NEWTON-JOHN Olivia Newton-John and have worked closely together since the 1960s. In heartfelt conversations with her friends and family, and those whose lives she touched personally through her work with cancer, we honour the gifts she has left, the loss people have
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ
News of her passing travelled across the Pacific in the cold, starry, early morning skies of August 9 this year. Her husband, John Easterling, broke the news. Dame Olivia Newton-John had passed away peacefully, surrounded by much-loved family and friends, at her ranch in California. It was not a shock – Olivia had embarked on a life-changing journey with cancer 30 years earlier – but it was heartbreaking for those who loved her, and here in Australia, perhaps that was all of us. At The Weekly, many of us had personal memories to share. Chrissy Iley, who had interviewed her for the magazine in 2018, remembered arriving at the ranch to find Olivia in the kitchen, whipping up a batch of pancakes for them to share, made with gluten-free flour and freshly laid eggs that she’d collected from her hens that morning. “She was so lovely,” Chrissy said. Later, Mattie Cronan, The Weekly’s style director, was invited to stay for dinner because the shoot had run over time and Olivia was worried there would be no restaurants open late in town. “She was so welcoming,” Mattie says, “wonderfully warm, exactly as you would expect.” The Australian Women’s Weekly nurtured a career-long friendship with Olivia. The first mention of Olivia I can find in the magazine is in our February 1966 Teenagers’ Weekly supplement. Young Aussie pop stars were captured celebrating the 16th birthday of one of their number, Lynne Randell. And right beside the birthday girl is a wide-eyed 17-year-old Olivia (in a sleeveless, white go-go dress) with then boyfriend Ian Turpie.
In 1971, we celebrated her first album, If Not For You, with her first cover. And she was back on the cover a year later, with French heart-throb Sacha Distel, with whom she was sharing a West End stage. By then she’d transformed somewhat from Melbourne girl-next-door to London dolly bird, zipping along cobbled streets in a canary yellow sports car and flatting in St John’s Wood around the corner from her sister, Rona. Olivia had been born just north of London, in Cambridge, daughter of Brinley NewtonJohn, a former British intelligence officer and wartime Enigma code breaker, and Irene Born, whose father was the Nobel prize-winning physicist, Max Born. The family moved in 1953 to Australia, where Brinley was master of the University of Melbourne’s Ormond College. Her parents divorced when she was nine and after that, she told The Weekly, “I would wait for my father in the afternoons under this gorgeous tree in the middle of the driveway, and I used to write stories and poems about birds and trees and the sky.” Thus began both her songwriting and a deep, personal connection with nature. Barely 14 years old when her career began, Olivia was gifted with a crystal-clear soprano voice. Her great talent, however, was to inhabit a song and deliver its emotional message authentically – we completely believed her whether she was hunting lovers in the gym, murdering them on the banks of the Ohio or pouring out her heart to Danny Zuko. She was not just a singer but a storyteller. The key to Olivia’s longevity was her versatility. Early appearances on Australian TV have her singing everything from cheesy music hall standards to pop, folk and easylistening versions of Beatles hits. On the TV circuit she met long-time friend and singing partner Pat Carroll and her husband, session guitarist John Farrar, who became her closest collaborator. Olivia’s career took off when she teamed up with John and Bruce Welch (formerly with Cliff Richard’s band the Shadows). The team chose Bob Dylan’s If Not For You as Olivia’s calling card. To everyone’s amazement, it went to number one on the US easy-listening charts. The sequel, Banks of the Ohio, was more folk than pop and a smash in the UK. In 1973, Olivia went country. Let Me Be There bounded up the US country charts and reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100. The Nashville purists were outraged that an Australian could effortlessly invade their territory but that single won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Performer and an Academy of Country Music award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. Over the next five years Olivia dominated country/pop with songs like the million-selling I Honestly Love You (co-written by friend and fellow Aussie Peter Allen). Her next six singles also topped the adultcontemporary chart, a feat that’s never been equalled. Then, at the height of her popularity, Olivia ditched the country girl-next-door image for the “sexy Sandy” look of her Grease character. She brought John Farrar onto the film as music producer and his songs, Hopelessly Devoted to You and You’re the One That I Want, were among her biggest hits. Olivia doubled down on her new image with Physical, co-written by another Australian pal, Steve Kipner. Physical, the album, was danceable, romantic, and introduced themes of ecology and animal rights that she’d return to throughout her life. Olivia closed the LP with one of her own compositions, The Promise (The Dolphin Song). She had been writing ever since her first album and wrote and co-produced every track on her 1994 album, Gaia: One Woman’s Journey, made in the wake of her initial cancer diagnosis. It is sometimes forgotten that, beyond the causes she championed and the upheavals of her life, Olivia was a significant artist. For 45 years, she held the Guinness World Record for the shortest gap (154 days) by a female musician between new number one albums. Olivia’s career includes four Grammys (eight nominations), an Academy of Country Music Most Promising Female Vocalist Award, 10 American Music Awards, induction in the ARIA Hall of Fame, a Daytime ....
5 Sep 2022 WORDS SAMANTHA TRENOWETH
by with additional reporting by Toby Creswell & Jenny Brown
News of her passing travelled across the Pacific in the cold, starry, early morning skies of August 9 this year. Her husband, John Easterling, broke the news. Dame Olivia Newton-John had passed away peacefully, surrounded by much-loved family and friends, at her ranch in California. It was not a shock – Olivia had embarked on a life-changing journey with cancer 30 years earlier – but it was heartbreaking for those who loved her, and here in Australia, perhaps that was all of us. At The Weekly, many of us had personal memories to share. Chrissy Iley, who had interviewed her for the magazine in 2018, remembered arriving at the ranch to find Olivia in the kitchen, whipping up a batch of pancakes for them to share, made with gluten-free flour and freshly laid eggs that she’d collected from her hens that morning. “She was so lovely,” Chrissy said. Later, Mattie Cronan, The Weekly’s style director, was invited to stay for dinner because the shoot had run over time and Olivia was worried there would be no restaurants open late in town. “She was so welcoming,” Mattie says, “wonderfully warm, exactly as you would expect.” The Australian Women’s Weekly nurtured a career-long friendship with Olivia. The first mention of Olivia I can find in the magazine is in our February 1966 Teenagers’ Weekly supplement. Young Aussie pop stars were captured celebrating the 16th birthday of one of their number, Lynne Randell. And right beside the birthday girl is a wide-eyed 17-year-old Olivia (in a sleeveless, white go-go dress) with then boyfriend Ian Turpie.
In 1971, we celebrated her first album, If Not For You, with her first cover. And she was back on the cover a year later, with French heart-throb Sacha Distel, with whom she was sharing a West End stage. By then she’d transformed somewhat from Melbourne girl-next-door to London dolly bird, zipping along cobbled streets in a canary yellow sports car and flatting in St John’s Wood around the corner from her sister, Rona. Olivia had been born just north of London, in Cambridge, daughter of Brinley NewtonJohn, a former British intelligence officer and wartime Enigma code breaker, and Irene Born, whose father was the Nobel prize-winning physicist, Max Born. The family moved in 1953 to Australia, where Brinley was master of the University of Melbourne’s Ormond College. Her parents divorced when she was nine and after that, she told The Weekly, “I would wait for my father in the afternoons under this gorgeous tree in the middle of the driveway, and I used to write stories and poems about birds and trees and the sky.” Thus began both her songwriting and a deep, personal connection with nature. Barely 14 years old when her career began, Olivia was gifted with a crystal-clear soprano voice. Her great talent, however, was to inhabit a song and deliver its emotional message authentically – we completely believed her whether she was hunting lovers in the gym, murdering them on the banks of the Ohio or pouring out her heart to Danny Zuko. She was not just a singer but a storyteller. The key to Olivia’s longevity was her versatility. Early appearances on Australian TV have her singing everything from cheesy music hall standards to pop, folk and easylistening versions of Beatles hits. On the TV circuit she met long-time friend and singing partner Pat Carroll and her husband, session guitarist John Farrar, who became her closest collaborator. Olivia’s career took off when she teamed up with John and Bruce Welch (formerly with Cliff Richard’s band the Shadows). The team chose Bob Dylan’s If Not For You as Olivia’s calling card. To everyone’s amazement, it went to number one on the US easy-listening charts. The sequel, Banks of the Ohio, was more folk than pop and a smash in the UK. In 1973, Olivia went country. Let Me Be There bounded up the US country charts and reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100. The Nashville purists were outraged that an Australian could effortlessly invade their territory but that single won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Performer and an Academy of Country Music award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. Over the next five years Olivia dominated country/pop with songs like the million-selling I Honestly Love You (co-written by friend and fellow Aussie Peter Allen). Her next six singles also topped the adultcontemporary chart, a feat that’s never been equalled. Then, at the height of her popularity, Olivia ditched the country girl-next-door image for the “sexy Sandy” look of her Grease character. She brought John Farrar onto the film as music producer and his songs, Hopelessly Devoted to You and You’re the One That I Want, were among her biggest hits. Olivia doubled down on her new image with Physical, co-written by another Australian pal, Steve Kipner. Physical, the album, was danceable, romantic, and introduced themes of ecology and animal rights that she’d return to throughout her life. Olivia closed the LP with one of her own compositions, The Promise (The Dolphin Song). She had been writing ever since her first album and wrote and co-produced every track on her 1994 album, Gaia: One Woman’s Journey, made in the wake of her initial cancer diagnosis. It is sometimes forgotten that, beyond the causes she championed and the upheavals of her life, Olivia was a significant artist. For 45 years, she held the Guinness World Record for the shortest gap (154 days) by a female musician between new number one albums. Olivia’s career includes four Grammys (eight nominations), an Academy of Country Music Most Promising Female Vocalist Award, 10 American Music Awards, induction in the ARIA Hall of Fame, a Daytime ....
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