Olivia Newton-John dies aged 73
1948-2022 Rest in Peace

Olivia Newton-John has died aged 73. Best remembered for her role as Sandy in the 1978 film Grease, Newton-John enjoyed a successful singing career that spanned half a century with singles and albums topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
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May have already been posted on here, but her If Not For You deluxe edition is coming out in September. RIP Olivia
The melancholy of songs such as “A Little More Love”, hit in a whole different way now. It’s actually hard not to get consumed by the emotion. It never ceases to surprise me how the unlikeliest music sources are often the ones that cut closest to the bone without warning.
I watched “Xanadu” on the eve of Olivia’s death. What a great soundtrack. What a great voice! Wish Jeff “cared” about surround-sound. The “fun,” (mostly) ELO-penned soundtrack was in mono (only). Eeeww!
Still, enjoyed it (again) — and man alive, it has so much 5.1+ potential…
Did not know Olivia had sold over 100 million albums. Whew! That explains the $oCal ranch. Ha.
RIP, Olivia!
TOTP 25th May 1977, your host DLT. Olivia Newton-John sings Sam. Crushingly beautiful track.
Very sad news.
RIP Olivia,your early c/w styled hits always impressed me when listening to the chart run down and your John duets were obviously massive but for me the two tracks that define you are ‘I Honestly Love You’ and ‘ Magic’ (though how this could never break the Top 30 here in the UK is unbelievable).. there’s something about your vocals…
Olivia makes up a huge portion of my earliest musical memories, as the Physical era happened right around the time I started actually paying attention to what was on the radio in the morning. I’ve always loved the purity of her voice and how much emotion she could imbue into even the simplest song. She always seemed to be the most incredible, positive personality in everything that she did. I had hoped that she would be able to beat this round of cancer as well, but I know the outlook was bleak from the start. RIP, Olivia. You are much loved and will be missed greatly.
I heard the news last night, and I’m not sure what word to use, not quite depressed, but a bit more than sad, but whatever the proper word is I didn’t really feel that way until reading these comments.
She was a beautiful woman with a lovely voice. I was never really a fan (but I did watch my share of Grease and Xanadu, and remember her concert appearing on HBO back in the day) but even so, it seems artists such as she who nevertheless were part of your life are like a candle, and when the flame is snuffed, the world seems just a bit darker, and you are reminded of your own mortality.
I had the Greatest Hits on tape just before I started buying vinyl. All pre Grease with some good covers, schmaltzy yes but a sweet voice and often heart felt. Made “Country Roads” enjoyable. I really liked “Hopelessly Devoted To You” and Grease could have been one of the greatest musicals ever if not for the horror show of a last 5 mins.
A gentle, kind lady that was much loved there is no better thing can be said of someone.
I lived 2 doors away from her father Brin, his second wife, and her stepbrother and stepsister in Newcastle back in the early 70s and she came for a visit just after her first album hit (one of my favourite debuts of all time). I was absolutely besotted with her. She was on the cover of TV Week at the time and my mother sent me down to get her autograph. Back in those days my siblings and hers used to wander in and out of each others houses freely so in I went and called out hello and her wonderful stepmom Val said “In here!” and there Olivia was, lying on a bed chatting away while Val was folding laundry. I was absolutely starstruck and when she turned around to look at me, I froze. I asked if she’d sign the mag and she said “Sure, who’s it for?” So shy was this 7 year-old boy, all I could think to say was “Umm my mother”. A day I’ll (obviously) never forget.
She was a huge part of my musical 70s (Olivia, Carly Simon & ABBA were like a divine trinity to me) and I always have a playlist at the ready on my pod. Brotherly Love, If Not For You, Rosewater, What Is Life, The Last Time You Loved, Sam, Making A Good Thing Better, The Long & Winding Road, Mary Skeffington, Love Song, If, Loving You Ain’t Easy, Clearly Love, Amoureuse, Feeling Best, Maybe Then I’ll Think Of You, Changes, I Will Touch You, Landslide, and of course, Magic. Unforgettable. An Extraordinary Lady. Always with me.
What a lovely story :)
I never really cared too much for her and possibly because I didn’t really feel a connection and I have to admit I only watched Grease once and it was not even in English, so it didn’t click. I did buy the Physical CD reissue. I have some of the movies she is in. Every time I saw her name listed in a movie I would always think “Hah, cool” even though my feelings about her had not changed. She always looked happy and super friendly.
However, when I read yesterday evening about her passing I was shocked and felt quite sad, and I really mean it when I say that I feel like the world is a sadder place without her. Talk about taking someone for granted. I know there are millions who will miss her and her contributions to the Arts and the fight against cancer. I feel for you. RIP ONJ
John Travolta and Olivia Newton John was an incredible combination for Grease.
The first time I saw the movie I was trying to figure out why Sandy didn’t look like the Sandy in the You’re The One That I Want video, that was on TOTP every week. As an eleven year old, that’s what I was expecting to see, and ultimately it was worth the wait.
I saw the movie again in Cyprus and loved it, even with the Greek subtitles splashed across the screen.
I always loved Olivia’s music and her looks and image were fabulous. I’ll have to dig out her Soul Kiss 12” single.
I tried to see her in concert with Beth Nielsen Chapman, who is great, and Amy Sky, who I don’t know, but I just couldn’t make the trip work out.
RIP Olivia…man that’s a tough one cuz she was such a staple of my youth…I recall receiving that “Xanadu” soundtrack as a 13 year old as a bar mitzvah gift & played the crap out of it…”Magic” was my fave song at the time, but always went back to “Dancin'”, her wacky oddball fun rock/swing jazz duet with NY rockers the Tubes…my dad played the “Have You Never Been Mellow??” album constantly when as a young kid, her music was such a staple of my youth, loved “Grease”, yep her countryesque ballads were both sad and irresistible that you instantly queue up for more…been wanting a good career-spanning boxset for years but the 2CD “Gold” is a solid placeholder until one happens, the “Tomorrow” soundtrack is a fun listen, the “Physical” deluxe reissue is great…one of my fave singles of her’s is on there, “Make A Move On Me”, as is the video of the almost powerpop gem “A Little More Love”…she will be missed absolutely…and I loved that video of the TV show with ONJ, ABBA & Andy Gibb…I’m sure Barry will be sending a huge tribute message… she’s been close with the whole Gibb family for decades and he I’m sure is taking it pretty hard…for me, Olivia will be missed big time…and Kawgompie, my sincere condolences for your loss too…I’m getting my first colonoscopy soon…it runs in my family…
Sad day. As music fans we keep losing our musicians and we’re left with the memories and of course the music. But when I look at the survivors like Dylan & McCartney I can’t imagine how much personal loss they have gone through over the years. Is Neil Young right? Is is better to burn out than fade away? RIP Olivia!
A Little More Love is my favourite. Love her Grease and Xanadu songs as well. In my opinion, Psysical was the last great song from her.
So F’ing sad. Olivia was AN angel. My first crush. Her music is immortal.
I heard the news yesterday and I think I only know 2 things from her : Grease and the hit single Physical.
Goldfrapp covered Physical in 2001 and it was an excellent version.
Olivia Newton John’s epitaph should be proof that the Grammys are worthless. If she was a better country singer than Dolly Parton Loretta Lynne and Joni Mitchell I’m the 23 Beatle!
Not sure what your comment means. She won the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1973, a year when she also won Most Promising Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music. Her other three Grammy’s didn’t have anything to do with the Country Music category.
Bless you, Olivia. I’m off to listen to ‘Magic’ on repeat for a while…
Actually, I wouldn’t call her better than them, more of a just-as-distinctive-and-effective-and-memorable equal…
I didn’t know it was a (John Denver) cover at the time but her recording of “Take Me Home Country Roads”, from a Japanese bootleg cassette (that borrowed mostly from her “First Impressions” album) was the first song I EVER loved & subsequently played on repeat. So sad to hear of her passing (& almost as shocked to learn Olivia was on my radar even before she was on Kylie Minogue’s, despite Kylie being older than me).
Sad news. She fought cancer for a very long time and became a great fund & awareness raiser against cancer. At least she made it to 73. My wife passed away last week from cancer at 53. Not saying that for sympathy but to make people aware. Get your colonoscopies and mammograms now. The demographics of this site are probably such that you should all have had one by now. Colonoscopies as of age 45. Do it, it saves lives.
Rest in peace Olivia. You were extremely talented and put that to great use. You touched many.
Spot on! I’m thinking of you Kauwgompie x
I’m so sorry to hear about your news.
Best wishes to you in the USA.
Regards,
Sending you some proper hugs :(
Deep condolences to you and your family, far too soon to lose someone.
I won’t go into details but for various reasons I totally echo your comment re getting checked for Cancer.
RIP Olivia, another sad sad loss.
Deepest sympathies Kauwgompie. I lost my mother to cancer at the same age as Olivia, but even so, your loss at such a young age, well all I can say is that my heart goes out to you.
53 is way too young. l feel for you greatly mr. kauwgompie.
And for the gents, there’s the added bonus that they can take a good look at your prostate on the way past, at least forestalling the need for the dreaded “digital examination” (which, contrary to how it sounds, is not conducted online!).
I’ve lost both my wonderful parents in the last couple of years – I know it’s not the same, but it gives me a greater appreciation of what someone losing a close loved one is going through. Well wishes from others – even strangers – make a difference, so I’m sure those you receive from the SDE community will be appreciated. Please accept my own condolences during this very tough period.
My deepest condolences to you and your family Kauwgompie. Take care.
In regards to cancer checks, add Prostate to the list as well. I had to have mine out 4 months ago.
It’s a simple blood test Gentlemen!!!!
I’m really sorry for your loss Kauwgompie.
Condolences to you and your family.
My deepest and heartfelt sympathies to you at such a difficult time. Thanks for having the care and compassion to stress how important these tests are. Your post has touched many people. Take care.
@Kauwgompie – thank you, as a nurse, i couldn’t have said it much better myself. my condolences to you and yours. ~ RN,BSN,RNCM
My deepest condolences to you and your familie Kauwgompie. Stay strong. Cancer is a terrible disease. I have lost several uncles and a niece to this disease. So you are right about colonoscopies and mammograms.
That is crushing news, so so sorry!
And need to further echo the need to get that colonoscopy. Not only for early cancer checks, but for other things they can find like me being on the verge of full on diverticulitis and am now cutting way back on the seeds & nuts to keep from getting that. Hate missing out on all my beloved cashews & pecans, but hate the thought of the alternative more.
My thoughts are with you, Kauwgompie. Also, you’ve inspired me to stop procrastinating and to finally, after 2 years of pressure from my primary physician, schedule my first colonoscopy.
Kauwgompie – so sorry for your loss. It’s a ruthless disease and I would echo everything you say about getting the check ups.
I was diagnosed with cancer at 53. I’m 58 now and alive thanks to some brilliant surgeons. I lost a kidney in the process but having two was just being greedy anyway.
Again, I’m not mentioning this for any sympathy, but just to make you all aware that I felt no pain or displayed any symptoms right until the moment this thing got so big it was about to burst a kidney open. So I would encourage anybody to get as many checks ups as you can – whether it be CT scan or just routine blood test. So if you are of a certain age – even if you feel fit and healthy – you may not be – and so much can be picked up from simple bloods these days .
Anyway, lecture over – back to the music…
My condolences to you and your famly.
I lost my mother to cancer back in 2009. She was just 52.
May your wife Rest In Peace, Kauwgompuie.
Sending well wishes your way.
The ‘Physical’ album is tremendous and was the soundtrack to my very first proper love affair!
‘Landslide’ – the smash hit that never was.
Very sad news.
A lovely singer – a beautiful woman – and a very fine human being.
Rest in Peace.
My first memory of her was seeing my father and some of his friends watching her sing “I Honestly Love You” on some TV show and all of them were absolutely transfixed and I think would have sold everything at that moment and lived as paupers if she had asked them to.
While my favorite song of hers is “Magic” I love her pre Physical/Grease period the best, the sweet singer of sad love songs that rip out your heart and you’re happy about it & ask for seconds. She was such a wonderful woman and will be missed.
Must agree! Those 70s albums that lead to Grease and beyond are perfect examples of 70s pop. Her voice made them soar.
Tough way to spend my birthday. Grease was a big part of our culdesac culture back in the day, so my mind went reeling to some great times. Thank you, Olivia.
If you haven’t seen it, try and catch this TV special. It features Olivia, Abba and Andy Gibb (who certainly got the “Good looking” genes in that family) having an absolute blast for 20 minutes. It’s utterly packed with memories and it sounds superb..
https://youtu.be/D8mQ9nt5WAY
Never seen that before. It’s lovely, thanks for the link. Weird how artists so rarely worked together on records in the 70’s and 80’s but did it all the time on Prime Time TV.
My favorite album of hers will always be Have You Never Been Mellow.
Very sad sad news. She was blessed with the most beautiful voice, possibly best highlighted on I Honestly Love You but there are so many others I could highlight. As a person she seemed to have such a warm heart, fighting tirelessly for animal welfare and fundraising large sums for cancer charities. Twist Of Fate is a favourite of mine and I’ll be playing it loud and remembering you today Olivia. Rest in peace, you have left a wonderful legacy.
I have fond memories of queuing up at the Old ABC picture house in Hull with my sister when we were kids to see Grease. The queue went around the block it was such a big thing (even as big as Star Wars which we also queued for!). Happy innocent days, she was a great singer and the performance on Xanadu with ELO is something else. RIP Olivia.
I went to see Grease three times in a week in Walsall back in the day and it was kind of an obsession for this 11 year old. Ashamed to say I even stole two quid out of my Mum’s handbag so I could get in on the bus and see it again.
Like many youngsters there was just too much going on to stay in touch properly but re-found ONJ about 12 ago when I was hunting for old Top of the Pops editions that had Mike Oldfield on them. The edition from 7th December 1978 had a studio performance of Mirrors by Sally Oldfield so I was thrilled to grab it when the chance came. These were repeats from UK Gold a long gone tv channel, but the key thing is was it was presented by the infamous Jimmy Saville and he really does make your skin crawl in this episode. This means it will never be repeated but two songs ahead of Sally was Olivia singing “A Little more love”, in all her head flicking glory. That turned me back on to her, now as an appreciative adult, the rest is history.
(As an aside how unlucky were the Oldfields as Mike’s fabulously awkward performance of Guilty on 3rd May 1979 was also hosted by Savile and as such is also consigned to the great dustbin of history – It also is an excrutiating watch. It doesn’t get better as the voiceover at the end says “And tomorrow’s show is hosted by Dave Lee Travis…..”).
Last October 23rd the Now 70s channel had an hour long segment called, obviously, Olivia Neutron-Bomb which I was fortunate enough to record. It covered stuff like If Not for You (Black and white), Banks of the Ohio (strangely sepia), Sam (beautiful) and a completely different video version of “A little more love”, made much later. Up through Xanadu, Magic and the Grease hits.
It’s a terrific watch (particularly for the pre-Grease footage) which I only reviewed two Sundays ago and again late last night through tears.
RIP Olivia and thank you for everything. You will be sorely missed.
The Now 70s channel has an “RIP Olivia” programme tonight (Tues 9th) at 9pm – probably mostly the same clips (if its not the exact same programme re-named!)
EDIT: This seems to have been rescheduled for 9pm Weds 10th instead!
You were right Kevin, it was (sadly) exactly the same material in exactly the same order just with a different strapline. A shame they couldn’t have expanded it slightly (Did we really need “We Go Together”) with some earlier material.
Ironically the programme before was “Hold on Tight – It’s ELO” which finished with Xanadu next to last and then 50 minutes later it was played again for Olivia.
Like you I was Grease mad and had a bit of a crush on Olivia at the time.
Such a sad loss – RIP Olivia you nailed this thing called life.
P.s Chris I hope you paid your Mum that £2 back
Ha Mik. I didn’t, but she’s 80 and lives 300 yards down the road so… I’m paying for it now, boy am I paying for it now.
I’ve never seen Grease or heard much of her songs, but still I was very saddened to hear about her passing. This shows how sunny and lovable person she was that even “not-really-fan-people” cares.
…because you can never have too many talented people in this world. And every loss darkens our brief lives…
I’m old enough to remember her breaking through in the UK with hits like “If Not For You” and “What Is Life?”, and appearing on the Cliff Richard TV show. In Disco45, there was a short bio where it discussed her earlier movie/band “Toomorrow” but it wasn’t easy to see (or hear) this at the time.
Of course, you can get it now via YouTube, and for all its faults its a thoroughly entertaining (and funny) movie – too daft for the adult market but also too saucy (at times) for a kids audience.
And, the soundtrack album (RSD) was going for a bargain price on the Rough Trade website:
(well, it was: Toomorrow – From the Harry Saltzman – Don Kirshner Film Toomorrow – Original Soundtrack Album – Vinyl LP+ – Rough Trade)
A sad loss, she was clearly a lovely person as well as a star. Her lovely, dreamy version of Lesley Duncan’s Love Song was the only record of hers I actually bought but I always admired her music and followed her career with pleasure.
Judith Durham too, was also a great talent and a big star with The Seekers in the mid 1960’s; their hits were loved by many across the generations in a way that is rarely seen today.
another one of my beloved singers is gone yesterday…
sad news to start my week…
RIP Olivia
Sad sad news gave so much ! Thanks olivia .
Those of us who were adolescents when Physical was dominating the charts will be feeling….
Anyway, I’ve loved Grease ever since it came out, I even had the photo-novelization book of the movie (the only one I ever saw, did I imagine this? Was it done for other movies?), will definitely be spinning the soundtrack today.
RIP Sandy.
No, you didn’t imagine it. I had one, it was a fairly small book, typical paperback size with hundreds of stills from the film with speech bubbles and strap lines from the dialogue. It was something akin to those 200ft / 400ft cine film versions of films like Star Wars that you could buy. It really was a highlights only kind of thing. Stupidly I cut mine up and made a scrap book out of it, which was ultimately the same thing but with bigger pages and you could only see one side of the page, so all in all a stupid idea even for an 11 year old.
A few other films did have photo-novels during that era , a friend still owns the one they did for the animated Ralph Bakshi Lord Of The Rings movie.
They were called FotoNovels. I had the ones for Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Heaven Can Wait.
I had a couple of those books: Close Encounters and Rocky II.
It was a quite cool if short lived idea to sell books to non readers…
It even translated into German and i still own the one for Bakshi’s take on ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ and this one for ‘Grease’.
Slade In Flame, A Hard Days Night, Help, Yellow Submarine, Tommy, Stardust (and maybe That’ll Be The Day although i’m not sure about that one)
R.I.P. Olivia … You will be missed.
I was aware of Olivia at an early age with Grease and the Greatest Hits album. But it was with albums Xanadu and Physical that I will remember her, I love the song ‘Magic’ and was really happy years later to discover that John Lennon also really liked the song.
The Physical video album was turned into a tv special with additional linking scenes added, I wish this would get a dvd release as it’s the version I watched repeatedly. It’s remarkable how much Olivia resembled Princess Diana during this period, watch the Physical video near the start she has her head down and looks to the camera.
The other moment was in 1995 when Olivia was promoting the Gaia album, she performed ‘No matter what you do’ on a tv show. I thought this will be a huge hit, I went to my local record shop the weekend after and started to ask the chap about the new Olivia single. I didn’t get chance to finish when he said, “you are about the 100th person to ask in the last couple of days” but he explained that it was only available on the album. The Gaia album was released by a small label and they did have the ability to get the single release so Olivia lost her last chance to get at UK top ten, possibly number one.
Most important she was always positive which, in the world today, is very rare and probably helped her fight over the last 30 years.
Thank you Olivia for providing an important part of the soundtrack to my life, if I can recommend one song it would be one she wrote called ‘The Promise (The Dolphin song)’.
‘the promise (the dolphin song)’ is one of the best songs from her career and is so beautiful and sad.
I think she touched the hearts and minds of so many people around the world during that “magic period” (1978-1985). Apart from her stunning beauty and singing talent, she really radiated positivity and good energy. This really seemed to come out easily from her and was not faked. At the top of her game, this was mixed with a naughty, good-humoured sex appeal, which made for an explosive combination. She will be remembered forever because, at one moment in time, she embodied perfectly youth, beauty, hope, transformation.
I remember when that video album was a tv special and I taped it and watched it over and over. So much effort went into the recent 40th anniversary of Physical but I was disappointed it wasn’t the version they used. I guess it was unattainable. She walks up to the camera at the beginning, after her yoga stretching on the beach, and said “Hi! I’m Olivia..” God she was beautiful.
So glad you mentioned The Promise and the Gaia Album, my favourites too. I think ‘The Way Of Love’ is a song for now and always too.
Not my music but she was a great person.Her cancer fundraising and support for medical facilities treating cancer was amazing.Her support for animal welfare causes was also fantastic.
She was a truly wonderful human being and her loss is being felt widely and deeply here in Australia.
The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Heidelberg, Melbourne seems really impressive and one of her many great achievements (for someone who also won 4 Grammys). Here’s the centre’s website: https://www.onjcancercentre.org/
You have been loved, Sandy. R.I.P.
Can I recommend a superb Olivia Newton John GOLD compilaton, not available in the UK. The essential story up to the present day.
You can get it from Amazon UK albeit they import if from the US store but without any import duties thankfully. Just takes a little longer to arrive…
Very sad. Pretty sure she was my first celeb crush when I was 11 or so. Loved her in Xanadu (and her songs on that soundtrack) as well as her 70s and 80s songs. She will be missed.