If Not for You
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: If Not for You. Olivia Newton-John (vocals): John Farrar (guitar); Dave Richmond and Herbie Flowers (bass): Brian Bennet (keyboards): Alan Hawkshaw string arr. Me and Bobby Mc-Gee; If; Banks of the Ohio: In a Station; Love Song: If Not for You: Lullaby: If 1 Gotta Leave; and four others. UNI 73117 $4.98.
Performance: Amateurish
Recording: Okay
Cole Porter once cautioned the world to beware of girls with hyphenated names. He must have sensed Olivia Newton-John was on her way. This very beautiful girl should be a movie star who occasionally sings, not a singer who makes records that bore us all to death. She slaughters Me and Bobby McGee, turns Banks of the Ohio into audition material for a campfire group at Knott’s Berry Farm (complete with corny Lee-Marvin bass dropping out of tune and out of sight behind her whispers), and leaves Kris Kristofferson’s Help Me Make It Through the Night looking like the carnage after Custer’s Last Stand.
About the best thing I can say for this girl is that she sings in tune. Although her voice is so weak it often trails away with limpid moans on the ends of notes like Joni James’. The arrangements are execrable, and the whole album is monotonous. Come back, Janis Joplin!
R.R.