Dame Olivia Newton-John was a British and Australian singer and actress. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200: If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974) and Have You Never Been Mellow (1975). Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The Fourmost are an English Merseybeat band that recorded in the 1960s. Their biggest UK hit single was "A Little Loving" in 1964.
Kim Carnes is an American singer and songwriter born and raised in Los Angeles. She began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a session background singer with the famed Water Sisters. After she signed her first publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen, she released her debut album Rest on Me in 1971. Carnes' self-titled second album primarily contained self-penned songs, including her first charting single "You're a Part of Me", which reached No. 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1975. In the following year, Carnes released Sailin', which featured "Love Comes from Unexpected Places". The song won the American Song Festival and the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival in 1976.
"I Honestly Love You" is a song recorded by Olivia Newton-John released in 1974 on the album Long Live Love in United Kingdom and If You Love Me, Let Me Know in the United States. The song became a worldwide pop hit, her first number-one single in the United States and Canada. The single was first released in Australia as "I Love You, I Honestly Love You", as per its chorus. The song was written by Jeff Barry and Australian singer and composer Peter Allen. The latter recorded it around the same time for his album Continental American.
"Banks of the Ohio", also known as "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" and "I'll Never Be Yours", is a 19th-century murder ballad, written by unknown authors. The lyrics tell of "Willie" who invites his young lover for a walk during which she rejects his marriage proposal, and once they are alone on the river bank, he murders the young woman.
"Say You'll Be Mine" is a song by British dance-pop group Steps, released as a double A-side with a cover version of Kylie Minogue's "Better the Devil You Know". Steps' cover of "Better the Devil You Know" was later included as the opening track on their third studio album, Buzz (2000), but did not serve as a lead single. A limited-edition single was released as a digipack that was included with a doubled-sided poster in the sleeve. The song is the first to feature all five members on lead vocals.
"When You Walk in the Room" is a song written and recorded by Jackie DeShannon. It was initially released as a single on November 23, 1963, as the B-side to "Till You Say You'll Be Mine". It was re-released as an A-side in September 1964, and later included on the album Breakin' It Up on the Beatles Tour. The single charted on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 99.
"You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" is a popular song from 1913 composed by James V. Monaco with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy. It was introduced by Al Jolson in the Broadway revue The Honeymoon Express (1913), and used in the 1973 revival of the musical Irene.
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a folk song written by American singer-songwriter Pete Seeger in 1955. Inspired lyrically by the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", Seeger borrowed an Irish melody for the music, and published the first three verses in Sing Out! magazine. Additional verses were added in May 1960 by Joe Hickerson, who turned it into a circular song. Its rhetorical "where?" and meditation on death place the song in the ubi sunt tradition. In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".
"Have You Never Been Mellow" is a song recorded by British-Australian singer Olivia Newton-John for her 1975 fifth studio album of the same name. Written and produced by John Farrar, the song was released as the lead single from the album in January 1975.
"Hello Little Girl" is one of the first songs written by John Lennon, credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. Written in 1957, it was used as one of the songs at the Beatles unsuccessful Decca audition in 1962, included on the 1995 compilation album Anthology 1. A 1960 home demo recording has never been officially released.
"Magic" is a song recorded by British-Australian singer Olivia Newton-John for the soundtrack to the 1980 musical fantasy film, Xanadu. Written and produced by John Farrar, the song was released as the lead single from the album in May 1980 and topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks beginning on August 2. On August 30, it was displaced from the top by Christopher Cross's "Sailing".
If Not for You is the debut studio album by British-Australian singer-songwriter Olivia Newton-John, released in November 1971 by Festival Records. The album was released on the Pye International label in the UK as Olivia Newton-John, with a slightly different cover. As a covers album, If Not for You features mostly songs previously recorded from contemporary artists of the 1960s and early 1970s. She made several performances to promote If Not for You and her follow-up album, Olivia, including an international tour with British singer Cliff Richard. It was her first album released by Festival Records, which would release all her albums in Australia until its dissolution in 2005. It also has Newton-John's first works with her long-time musical partner, John Farrar.
"Please Mr. Please" is a song written by Bruce Welch and John Rostill, both members of British pop singer Cliff Richard's backing band, The Shadows. Welch had originally recorded the song himself in 1974 with no commercial success.
"If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" is a song written by John Rostill that was a 1974 hit single for Olivia Newton-John. It was her second release to hit the top 10 in the United States, reaching number 5 on the pop chart and number 2 on the Easy Listening chart. It also reached number 2 on the Billboard country chart. As with her single "Let Me Be There", Mike Sammes sings a bass harmony. It was nominated for the 1974 Country Music Association Award for Single of the Year.
"Fraulein" is a 1957 song written by Lawton Williams and sung by Bobby Helms. Released by Decca Records that year, "Fraulein" was Helms's debut single on the U.S. country chart, reaching #1 for four weeks and staying on chart for 52 weeks, the sixth longest song in country music history to spend over 50 weeks on the country singles chart. The song's popularity crossed over to the pop chart where "Fraulein" peaked at #36.
Jack K. Pleis was an American jazz pianist, arranger, conductor, composer and producer. He recorded on London and Decca Records in the 1950s, and Columbia Records in the 1960s. During the course of his career, Pleis worked with many artists, including Louis Armstrong, Harry Belafonte, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Benny Goodman, Earl Grant, Brenda Lee, and Joe Williams. Between 1950 and 1976, more than 150 songs were arranged by Pleis. His surname is pronounced "Pleece".
Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John is the sixteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield. It was released on April 13, 2018, by American Laundromat Records. It's a tribute album to Australian singer Olivia Newton-John, in which Hatfield covers thirteen songs sung by Newton-John, most of them originally released as singles. From every sale of the album, one dollar will be donated to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre, Newton-John's own cancer treatment organization. The following year, Hatfield released Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police and Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO followed in 2023.
"Ode to Olivia" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Stella Parton. It appears on Parton's debut solo album, I Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonight, released in 1975. Written by Parton and Bob G. Dean, "Ode to Olivia" is a response to the criticism Australian singer Olivia Newton-John was receiving at the time by some artists of the American country music community for allegedly not being a "true" country singer. The song contains references to a number of Newton-John songs.
