She's been mellow - and more
Olivia Newton-John brings new perspective to music and movies
By Scott Holleran, Special to the Daily News
IF Olivia Newton-John’s career reached its peak in the early 1980s, that’s fine with her. The pop singer, whose hits have included Let Me Be There.”“Please Mr. Please,” songs from “Grease,” “Physical,” and a string of new wave hits has reached a state of supreme satisfaction. She’s been mellow, she’s been totally hot, she’s been physical. Now as she prepares for a national tour, which includes an appearance tonight at the Greek Theater, Newton-John says she is now at just the right moment of her career.
“I’ve recorded country music, easy listening, nice, pretty music and more hard-core music,” the Australian singer says during an interview at her home in Malibu, “I just think I’m very lucky and very fortunate to have had the career I’ve had.”
It’s been quite a career by any measure. Before Shania Twain crossed over to pop, Newton-John won a top award from the Country Music Association, causing several country artists to storm out in protest. Dismissed by critics as a white-bread artist, her singles “Have You Never Been Mellow,” and “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” scored Top 10 hits while her albums went gold and platinum. Before Madonna ever stepped into a recording studio, Newton-John radically changed her wholesome image, just as the popularity of easy-listening music was fading, by starring in the late Allan Carr’s production of “Grease,” charming audiences as a modern-day Doris Day turned sexy vamp.
Newton-John’s music includes recordings of songs by Bob Dylan, Andrew Lloyd Weber, and Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and she has recorded duets with Electric Light Orchestra, John Denver, the Tubes and the Beach Boys Carl Wilson. Even her film career, which has met with mixed results, yielded performances with Oscar-winning actors Gene Kelly and Beatrice Straight.
Newton-John says she’ll he appearing before the camera again this fall, playing a tough ex-con in a film adaptation of the play “Sordid Lives,” starring Beau Bridges, Mary O’Donnell and Beverly D’Angelo. Asked if she feels denied her proper due. Newton-John doesn’t mince words.
“That a lot of people don’t know I was doing these things doesn’t matter to me”, she says. What matters these days is her work but only in the proper context. When Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago, just as her album sales were declining, she had a revelation.
“It sounds strange to someone who hasn’t been through something like that, but it seems like a gift to me. I examined things I didn’t want to look at before, and I matured. When you’re confronted with the possibility of dying, other things don’t seem so important.”
“I love my career, and it often defines who I am for the outside world,” she says, “but I’ve always put my relationships before my work. I still get worried and nervous about going on the road, but I have the greatest sense of peace about my life.”
Newton-John’s favorite albums among her own are “Gaia,” which means the most to her because she wrote and produced the album; the “Xanadu soundtrack, especially the ballad “Suspended in Time”; and the sultry and sophisticated 1989 album “Soul Kiss.”
"”Soul Kiss’ has the most interesting, challenging songs, such as Overnight Observation and Moth to a Flame, and I think it was a very underrated album.” Newton-John also says she would put her recordings of long-time producer and songwriter John Farrar’s ballads into a time capsule. Farrar is currently composing a musical for Francis Ford Coppola.
“Back With a Heart.” released last year, is another favorite, though it didn’t do very well on the charts. Newton-John says the record company released a David Foster-produced remake of “I Honestly Love You instead of the album’s other tracks, which she co-wrote, and never released another single, though the pop-country album was surprisingly well received by critics.
Music most likely to be heard around her house includes albums by Sarah Maclachlan Andrea Bocelli, and, thanks to her 13-year-old daughter, Chloe, Britney Spears and Ricky Martin. “I like Alanis Morissette a lot, too” she says. “Her concert is a great show.” She also listens to the Eagles and guitarist Neal Schon.
If people think the notion of Olivia Newton-John listening to Alanis Morissette and the Eagles doesn’t exactly ring true to her persona, she doesn’t mind. From the innocence of the early 1970s to the black spandex scene in “Grease” and the headband years of “Physical,” Newton-John says her authenticity is one consistent quality of her music and she has no intention of trying to please others.
“Work is part of me,” she says, lamenting a collection of half-finished songs. “I enjoy performing a lot more than I used to, and I really want to create and write more music.”
The facts
Who: Olivia Newton-John.
Where: Greek Theatre, 2700 Ave, Los Angeles.
When: 7:30 tonight.
Tickets: $25 to $65
Information: (213) 480-3232
More from Olivia’s 1999 Summer tour.