A Refreshed Olivia Newton-John Courts AC, Country Radio with Updated Honestly
MAGIC: An hour is all the free time Olivia Newton-John has set aside today, part of which she is sacrificing for this interview. This evening, after a series of rehearsals, she is appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” then flying cross-country tomorrow for an appearance the next day on ABC’s “The View.” In the past week, she’s also appeared on “Oprah,” “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” and “Dateline NBC.”
All the while, in each city along the way, she’s making countless radio station stops, talking freely with the press, and committing to a number of station concerts through the summer all in an effort to support her latest single, a freshened version of her 1974 Grammy-winning “I Honestly Love You,” and her first album of all-new material in four years, “Back With A Heart” on MCA Nashville, released May 12. It debuts on this issue’s Billboard 200 at No. 59.
Then, of course, there’s her hands-on involvement in the resurrection of “Grease,” co-starring Newton- John and John Travolta. The movie was re-released in April; this issue, its soundtrack is locked in at No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Catalog album chart for a 41st week. Boy, it seems like old times, huh? Well, actually, no. Since the hit making swirl through the 1970s and ’80s that made Newton-John one of the era’s few female icons bringing her four Grammys, numerous Country Music Assn. and American Music Awards trophies, 15 top 10 singles, and 20 charted albums she has endured a multitude of trials.
These include a well-publicized battle with breast cancer, receiving her diagnosis the day her father died, a divorce from actor Matt Lattanzi, and the bankruptcy of her retail clothing business, Koala Blue. “This really is a new phase in my life. I’ve come through a lot of things, and it feels like a new beginning, definitely,” says Newton-John, nearly 50, who was just named one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people.
The flavor of her new project is a return to country roots, no more evident than in her choice of producers, including MCA Nashville president Tony Brown, Gary Burr, Don Cook, and Chris Farren. She also worked on two of the album’s 11 cuts with longtime writer/producer John Farrar, the man behind her five No. 1 Hot 100 singles: “Have You Never Been Mellow,” “You’re The One That I Want,” “Magic,” “Physical,” and the original “I Honestly Love You.”
“John is such a brilliant writer and producer,” she says. “I would never want to do a project that he didn’t contribute to in some way. He always seems to come up with a little something different that suits my voice.”
The remake of “Honestly,” written by Peter Allen and Jeff Barry, is produced by David Foster, who also produced the top 5 “Twist Of Fate” in 1983. “I called him and asked if he’d please do it,” says Newton- John. “He came up with a completely new kind of sound that still maintains some of the piano licks that it was known for.
“It was my idea to do that song again, because I’ve been in love with it forever,” she explains. “I feel very possessive toward it. And since everybody is redoing so much ’70s stuff, every time an album would come out, I’d be really nervous that somebody else would record it.”
The album version, which has been released to AC radio, is lush and appropriately sweeping, with a rapturously emotive vocal from Newton-John. And on background vocals is none other than Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. “David ran into him at a party. He agreed to do it, and then actually showed up and proved he meant it,” Newton-John says. “I was just so thrilled. I think they gave it a wonderful new feel and a fresh sound.”
MCA Nashville originally intended to release the ballad “Precious Love” as the first single to country radio; however, the buzz was so hot for “Honestly” that Brown instead remixed a twanged-up country-spun version of that song.
So far, country radio has been reluctant to bite - the song is No. 107 on this issue’s unpublished rankings of Hot Country Singles & Tracks. On this issue’s Adult Contemporary chart, however, it debuts at No. 30 with airplay at 14 monitored stations. The track isn’t being worked to top 40.
As for where Newton- John would most like to see it hit, she says she doesn’t really view things along radio format lines. “Wherever it gets played is important,” she says “but I don’t really zero in on the different formats, as long as it gets played somewhere.”
Her decision to color the album country simply came from where her own tastes lie these days. “When I decided I was going to do another album, I felt that the music coming out of country today was where I belonged,” she says. “It sounded right to me, being about the singer and the song. And since I wanted to write, my instinct was to go to Nashville.”
Newton-John wrote or co-wrote seven songs on “Back With A Heart,” which she says was core to the process of returning to the studio: “It was such a great experience. I went to Nashville regularly and was made to feel so welcome. It really became like a second home for me.”
While she admits her radio preferences lean toward talk over much in the way of hit music radio, Newton-John considers herself plugged into the popular scene. She praises the predominance of female talent in today’s musical landscape.
“It appears to be a time for women. There are so many interesting and good women singers out there now. It certainly wasn’t like that in,” she laughs, “my day. “I love Sarah McLachlan. She’s very different and so talented. And Celine [Dion] and Mariah [Carey]; they obviously have incredible voices,” she says.
In fact, when Carey came through the Australian city where Newton-John has a farm (she also has a home in Malibu, Calif.), Carey called upon her to appear onstage for a duet of “Hopelessly Devoted To You.” “It was quite a thrill, really,” says Newton-John. “She’s a sweetie. And what a voice she has.”
Carey was just the latest in a long and diverse roster of duet partners for Newton-John. Among them: Andy Gibb, Gene Kelly, Cliff Richard, and, of course, Travolta. Among those now on her wish list are opera tenor Andrea Broccoli (“such a gorgeous, gorgeous voice”), George Strait (“because he’s never done a duet; that would be great fun”), Vince Gill, Elton John (who sang background on her 1988 single “The Rumour”), and McLachlan. For the future, “I’d love to do more writing, maybe a voice for an animated film,” she says. There may also be a tour this fall.
But foremost in Newton-John’s life are caring for her 12- year-old daughter, Chloe, and continually spreading hope for other victims of cancer.
“In the strangest way, the experience enriched my life in that I value every day,” she says. “Going through something like that and coming out the other side gives you inner strength. I don’t mean to sound flippant for people who are going through it, but in some ways, it can be a gift, because it teaches so much about ourselves and life.”
By Chuck Taylor