Olivia Newton-John recast her image as the virgin girl next door into a spandex-clad vixen while singing some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and 80s. One of the most popular movie musicals of the era died Monday at her ranch in Southern California. She was 73 years old.
death is announced by her husband, John Easterling. She has been living with her breast cancer diagnosis since 1992, and she announced in 2017 that the cancer had returned and spread. For many years she has been a prominent advocate for cancer research and has established a foundation in her name to support it.
Newton-John amassed a No. 1 hit, chart-topping albums, and four records that each sold over two million copies. Most of all, she was likeable and loved.
In the early stages of her career, the British-Australian singer captivated listeners with her high, sinewy, warm voice with vibrato, often passed on to country music in the mid-1970s.
Her performance on the charts made that ambiguity clear. She had seven Top 10 hits on Billboard’s country charts, two of which were consecutive No. 1s in 1974 and 1975. became. First, “I honestly love you,” a serious declaration co-written by Peter Allen and Jeff Barry, followed by John Farrar, the producer of many of her biggest albums. It was followed by “Have You Never Been Mellow”, the wings of a song written by .
“I Honest Love You” also won two of the singer’s four Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Ms. Newton-John’s consistently serene music (she was not a favorite with critics) combined with her beautiful but squeaky-clean imagery has led many writers to compare her to earlier generations such as Doris Day and Sandra Dee. compared to blond women. “I am innocent” Newton-John Said Rolling Stone in 1978. Doris Day had four husbands,” she said, but she was still considered a “virgin.”
The 1978 film entry was intended to put the singer’s chaste image behind her, and began with “Grease.” Her character Sandy went from a pigtailed square beaten by Danny in John Travolta’s bad boy to a gum-banging bad girl. , even surpassed “The Sound of Music”. Its soundtrack was her second best-selling album of the year, behind the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, which also starred Travolta.
The “Grease” soundtrack spawned two No. 1 hits, both sung by co-stars, including the frenetic “You’re the One That I Want” and the doo-wop “Summer Nights.” The ballad “Desperately Dedicated To You”, sung by Ms Newton-John alone, received the film’s only Oscar nomination, winning Best Original Song.
Applying the evolution of her “Grease” character to her singing career, Ms. Newton-John titled her next album “Totally Hot” and covered it in shoulder-to-toe leather. Released in late 1978, the album went platinum and spawned the rock-oriented “A Little More Love” with the line “Where’d my innocence go?”
On this album, Newton-John sang with a slightly stronger voice. Her sales plummeted through the 1970s into her 80s, but by the early 1980s she was in the most commercially potent period of her career, peaking with the single “Physical” and Bill Ranked at the top of the board for her 10 weeks. The magazine subsequently declared the song her greatest 1980s song.
Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England on September 26, 1948, the youngest of three children. Brinley and Eileen (born) Newton JohnHer mother was the daughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born. Her Welsh-born father had been an MI5 intelligence officer during World War II and then headmaster of Cambridgeshire Boys’ High School.
When Newton-John was six, her family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where her father worked as a university professor and administrator. At 14, she formed her first group, Sol Four, with her three girls at school. Her beauty and confidence soon led to her performing solo on her local radio and TV shows under the name ‘Lovely Livvy’. Overworked! ! She later met singer Pat Carroll, with whom she would duet, and her eventual producer, Mr. Farrar, who later married Ms. Carroll.
Newton-John won a local TV talent contest and the prize was a trip to England. During her stay there she recorded her first single, “‘Til You Say You’ll Be Mine”, released in 1966 by Decca Records.
After Carroll moved to London, she and Newton-John formed the Pat and Olivia duet and toured Europe. When Carol’s visa expired and she was forced to return to Australia, Newton-John remained in London and she worked alone.
In 1970, she was asked to join Tomorrow, a loosely concocted group formed by American producer Don Kirshner in an attempt to replicate his earlier success with The Monkees. Following his grand plan, the group starred in a sci-fi film written for them and recorded its soundtrack.
“It sucked, and I sucked at it,” she later told The New York Times.
Her debut solo album, If Not for You, was released in 1971 and its title track was a cover of a Bob Dylan song.
After several duds in the US, Ms. Newton-John released the album Let Me Be There (1973) and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Two important shifts in pop music fueled her career in the last decade. The rise of “soft rock” as a reaction to the hard genres of the late 1960s, and the mainstreaming (some say neutralization) of country music represented by stars like John. Denver and Anne Murray.
The latter trend became a problem in 1974. That’s after Ms. Newton-John was named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Her Association over traditional stars like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Protests led to the formation of a temporary Association of Country Entertainers. But after Ms. Newton-John recorded her 1976 Nashville album, Don’t Stop Believin’, the friction eased.
The second phase of her career, which began with “Grease,” was even more successful with “I Can’t Help It,” a duet with Andy Gibb, before attempting to expand her acting career with the 1980 musical film “Xanadu.” I tried. She’s with Gene Kelly. Although the film was a flop, its soundtrack earned her double platinum, “Magic” (which held her No. 1 spot on the Billboard for four weeks) and Electric Light recorded with her orchestra. She boasts hits such as her song titled
A flashy Broadway show based on the film opened in 2007 to some success.
Newton-John’s smash hit “Physical” also spawned the first video album to hit the market, containing clips from every track on the album. “Olivia Physical” won a Grammy Award for Video of the Year in 1982.
She paired up with Mr. Travolta again in the 1983 film Two of a Kind, trying to replicate the success of “Grease.” However, despite the popularity of the soundtrack, especially the “Twist of Fate” song, the film was a disappointment.
Ms Newton-John was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1979.
By the mid-’80s, her career had cooled. For several years, she cut back her job to care for her daughter Chloe Rose, who was with her then-husband, actor Matt Rattanzi. They met on the set of “Xanadu” and married in 1984. They divorced her in 1995. In 2008 she married Mr. Easterling, the founder of Amazon Herb Company.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by a daughter, Chloe Rose Ruttanzi. her sister, Sarah Newton-John; and her brother Toby.
After learning that she had breast cancer in 1992, Newton-John became an ardent supporter of research into the disease.Her Olivia Newton-John Foundation fund is dedicated to research into plant-based cures for cancer, and she opened her cancer Research and wellness facilities A suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
Despite her own treatment, she continued to release albums and tour, but failed to advance on the charts.
In May 2017, she revealed that her cancer had returned and spread to her lower back. She published her memoir Don’t Stop Believin in 2018.
By the end, Newton-John was a firm believer in an audience-friendly approach to music. “It’s frustrating when people think it’s bad because it’s commercial,” she told Rolling Stone.