Olivia Newton-John Goofs Off, But Not on the Record
NEW YORK - Some musicians and singers want to be touring and cutting records all the time. Others are happy taking time off.
Olivia Newton John is one of the latter. She has new album, “Physical”, on MCA Records. The single, Physical, is climbing on the best-selling charts.
She says, “It has been two years, maybe three. I think, since I made an album. The “Xanadu’ album was after it but that wasn’t strictly mine.”
“I knew I was supposed to have done an album last year but I didn’t do it. So this year I knew I had to do one. We started in March and it took a while, partly because the producer, John Farrar, was doing his own album”
“I haven’t toured for three years now. I didn’t feel like I wanted to I don’t miss it yet. I’m very fortunate I don’t have to tour I appreciate that.”
“It’s fun once you get going. But I’ve been having such a nice time being at home, I didn’t want to leave for a length of time.”
She lives on a small ranch near Malibu Calif., and has five horses, eight dogs and a cat.
She wrote one song on the new album. The Promise, subtitled “The Dolphin Song,” to state her belief that dolphins shouldn’t be caught in tuna nets and killed, in fact that man shouldn’t destroy other species.
On an enjoyable day at home, Newton-John says, she likes to make breakfast and take it back to bed with the newspaper. She swims, then deals with mail and phone calls. Then she rides, checks her property, picks fruit and generally putters around. Then she’ll visit a friend or have someone over.
Choosing songs for an album, Newton-John says, is a matter of listening to hundreds of tapes. “You usually end up with friends. You ring up friends and ask if they’ve written anything.”
The new album is her most rock oriented, to give the singer a change of pace.
John Farrar wrote or co-wrote five of the 10 songs on “Physical.” Newton-John says “He has written most of my hits, ‘You’re the One That I Want,’ ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’, ‘Magic,’ ‘A Little More Love’.” She says that “You’re the One That I Want” probably has been her biggest hit.
Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, and was 5 when her family moved to Australia. She thinks of herself as Australian and, she says, when she saw the movies “Breaker Morant” and “Gallipoli,” she walked out proudly, saying to herself, “I’m an Aussie.”
She says, “I’m supposed to do a movie in Australia next year, a straight drama, based on a book D.H. Lawrence wrote when he was living in Australia.”
NEWTON-JOHN’S recording career started in England. She toured, early on, with Cliff Richard and became a regular on his TV show. She won her first Grammy Award in 1973. But her big career leap forward was starring in the movie “Grease.”
“All I knew was I got sent a script,” she says. “I did have an agent, but this came about another way. It happens like that sometimes. John Travolta now tells me he was plugging for me from the beginning, thinking I was a perfect Sandy.”
“I thought John was going to be a big star. ‘Saturday Night Fever’ was not out yet, then. I saw he had charisma and knew he was going to make it. Acting was a big step for me. I’m glad I took it.”
“But when I do something new, I’m a nervous wreck until it comes out. It was a year after we finished that film until it came out. It was a long wait.” Both she and Travolta are scheduled for cameo parts in “Grease II.”
Newton-John also was in the movie “Xanadu.” She says, “Cliff Richard and I did a duet, “Suddenly”, on the soundtrack. He wasn’t in the film. We had to think of someone for that song. He was my first choice. Since he gave me my start in England, really, it was nice to say to him that I was doing a movie over here and would he like to sing on the record. It was great.”
She also sang “You’re the One That I Want” with Travolta and “I Can’t Help It” with Andy Gibb.
“We did a big concert for UNICEF, where artists donated their royalties. Someone on the production staff for UNICEF suggested we sing that song that Barry Gibb wrote. We were both on the show. Then the record company said why didn’t we record it? Andy was doing a new album and asked me down to Miami to record it with him. I didn’t have an album currently.”
Newton-John adds, “There are a few people I would like to sing with, but I shouldn’t name names. You might offend other singers. If I found the right song. I might ask somebody to sing it with me.”
The singer doesn’t have a fan club. She says, “When the kids write to me, wanting to send money and get a picture, I tell them to give money to a wildlife park or some organization helping endangered species.”
ONE FAN, Gina Moradi, has made a horse of brass for Newton-John. She says, “It’s touching. She won two talent contests singing my songs. Without knowing this girl, I’d figured in her life.”
“You tend to forget. I think of myself as a regular person, but I influence some lives some way. It is a bit awe-inspiring. You do realize what an importance what you do has on other people. You have to keep it in perspective. If you’re too concerned about that, you won’t live your life like you ought to, either.”
Asked about the possibility of marriage, the singer says, “I’ve waited because I don’t want to make a mistake. I guess it hasn’t been right up to now, or I would have done it. I’m torn between the traditional idea that marriage is right and the new idea that it is not important in today’s society.”
“Commitment is hard in this society, too. It’s a throw-away society. If something isn’t easy, we can’t be bothered. We’d rather give it up than suffer.”
“Ideally, I would like to get married. And I would like it to be for keeps.”
Newton-John was at Sea Life Park earlier this year, shooting an album cover for her new ‘Physical’ disc.
By Mary Campbell, Associated Press