Lowdown on Livvy
AT present Olivia Newton-John lives in the rolling hills behind Hollywood. Before ‘Sam’, her last British hit was four years ago, but in the States she is a huge success in both straight pop and country music. With a dozen of her records reaching the charts she is regularly voted ‘Most Popular Girl Singer’ in the U.S.
So, having tasted this kind of achievement in the music world. Olivia has decided to test her talents in the movie world just like her idol, Barbra Streisand.
Livvy is now 28 and really delighted to be making what she terms an ‘old-fashioned musical’. The film is called ‘Grease’ and the era in which it is set is the fifties those nostalgic days of zoot suits, jiving, gum-chewing and rock ‘n’ rolling just after the war when youngsters of the time were starting to create a youth-style all of their own In the film.
Olivia partners American TV star John Travolta in some really tough production numbers that recreate the dance crazes of the fifties dances like the jitter- bug and the hand jive.
Says Olivia: “I went in cold to the dancing. I had done some in a double-act with another girl when I was l7, but I always considered myself a bit of a Klutz a girl with two left feet but the choreographer, Pat Birch, says I move very well. I was self-conscious until I saw some of the early ‘rushes’, and I thought: Hmmm. John and I look like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.”
“There was one smashing ‘lift’ when I soared above his head. I was around in the fifties but far too young to remember very much. Did they really dance like that?”
Whether or not Livvy proves a hit on the big screen, she will continue to be a star in the recording world.
Her latest album, ‘Making A Good Thing Better’, does just that, the title track also being her new single.