Olivia to appear on Perry Como Springtime Special
For Olivia Newton-John, spring starts when she welcomes in the spring season with Perry Como, Thursday over CBS on Perry Como’s Springtime Special.
“My spring begins with a duet I sing with Perry,” she said. “That’s something I never believed would happen.” But, in spring anything can happen like falling in love or even singing duets with Perry Como.
Olivia is the nation’s hottest country music singer although she is not from this country but from England. Winner of this year’s Grammy Award for the best single record of the year, “I Honestly Love You,” and named by the Country Music Association as 1974’s Female Vocalist of the Year, Olivia’s rise to stardom has been nothing short of meteoric.
Born in England but raised in Australia, Olivia is the granddaughter of Nobel Prize winning physicist Max Born, an occurrence of which she says jokingly, “He was Einstein’s best friend and look what happened to me… two plus two is five.” She knew as a child that she wanted to sing and was not discouraged by her family. In fact, her father had agonized for years between becoming an opera singer or a German professor. (He became a professor.)
However, no one was prepared for the overwhelming success of Olivia’s first single record, “If Not For You” which became a worldwide hit almost immediately. Since then, Olivia has earned over five gold records in ten months and is completing a record-breaking tour of the United States.
Welcoming in the spring sea-on with Perry and Olivia will be Bob Newhart and Pat Boone and his family. “Perry Como’s Springtime Special” is produced by Bob Finkel for Roncom Productions. Jack Regas is director and Herb Baker is the writer. General Telephone and Electronics is sponsor through its agency Doyle Dane Bernbach.
The Columbian, March 23 1975
