Search - Olivia Newton-John :: Greatest Hits 2

You can't help but love this CD.

10/08/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"PHYSICAL, TOTALLY HOT, and GREASE took Olivia Newton-John's career to new levels from 1978-1982. She transformed her sound from mellow country folk music, to dance, pop, rock, even some disco. All this is chronicled on this magnificent album. I had a vinyl copy when I was a little kid which broke, 3 cassette copies, and now I own it on CD. The material is exellent. "Physical" and "Make A Move On Me" represent PHYSICAL. "Magic", "Suddenly", and "Xanadu" come from the XANADU soundtrack. "A Little More Love" is the only song present from TOTALLY HOT. "Hopelessly Devoted To You", and platinum single "You're The One That I Want" from the GREASE soundtrack. The new songs on the album "Heart Attack" and "Tied Up" are outstanding. "Heart Attack" has been a long time favorite. Olivia's vocals are aggressive, and it's instrumentation is terrific, mainly drums and horns. "Tied Up is equally intriging, I can't help but sing along. Unfortunately the album misses some great songs along the way (this could easily be a 20 song collection). "Summer Nights" (from GREASE), "Deeper Than The Night (from TOTALLY HOT), and "Landslide" (from PHYSICAL) should automatically be here. "Suspended In Time" (from XANADU) is such a gorgeous song I'd love to have it on this album. "Gimmie Some Loving", "Carried Away", "The Promise", could also be listed here. Liner notes with lyrics would make a good addition. However, the music, where it really counts, makes up for all the rest. GREATEST HITS VOLUME 2 is the kind of album you could listen to over and over. From the opening drum beat on "Heart Attack", to the final vocal echo on "Xanadu". Ten amazing, consistent, fun, and fantastic songs gathered in one place. It would be nice if MCA Records put GREATEST HITS VOLUME 1 back in print for us to listen to and purchase."

Fall in love with Olivia all over again

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 05/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Olivia Newton-John will always be one of my favorite singers. As a little kid all excited at the prospect of seeing the movie Grease, little did I know that on that night a sweet singer/actress from Australia would leave me dazed and bedazzled by my first sighting of a beautiful woman; I've been looking for my own Olivia ever since then, a cute Sandra Dee type who, under the right circumstances, can magically turn into a wild, extremely hot show-stopper. I don't think some people these days realize just how wildly popular Olivia was in the late 70s and early 80s, the era from which these tracks are taken. Physical was atop the charts just short of forever, and for that day and age the single was a delightfully suggestive little song (at least for a kid like me), if you can consider anything sung by an angel to be suggestive. The earliest recordings featured in this collection go back to 1978: from the Grease soundtrack come Hopelessly Devoted To You (one of the best love songs ever) and You're the One That I Want (a duet with John Travolta that I will certainly never forget thanks to the movie), while the scale-climbing A Little More Love is taken from Olivia's Totally Hot album. 1980's Xanadu may not be a critically successful movie, but it provides us with three great hits: the infectiously upbeat Xanadu (with ELO), Magic, and Suddenly (a really nice duet with Cliff Richard). Olivia's best-selling Physical album from 1981 provides only two tracks: the mega-hit Physical single and the rather sultry Make a Move On Me. The remaining two tracks, the memorable hit Heart Attack and Tied Up, were, if I'm not mistaken, recorded specifically for this greatest hits album.There are better, more comprehensive greatest hits albums on the market today (ones featuring the earlier hits not included on this collection), but for a long time this was the Olivia Newton-John greatest hits album to have, featuring Olivia's best hits from the years she basically ruled over the world of female vocalists. Her voice is timeless and remains plaintively beautiful to this day. Whenever I listen to this album, I have to wonder why I haven't been listening to it every day for the last twenty years. Pure beauty never goes out of style, and no female singer has ever equaled the beauty of Olivia's voice, body, mind, and soul."

Olivias Greatist Hits Volume 2

Daniel Jolley | 09/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collection has all of Olivia's hit songs that are really worth listening to from 1978-1982. It was released in the fall of 1982 and I have heard that it was still on the charts well into 1984! The opening track, a song you can only get on here, "Heart Attack"(#3, November 1982) is a fast and aggressive tune, and another song you can only get on here is the slinky "Tied Up" (#38, February 1983). The suggestive "Physical" (#1, November 1981) was her biggest hit staying on the top for 10 weeks! There are a few songs on here from soundtracks including the ballad "Hopelessly Devoted To You" (#3, September 1978) and the smash duet with John Travolta "You're The One That I Want" (#1, June 1978) from the hit movie-musical "Grease" and "Magic" (#1, August 1980), the romantic "Suddenly" (#20, January 1981) with Cliff Richard, and a collaboration with ELO on "Xanadu" (#8, October 1980), all three being from the box office bomb "Xanadu". But, who could forget the bouncy "Make A Move On Me" (#5, April 1982) with its sing-a-long chorus and danceable beats? Olivia's first top ten hit with her new look and new musical direction is "A Little More Love" (#3, Februaury 1979) from the album "Totally Hot". If you are looking for a nice collection of the catchiest Olivia tunes, all on one cd, then get this one."