Olivia likes Andy Williams but can't stand glitter
What makes a person happy? Ask Olivia Newton-John and the answer is quick to come. It’s simply getting a record into the Top 50.
Such a happening is not easy. Each month some 80 or more singles get released. Most of them never see the light of day. Olivia recorded Take Me Home Country Roads. The disc is catchy. You can sing with it or hum to the melody. Surprisingly it took time to make an impact. The industry has a name for slow moving records - sleepers. Olivia’s was one.
Then suddenly like magic the single appeared the 50 and hey presto the small cautious chart entry exploded into a major Top 20 hit. Yes, she deserves to be pleased and no wonder Olivia was full of smiles with her very infectious chuckle continually coming through when we met recently in the West End of London.
There’s an attractive warmth in the girl who for a long time was engaged to Bruce Welch of the Shadows and seems to get linked every now and then with Cliff Richard. The simple fact is she enjoys life which, in the face of constant singers carrying the world’s problems on their shoulders in totally negative rather than positive fashion, is quite refreshing.
This basic gaiety carries through into her own choice of material and obviously dictates what she chooses to hear in the music world and come to that, her attitude toward such a matter as the contemporary male.
To say Take Me Home Country Roads has started fresh interest in Olivia as far as the media is concerned is half-true. Many of her recent activities such as a season at London’s plush Savoy Hotel and a film made with Georgie Fame in New York were arranged before the chart entry.
However, a single hit can do no one any harm and certainly in the case of Miss Newton-John has created an even more interested public. And of course the Music Press constantly besieged by promising artists and acts, a constant stream of new chart faces both here and in the State’s record charts is always ready to welcome back a familiar face, albeit a friendly one.
A hit single is important to Olivia and for a time she almost gave up seeing Take Me Home Country Road getting into the Top 50, “After all the time it took it was quite a surprise. It started selling slowly, over Christmas it did well but compared to everybody else not enough. Then all the rush on everything else died down and it took off; which was just great.”
Obviously an album is being planned and of course a follow-up single is all important. Olivia commented: “This new album should be ready by July.”
It’s not too clear at present the kind of material, which will be found on the record. Olivia did give some impression as to the possible material she might be contemplating by referring to her own current act and the material she enjoys from other musicians and singers.
“At the Savoy I did pretty much my pop act, a couple of David Gates’ songs, my three single hits, the Simon and Garfunkel song, Why Don’t You Write Me, and a Jacques Brel number. I had a four-piece swing section of my own plus flutes. You say Dusty had a great backing the other day? I would have loved to have seen her.”
And the people? One person she will not be recording is Little Jimmy Osmond! Olivia did add: “Oh, well, (smiles galore) in his way he’s great. The Osmond brothers are fabulous. You have to have something to appeal to everybody and the kids want something to identify with and at least it’s a refreshing change from all the camp bit. Well, it’s fun but it’s got out of hand.”
“The songs I like are often done by someone like Rita Coolidge. And I adore the beautiful rich voice of Anne Murray, lovely, lovely sound. The Carpenters are also very good, some excellent guitar bits on their albums. I enjoy Barbra Streisand as well. I enjoy both ends of the scale.”
“To mention Dusty again, she’s fabulous. Did they all really come to the front yelling and screaming for her? And they weren’t all young people? Really! I would have gone nuts you know” (with a delicious sly smile on her face and the deliberate heightening of her vocal tones), “I was preparing for my Savoy debut!”
“I really loved seeing Simon and Garfunkel, when they were over here doing their Royal Albert Hall Concert. You know I try and see as much as I can when I’m not working.”
Did Olivia ever get bothered by fans or simply people recognising her when she did manage to get away from her various engagements? “Sometimes they seem to be unaware of me or at least when I’ve gone by they then turn around but you know people don’t expect to see you, though if they’re conscious I might be there will do. You know someone, and it’s unfair to the general customer, will serve you and then notice who you are and her manner will change completely.”
And what is Olivia feeling about the contemporary male? Well, what male? “I like men to be men and not tarted up, to look like men. I find men in make-up distasteful. I just don’t like the glitter and the make-up. I prefer smart gear. Some people go to extremes. It’s my personal taste for obviously some girls like it.”
Does she ever buy records? “You know I like people like the Stylistics and there was a gorgeous thing from the Chi-Lites, and was it, yes, Have You Seen Her. I did buy the last album from Jack Jones and I’m not afraid to say I enjoy Andy Williams. The first two I mentioned are American car music, lovely mood stuff. I like Slade and the Stones. I might not buy their records but I like listening to them.”
“Do you know I read books and I get halfway through them and then forget them? Yes. I suppose I could start the other way” (and goes into a multitude of chuckles).
“And I love films like Private Life. And the theatre, I love it too and of course I do watch television. When I’m not working at night it’s good to get some relaxation.”