Back To Basics album review

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: “Back To Basics: The Essential Collection 1971-92” (Mercury 512 641-2; also on LP) (72.18)

Whether it’s mock country-rock, hyperactive disco or the big ballad, Olivia has always managed to wrap her pleasant voice around whatever’s contemporary, and it comes as no surprise to hear a relaxed dance-beat behind “I Need Love” (and latter-day lyric frankness: “I need love to make the sex right”), one of the new songs on this hits collection.

But it’s old chestnuts like “If Not For You”, “Banks Of The Ohio”, “Take Me Home Country Roads”, “Sam”, “You’re The One That I Want”, “Physical” and “Xanadu” which provide the meat of this set. Most of these date from the years when the newspapers prayed she’d make an honest man of Cliff Richard, and were then thrown into confusion as “Grease” provided her meal ticket to America and she ended up on the Hollywood garden party circuit.

If you’ve ever been charmed by her voice, you won’t need more than this to appease your taste buds.