Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John and the Sydney Symphony: Live at the Sydney Opera House
$19.98
A concert at the Sydney Opera House with a full symphony and twenty-seven songs is a sure fire hit. Even if Olivia's gold sequined pant-suit is questionable, she looks and sounds great. Only a few times were those high notes a bit of a stretch, but for someone her age, the vocals were more than satisfying and the show was absolutely professional.

"Have You Never Been Mellow" opens the act and proceeds with songs from `Xanadu' before Olivia does a series of her country-flavored songs, including her first big hit, "If Not For You". A slow version of "Psychical" is extremely interesting and her own penned song, "Not Gonna Give In To It", a response from her battle with breast cancer. Mixing slow ballads ("Cry Me A River") with faster numbers ("Twist Of Fate"), the show completely entertains. The symphony adds an enormous element of power to the show with several symphonic song introductions.

"Tenterfield Saddler", a song written by Peter Allen is sung with pure emotion, as is the other Allen song, "I Honestly Love You". Of course, towards the end of the concert, Olivia plays with the audience and her band members by going through some of the bigger hits from "Grease" with a great rousing rendition of, "You're The One That I Want" and a fun, "Summer Nights". Concluding with the song version of the `Serenity' prayer, Olivia Newton-John brings home the goods.

The concert is a five-star, but this DVD I have to give less to. More than often, DVD Concerts mix interviews' in between concert songs, interrupting the excitement or mood of the entire experience. In between every song, we are witness to Olivia giving us a tour of Sydney, meeting fans and having fun, but this should have been a separate `extra' on the DVD. Still, this is a great experience and is in 5.1 surround for that feeling of "being there".

Olivia Newton-John - Video Gold 1
$14.98
Olivia Newton-John Video Gold I, is overall, a good collection of videos and concert performances.

The DVD starts off, with what seems to be promotional videos from her Totally Hot album.

The rest of the DVD is a mixed bag of videos and "staged," live performances from the video collection, Physical. These are not very interesting, yet the band keeps things lively enough.

Carried Away, is a good song, yet the video plays like an exercise video.

The videos for Falling and Silvery Rain are very good. Silvery Rain is an interesting video, yet the song isn't one of her strongest.

I was disappointed in the video for, Hopelessly Devoted To You. I would have preferred a live performance of the song instead of the video.

The selections included from, Olivia In Concert, are OK, yet it may have been better to add more content from the concert.

Olivia Newton-John - Video Gold 2
$14.98
Video Gold I & II are marketed as collections that compliment each other as similar to a set. To have both is to have the complete set.

As with, Video Gold I, the videos featured on, Video Gold II, are a mixed bag of good and bad videos.

The Rumour, is a good song. The video, is overbearing and unwatchable.

Soul Kiss, is one of Olivia's best recordings. The video, is dull and an example of a missed opportunity to successfully market an album.

These missed opportunities apparent on, Video Gold I & II, must have affected Olivia's career.

Videos during the 1980's and early 1990's were, for the most part, innovative and such innovation promoted the artist and aided in their success.

The opposite was true for some artists. Some videos were not innovative at all, nor interesting. They were simply dull and boring, therefore aiding in ruining an artist's career.

Most of the songs featured here are good. Emotional Tangle, Livin' In Desperate Times and Tied Up are all good songs. The videos for them are not good.

Livin' In Desperate Times, along with, The Rumour, are videos that would make any, "100 worst videos ever," list.

Another example of a good song with a bad video would be, Heart Attack. What were they thinking?

Culture Shock, Toughen Up, Twist Of Fate and I Honestly Love You are just a few of the best videos in this collection.

The performances from, Olivia Live In Concert, are good. Xanadu, is over the top, which is forgivable considering.

The audio and video on, Video Gold II, overall, is good.

Olivia Newton John Christmas Wish CD (CANADA MADE)
$9.99
I've seen reviews of this album complaining about the lack of any up-tempos songs, but I don't mind that. I've listened to plenty of Christmas music in a variety of different sounds, styles and moods. While I generally prefer a variety of tempos, some of the best Christmas albums have been mellow, including my all-time favorite Christmas album, Stacy Sullivan's Cold enough to snow.

The particular appeal of this album is that it contains eight original songs (Every time it snows, A mother's Christmas wish, Angels in the snow, Underneath the same sky, Little star of Bethlehem, Instrument of peace, Christmas on my radio, A gift of love), all of them well worth hearing. Actually, one of these tracks (Instrument of peace) is a different version of a song that appeared on another of Olivia's albums, Grace and gratitude, but even if I had that album, I'd still think the other seven originals were worth buying the album for. With the exception of A gift of love (a Barry Manilow co-write on which Barry guests), producer Amy Sky co-wrote all the original songs, some of them with Olivia.

Most people want Christmas albums that contain at least some traditional songs and they are catered for with full length versions of O come all ye faithful, We three kings, Silent night and the slightly less familiar All through the night, together with instrumental pieces of several other traditional classics.

There is plenty to like about this Christmas album, which may not work as party music but there are plenty of other occasions during the festive season when you can listen to it.