Introduction

Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE was a British and Australian singer and actress who died on August 8, 2022. She received four Grammy Awards for her musical achievements, which included 15 top-ten songs, five Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, and two Billboard 200 number-one albums, If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974) and Have You Never Been Mellow (1975). The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gave out awards for 11 of her singles (including 2 Platinum) and 14 of her albums (including 2 Platinum and 4 2 Platinum).

best-selling soundtracks

A musical movie with one of the best-selling soundtracks in history, Grease was the highest-grossing musical movie at the time it was released in 1978, and Newton-John starred in it. It includes two significant hit duets with co-star John Travolta, including “You’re the One That I Want,” one of all-time’s best-selling songs, and “Summer Nights.” She is most known for her solo work, which includes the Grammy Award-winning “I Honestly Love You” (1974) and “Physical” (1981), which hit number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the 1980s. Along with “If Not for You” and “Banks of the Ohio” (both from 1971), “Let Me Be There” (1973), “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” (1974), “Have You Never Been Mellow” (1975), “Sam” (1977), and “Hopelessly Devoted to You” (1978) are other iconic hit songs.

“Twist of Fate” (1983) and “Magic” and “Xanadu” (with the Electric Light Orchestra) from the movie Xanadu (1980).

Newton-John became one of the most successful musicians of all time and one of the best-selling female Australian singers with global album sales of more than 100 million.

Early life and family

Brinley “Bryn” Newton-John (1914-1992) and Irene Helene (née Born; 1914-2003) welcomed Olivia Newton-John into the world on September 26, 1948 in Cambridge. Her father was a middle-class child who was born in Wales. Her mother was born in Germany and left the Nazi dictatorship with her family to the UK in 1933.

Family History

Max Born, a German Jewish scientist who won the Nobel Prize, was Newton-John’s maternal grandfather. Victor Ehrenberg, a German Jewish lawyer, and his Christian wife Helene Agatha von Jhering had a daughter, Hedwig, who was the grandmother of Hedwig. Newton-John was a direct cousin of Protestant theologian Martin Luther through Helene Agatha. Henry von Jhering, a lawyer, was Rudolf Agatha’s father by blood and Newton-John’s great-great-grandfather. Gustav Victor Rudolf Born, a pharmacologist, was Newton-John’s uncle.

Newton-John was a third cousin of comedian Ben Elton through her Ehrenberg family.

Rudolf Hess was arrested by the Metropolitan Police’s officer working on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park during World War II, according to Newton-John’s father.

When Newton-John was five years old, her family boarded the SS Strathaird to immigrate to Melbourne, Victoria.

Newton-John first attended the University High School in Parkville before going to Christ Church Grammar School in the Melbourne neighborhood of South Yarra.

Career

career beginning

Newton-John attended elementary school alongside the singer Daryl Braithwaite. Sol Four, an all-girl band that Newton-John founded at the age of 14 with three of her classmates, frequently performed at a coffee shop run by her brother-in-law.

Newton-John initially intended to become an animal scientist but changed her mind after having second thoughts about her capacity to do well on scientific examinations.

Newton-John won the runner-up spot for the Young Sun’s Drama Award for best schoolgirl actress in 1964 while playing Lady Mary Lasenby in the University High School production of The Admirable Crichton.She then established herself as a frequent singer as “Lovely Livvy” on several regional Australian television programs, such as Time for Terry and HSV-7’s The Happy Show.

Rapid success

If Not for You, Newton-John’s debut solo album, peaked at No. 158 on the US Pop Chart in 1971. (The album was titled Olivia Newton-John in the UK.) Her debut worldwide success, the title tune by Dylan’s band (US No. 25 Pop, No. 1 Adult Contemporary/”AC”), came from this album.”Banks of the Ohio,” her follow-up song, reached the top 10 in both the UK and Australia. She won the Record Mirror magazine’s Best British Female Vocalist award two years in a row. She appeared regularly on Cliff Richard’s weekly program It’s Cliff Richard and co-starred in the telefilm The Case alongside him.

Olivia’s Famous Songs

Newton-John continued to have No. 1 singles on the AC chart, collecting eleven of them, including a record seven straight:

I honestly love you. (1974) – 3 weeks

One week of “Have You Never Been Mellow” (1975)

3 weeks of “Please Mr. Please” from 1975

3 weeks of “Something Better to Do” from 1975

Two weeks for “Let It Shine”/”He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” from 1976.

One week of “Come on Over” (1976)

Week 1 of “Don’t Stop Believin'” (1976)

Top 10 Albums

She contributed a strong but uncredited voice to John Denver’s “Fly Away” record, which was followed at No. 1 on the AC chart by her own song, “Let It Shine”/”He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”. (After “Let It Shine” held the top spot for two weeks, “Fly Away” reclaimed it.) Through 1976’s “Come on Over” (No. 23 Pop, No. 5 Country,[38] No. 1 AC) (from the album of the same name), Newton-John continued to make it to the Country top 10, where she amassed seven top 10 singles and six consecutive (of a total of nine in her career) top 10 albums.

Later years success

In her final years, Newton-John continued to produce and perform pop songs. She went back to Nashville in 1998 to cut Back with a Heart (No. 59 Pop).She was able to climb back up to No. 9 on the Country Albums list thanks to the record. Its debut song was a cover of “I Honestly Love You” that was produced by David Foster and featured backup vocals by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. It peaked at No. 67 on the Pop list and No. 18 on the AC chart. Although the song peaked at No. 16 on the Country Sales list, country radio rejected it. After appearing in the daytime drama As the World Turns, the album track “Love Is a Gift” earned Newton-John a 1999 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song.

Illness and death

Newton-John’s breast cancer appeared when it returned and spread to her lower back in May 2017. Sciatica had first been recognized as the cause of her back pain. She then stated that, in addition to receiving her original diagnosis in 1992, she had also experienced the disease’s return in 2013 and that this was truly her third encounter with the disease.

At the age of 73, Newton-John passed away at her home in California’s Santa Ynez Valley on August 8, 2022. John Travolta, Barbra Streisand, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, among many other famous people, paid tribute.Many of Melbourne and Sydney’s landmarks had lights on as a sign of respect.