Olivia explains her change of image
Singer Acknowledges Concession to “Young Market”
By Paul Grein
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LOS ANGELES - One of the most remarkable career transformations in recent pop music history was Olivia Newton-John’s late-70s shift from adult contemporary ballads to provocative dance pop.
The change in image and musical direction has brought the singer a series of sexy, rhythmic hits, including “Physical,” “Make A Move On Me” and the new “Soul Kiss,” which is rapidly moving up the Hot 100.
Newton John is candid about the fact that her move away from ballads was basically a concession to pop radio and young, dance-conscious record-buyers. “It’s a very young market out there,” she says. “They don’t call it disco any more, but it never dies, really, it just becomes another name, dance music. That seems to be a very important part of the record industry and how kids hear music and are introduced to it.”
“And they’re so young. They’re not really into dramatic, mellow things; they’re more into the lively stuff, which makes sense.”
Perhaps that explains why Newton-John uses the term “my self-indulgent dreams” to characterize two long term musical goals: cutting another country album and an album of pop standards.
“My dream is to do an album of ballads,” she says. “They’re my favorite thing to do - old standards and ballads. I’ve been talking about doing standards for about 10 years. In the last couple of years a lot of people have done that, so I figure I’ll wait a bit, but I will do it.”
Newton-John admits that she felt a tinge of envy two years ago when Linda Ronstadt issued her album of standards, “What’s New”. “I felt kind of a pang.” she says, “because I had wanted to do it and have always talked about it, but I didn’t know if anyone would be interested. I guess if I had really dug down, I could have done it.”
“I seem to make albums so irregularly that when it came time to do one, it was like, Let’s get some thing commercial out here, and I don’t feel anyone really felt it was a viable thing at the time.”
Newton-John notes that two other songs on her new “Soul Kiss” album, “Toughen Up” and “Emotional Tangle, are more ballad-oriented. In fact, she says that she and long time producer John Farrar wanted “Toughen Up” to be the first single, but MCA opted instead for the title track.
“I would love to go with a ballad,” she says, “but you’re also up against radio stations air playing things like that. In order to get them to play a ballad, you often have to present them with some thing uptempo first.”
Newton-John is currently expecting her first child, which has pre-empted plans to make a full-length video of the new album, as was done four years ago with “Physical.”
“Most of the songs have stories,” she notes, “because the original intention for this album was that every song should be a video. It was going to be a special like Physical was, but in the condition I’m in, I didn’t have the stamina to do the whole album. So we’ve done videos for five songs, three of them are live, and the other two are concepts.”
Newton-John’s pregnancy has also ruled out a tour, but the singer doesn’t seem to mind. “I don’t particularly miss it,” she says. “I enjoy it when I’m up there, but I don’t thrive off it.”
“Some people are needy for that feedback. I think what’s happened is that I’ve discovered a life outside of my career that I really enjoy.”
Newton-John has been managed for the past four years by Roger Davies, who also masterminded Tina Turner’s recent comeback. Indeed, Davies sent Newton-John both “Soul Kiss” and “Toughen Up,” the latter written by the team of Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, who wrote Turner’s comeback smash, “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”
The “Soul Kiss” album also includes songs by Farrar and Steve Kipner, who has written several of Newton-John’s recent hits. Notes the singer: “We’re very lucky; we have this kind of Australian Mafia over here.”
Newton-John is also looking forward to another film role, following a smash debut in “Grease” and subsequent disappointments in “Xanadu” and “Two Of A Kind.” She says she and Nancy Gould Chuda came up with an idea, sold it to Paramount, and plan to produce it next year. Newton-John will star.
“It’s a grown-up comedy,” Newton-John says. “I’m really excited about that. I’m going to play an adult in this one - not an ingenue or a girl from another planet or an 18-year-old. I’ll be playing my own age, a situation I can understand.”