Olivia moved to EMI in the UK for the album, Long Live Love in 1974 in the UK. The album featured six of the songs that were candidates for Olivia to sing at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. Precisely why the British public chose the title song remains a mystery, but that's vox pop for you. Olivia wasn't the right singer for this song, or else this wasn't the right song for this singer, you'd need to belt it out to have any chance, and even then it's pretty so-so. That wasn't quite Olivia' style in 1974. As it happened Olivia was up against ABBA singing Waterloo.
The album's an odd game of two halves as a result. Olivia was starting to make headway in the States around this time, and the US record company axed the overly oompah Eurovision songs Long Live Love, Have Love Will Travel and Hands Across the Sea, added in some tracks from previous albums and released it as If You Love Me Let Me Know
However, the standout track on this album has nothing to do with Eurovision. I Honestly Love You, written by Australian Peter Allen was to become a knockout hit for Olivia and her signature song, perhaps until the Grease and Physical era. The single was a #1 hit in the US, Australia, and Canada though in the UK it didn't even scrape into the top 20, and it earned Olivia two Grammys (Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance) in 1975.
Devil's own job getting a decent picture from this, because EMI in their wisdom chose to impress some ghastly textured patterning on the cardboard sleeve. The picture almost looks better than in real life, because in normal lighting flare picks up that textured pattern.
EMI released a compilations of tracks that Olivia had recorded on the Pye label and called it First Impressions. Same odd patterning on that record sleeve.
Front cover - UHD version
Back cover - UHD version
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