Olivia Newton-John: Country Goes Aerobic

You'd think there would be no genuine link between country music and Aerobic Rock. But you would be wrong.

Because there was Olivia Newton-John. "Newton-John"? Sounds like the secret bastard child of Juice Newton and Elton John. Actually, that might be a pretty accurate way of describing her career.

Here's another question for you: can you be a country singer if you're from Australia? I guess they do have their own version of "countryside," called the Outback. You can probably be a more authentic Australian country singer than you can a British country singer.

At any rate, in the case of Olivia-Newton John, the answer was "yes." She rose to country-pop superstardom in the mid-70s, with clean-cut MOR gems such as "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow."





Then she became a movie star. I have never seen Grease, nor do I plan to see it. I will refrain from posting a YouTube clip from it. Still, Grease might have suggested a long and successful film career for Newton-John. Xanadu quickly put an end to all that.

In addition to the title track, which I once dubbed "The Most '70s Thing Ever," and the Cliff Richard duet "Suddenly," the film featured one of the most inescapable hits of 1980: "Magic."



I'll tell you what's magic: Olivia Newton-John's ability to transform from a wholesome country-pop singer into the slutty Goddess of Aerobic Rock.