25 Essential Olivia Newton-John Songs, From ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ to ‘Physical’
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticLook at her, she’s Sandra Dee… and also a spandex-rocking stiletto queen.
Those extremes were dictated by the plot of “Grease,” but Olivia Newton-John had a strong narrative arc in her recording career, too.
First, she was the country-pop crossover queen who set a template for Shania Twain; then, a dance-pop princess who could well have been the proto-Kylie; finally, a mature balladeer leaning toward self-help material that befit the public struggles and inspirational tone of her life’s difficult last act.In celebration of the pop icon who died Monday at age 73, here’s a survey dedicated to covering the musical peaks and occasional eccentricities of a career that stretched from her film debut in 1965 to her ’70s and early ’80s heyday to her reflective final albums in the 2010s.
The “Hopelessly Devoted” singer doesn’t deserve anything less than 25 critical devotionals. Even most of Newton-John’s fans might have missed the fact that she covered the Divinyls’ saucy alt-pop standard.
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