Australian singer is changing
By Rosanne Pagano, Standard-Examiner Staff
In show business when a performer is pigeonholed, slapped with a sobriquet that is not always an easy fit, it’s almost impossible, even career-damaging, to get out from under.
With the mantle “clean-living princess of romantic country music” (The Daily News, 1977) and “Miss White Bread” (People magazine, 1978), the Australian-bred singer who turned “Let Me Be There,” “If You Love Me” and “I Honestly Love You” into a platinum, had a long way to go.
“This clean image is nothing I cultivated,” says Olivia Newton-John. “I really don’t go around talking about clean living. I’m really terrible underneath. I’m sure I have some vices, but if I have them, I’m not pointing them out.”
In recent years, however, Olivia’s never-been-anything-but-mellow Image has undergone a physical transformation. Sporting a punk haircut, a vampish wardrobe and some hot-blooded moves, the recording superstar is giving her fans a “Heart Attack.”
HBO viewers can witness the scorching results of her metamorphosis on Olivia Newton-John Concert, the Standing Room Only presentation debuting Sunday, Jan. 23 (8-9:30 p.m. ET). The 90-minute performance was taped in Ogden, Utah, one of the final stops on her 50-city American tour, her first in five years. Says Olivia, “I’m just more confident now. I can relax more and be myself onstage. I was always rigid. I was afraid to try new things, but I think I’ve gone through a lot of changes in the last five years.”
With “Grease,” the most successful movie musical in history, Newton-John began slipping out of the mold. Paralleling Sandy’s on-screen transformation from bobby-socks to black leather jacket, Olivia traded her Good Two-Shoes for stiletto heels. She also flexed her vocal capacities in a provocative duet with co-star John Travolta, “You’re the One That I Want,” and a heart-throbbing “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”
Observes Olivia, “The experience of filming ‘Grease’ and singing ‘You’re the One That I Want’ was an opening for me. I felt after that I wanted to try different things. I was open to everything new.”
Not only had Olivia begun to realize her untapped potential, but colleagues also noticed the difference. Commenting on their experience together on the $190 million-grossing film, John Travolta said, “Olivia is a force to be dealt with… she’s definitely her own woman.” (TV Guide, 1980).
The girl-next-door had stepped out on the town and, with the guidance of her long-time music producer John Farrar, turned “Totally Hot.” This in the title of the 1979 platinum album that featured a smoldering Olivia on the cover and cuts like “A Little More Love” and “Deeper Than the Night.” Those songs’ frank lyrics dispelled all thoughts of her nice-girl image: “Where did my innocence go How was a young girl to know I’m trapped, trapped in the spell of your eyes”
-“A Little More Love.”
With the subsequent release of both the single “Physical and the 10 million-selling album of the same name, Newton-John has really blossomed into a sensuous, self-assured performer.
Says Olivia of her decision to record an album that featured such cuts as “Strangers Touch,” “Carried Away” and “Make a Move on Me,” “I was very nervous because I didn’t know what people would think… but it worked out great.
“By the time we recorded “Physical,” I was ready to be more daring. I wasn’t afraid any longer to open up. Until then I had always had this thing about what I should do and what I shouldn’t do. I was very controlled. I don’t know why. I just felt I had this one image and I shouldn’t be more than that.”
Following her latest hit single, “Heart Attack.” Olivia will undoubtedly keep the public “Tied Up in Promises” (her upcoming single to be released in January 1983). And she has very definite ideas about what direction her career is headed: “My records are always different - I hope that they are contemporary but not trendy.”
More from Physical Live - Olivia’s Utah Physical concert filmed for TV and video release.