ONJ They Honestly Love Her
The Indianapolis News, March 07 1975
The Minneapolis Star, March 07 1975
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 07 1975
The Shreveport Journal, March 07 1975
More from The Midnight Special TV appearance.
By Bruno Bornino
ON-J ON TV - Olivia Newton John will host “The Midnight Special” tonight following the Johnny Carson Show on NBC. Guests include Ike & Tina Turner, Leo Sayer, Waylon Jennings and Kenny Rankin.
"There's not a trophy case in the world large enough to hold the honors given to Olivia this year alone."
To everyone but her competitors, Olivia Newton-John looks like a freshly-scrubbed version of Miss Universe.
To them this 26-year-old English (via Australia) superstar must look like Medusa, that Gorgon whose hair turned to snakes.
You see, ON-J is the new Wonder Woman of pop music.
In less then a year, she has earned six gold records (sales of one million copies) and one platinum album (sale of one million units). Her three MCA LPs (“Let Me Be There”, “If You Love Me Let Me Know” and “Have You Never Been Mellow”) were each certified gold for sales of $1 million.
Although Olivia outsells every other songstress in pop or country music, wi-ning awards is where she really shines. Last year she was awarded a “Grammy” as the best Best Female Country Vocalist (the first time a British-singer ever won in the country music category).
She also won the award as the Most Promising Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music. The Country Music Assn. named her the 1974 Female Vocalist of the Year.
This year has even been greater for the gal who turns on guys like Robert Redford turns on the ladies. There’s not a trophy case in the world large enough to hold the honors given to Olivia this year alone.
After being pictured on the cover of People magazine (Feb. 24 issue) as the “hottest new pipes in pop”, Olivia was nominated for four American Music Awards on an ABC-TV special. She won all four nominations.
Miss Talented Tonsils walked off with honors for Favorite Pop Single (“I Honestly Love You”), Top Country Album (“Let Me Be There”) and Favorite Fe-male Vocalist in both the pop and country categories. The real story here was. - who Olivia beat in winning as Favorite Female Vocalist. She defeated Barbra Strei-sand and Helen Reddy in pop, and Loretta Lynn and Marie Osmond in country. Olivia graciously accepted the top pop award by saying, “I was honored to even have been nominated with these two talented performers” (Barbra and Helen).
She started by being named 1975’s Rising Star on CBS-TV’s recent Entertainer of the Year Awards. From there, things skyrocketed.
But for Olivia, the best - was yet to come. Last Saturday on CBS-TV she won Grammys for Best Pop Performance by a fémale and the music’s industry’s biggest honor of all Record of the Year - for “I Honestly Love You.”
She won the top record award over Elton John (“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me”), Roberta Flack -(“Feel Like Makin’ Love”), Joni Mitchell (“Help Me”) and Maria Muldaur (“Midnight at the Oasis”).
Three nights later on another national CBS-TV special Olivia was voted - along with Barbra as the “People’s Choice” for “Best Loved Female Singer.”
On top of all these awards, Olivia’s latest single and album, “Have You Never Been Mellow”, currently are No. 1 on the national charts.
Not too shabby for a woman ‘who started to sing “just for something to do.”