Have You Never Been Mellow review
By Jim Taylor
One of the newest female singers from down-under in Australia, Olivia Newton-John, has a new album out. The title cut is her super smash single, “Have You Never Been Mellow” and is the best of her three albums in America. So let’s take a good hard look at this album, and those people who own it will agree with me, it is one super album.
Side one contains five songs, plus the title cut. They are, the title cut, “Loving Arms,” “Lifestream,” “Goodbye Again,” “Water Under The Bridge,” and “I Never Did Sing You A Love Song.”
All the songs on this side are well sung, and the background music well played. It’s hard liking a few songs that are better than the others, but three songs that stand out from the rest are the title cut, written by John Farrar, “Goodbye Again,” written by John Denver, and “Water Under The Bridge,” by Petrina Lordon.
On side two, the songs get better. Two of the songs have been recorded before, but this singer puts life into them that I never would have thought they had in them. I’m sure most record buyers will recognize the songs in the list below. “It’s So Easy,” “The Air That I Breathe,” “Follow Me,” “And In The Morning,” and “Please Mr. Please.” As on the first side, the songs were well sung, and the background music was well played.
The selection of the best songs on this side was harder than it was on side one. After a long time of thinking, I came up with these three songs as the - top songs on the side. “Follow Me,” by John Denver, “And In The Morning” by Graeme Hall, and “Please Mr. Please” by Welch and Rostill.
The other two albums released in America are, “If You Love Me, Let Me Know,” and “Let Me Be There”. Both title cuts “from those two albums reached the top of the charts in a very short time.
In the short time Olivia Newton-John has been in this country, she has been given quite a few awards for her singing ability, including the most honored award in the music world, the Grammy Award, and she received more than one of those. That takes a good voice, and well written songs and she has both.
On my rating scale of five, her latest album has earned a five, or excellent. The whole album is a joy to listen to, and I would recommend it to anyone.
The answer to last week’s music question is Joni Mitchell. This week’s question is, of what movie is the song “Sweet Surrender” by John Denver the theme song. The single of the week is “No, No Song” by Ringo Starr.