mine, which is almost unrecognisable as an Olivia Newton-John record that sank quietly into oblivion. Four years later in 1970, she won an audition to join the manufactured group Toomorrow as the lead singer. They made a film, which was a sort of futuristic new take on the Monkees, and released an accompanying soundtrack album, both of which turned out to be a critical and commercial disaster.
After these failed attempts to launch her career, manager Peter Gormley (who also managed Cliff, The Shadows and Frank Ifield) signed her to Festival Records in Australia to make an album that was simply titled Olivia Newton-John when released by the Pye International label in the UK, but in Australia and the U.S, released on the Interfusion and UNI labels, was titled after the successful lead single, If Not for You. Production on the album started in early 1971 at the legendary Abbey Road Studios that had been made famous by The Beatles. If Not For You was the first song she recorded for the album, but didn’t really like it, even though she later praised its production. At the time she was far from convinced it would suit her. She simply didn’t think it was her type of song and admitted to having a little trouble being convincing in putting it over, but because everyone in the studio was so enthusiastic about it, she eventually came round to liking it.
In her memoir, Don’t Stop Beleivin’, she recalls Abbey Road was where she spent her days with her dog Geordie at her feet. “There was a moment when he actually knocked the mic stand during a guitar solo in If Not For You. We left the sound on the album and it still makes me smile when I hear it. It also makes me smile when I remember that The Beatles were in the next studio with George Martin recording their new album. I was lucky enough to meet them all as Bruce was good friends with the most famous band of all time. In fact, he told me that Paul offered him his publishing on a song, but first he would want to give it a listen. Paul pulled his guitar out of his car boot and played a few bars of the song to Bruce, who turned it down. It had a different working title then, but it was Yesterday!”
Although the album featured all cover versions, it would be a mistake to think these are all mere covers, warned most reviewers and music critics at the time of its original vinyl and cassette release, the production and arrangements by Bruce Welch and John Farrar are innovative and worthwhile. As Joe Viglione from AllMusic noted years later, when the album was released on CD, “there is a moving version of the traditional American country song, Banks of the Ohio. The interpretation of Richard Manuel’s In a Station is respectful and intuitive. Music from Big Pink was only three years old when this recording was pressed, and it is one of the few albums to survive the hype and get better with age. Olivia dipping into the Big Pink songbook was a stroke of genius. Label mate Elton John released Leslie Duncan’s Love Song on his Here and There live album, but that version doesn’t have the sensitivity of this spiritual reading. Both Kris Kristofferson tunes, Me and Bobby McGee and Help Me Make It Through the Night, have arrangements that bring new life to what had became bar band favourites in the early 70s. Where Are You Going to My Love? was covered by the Brotherhood of Man and the Osmonds, but finds its niche here, as does the superb version of Duncan’s Lullaby. Tom Rush’s No Regrets and Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind are well done, but it is Olivia’s cover of Bob Dylan by way of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass which garnered her first top ten hit. If Not for You brought Olivia the attention she deserved. The musicianship by Lou Reed/David Bowie session man, Herbie Flowers along with Dave Richmond, John Farrar, and the ever present Brian Bennett is top notch. Hearing Livvy sing so many familiar tunes, and performing them so well, is utterly charming.”
There were five other songs recorded at the sessions that didn’t make it onto the album during the album’s creation process, mostly due to the running times for a vinyl LP. In those days, a 17 track pop album would have been unheard of, but of course there were other reasons they weren’t selected for inclusion. As the album had evolved into what was essentially a covers album, Pye Records felt they didn’t fit in with the the rest of the album and would be best relegated to B-sides. I first heard the acetate demos of the discarded tracks a couple of years ago, which included The Biggest Clown, It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye and Would You Follow Me, before the remakes were recorded. The finished masters were first released on the flip sides of her first three singles from the album, If Not for You, Love Song and Banks of the Ohio. The other two, Game of Love and Round And Round were passed on completely and never remade. To this day, they have never surfaced in any form. There are, of course, bound to be different takes and alternate versions of all the songs recorded for the album. It’s very rare for an artist to lay down the master take first time, although three years later in 1974, the same year she represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, Olivia did exactly that with I Honestly Love You. She did three takes of it in all, but it was take one that ended up as the master take and the version that was released.
When the album was released in the UK, the front sleeve had a full size 12 x 12 head and shoulder shot of Olivia that was printed on a matt texture finished card with softened colours that became a 70’s cover art trademark. The untextured white card back sleeve was black and white, and featured two photos of Olivia recording the album at Abbey Road Studios, plus the usual side 1 and 2 track list with songwriter and album credits, but unlike the Australian issue didn’t have any sleeve notes. What the sleeve did however was set the pattern for her future albums to always have a full size photo adorning the front cover. She was so photogenic that every one looked like the photographer had just pointed his camera at her and snapped. What is surprising though, is that despite the album winning rave reviews, producing two hit singles, and tipped to be a sure fire winner, it still failed to make the UK album chart.
The Australian Sleeve Notes
Olivia Newton-John is the girl Cliff Richard chose to join him on his first duet record - Olivia is also the girl Harry Saltzman chose for the starring part in his film Tomorrow. Now Olivia Newton-John has started her solo career on record with a world-wide hit in the form of Bob Dylan’s If Not For You.
Oddly enough Olivia wasn’t born into a show business family (in fact her Welsh-born father had an academic background and her German-born mother was the daughter of a Nobel Prize winning physicist) but somehow show business entered Olivia’s blood at an early age. By the time she was five her family had moved from Wales to Australia and it was there in Ormond College, where her father became Master of the College, that Olivia whiled away the hours making up tunes on the family grand piano.
She also entertained friends with her own musical comedies, and by the time she was twelve years of age, at her sister’s insistence, she entered a local cinema contest to “find the girl who most looked like Hayley Mills”.
Two years later she and and three other girls started a singing group called The Sol Four. But when The Sol Four began interfering with school work the act was disbanded and Olivia then began singing on her own in a coffee lounge owned by her sister’s husband.
It was a customer who suggested to Olivia that she enter a contest being held by Johnny O’Keefe. Olivia won the contest but because she was at school at the time it was more than a year before she could enjoy her prize - a trip to London. It was soon after arriving in London that Olivia formed a double act with another Australian girl, Pat Carroll.
“We sang and danced, did a lot of Club work and had several spots on BBC Television,” recalls Olivia. It was, in a short space of time, a successful combination, until Pat Carroll’s Visa ran out and she was forced to return to Australia.
Happily Olivia stayed, made solo records and even became part of the Tomorrow group. Now signed to Festival Records International, Olivia’s interests away from show business are “listening to records and being anywhere where there is sun. I’m also mad about my two red-setter dogs and horse riding”. Olivia’s latest single is Banks of the Ohio/Love Song.
Ed - Nigel sadly died in 2022. He was a prolific writer and a loyal Olivia, Cliff Richard and The Shadows fan. He is credited in both the Physical and If Not For You deluxe releases. We thank him for his years of support for Olivia.
Original article