Customer Reviews

20th Century Masters - The Best of Olivia Newton-John: The Christmas Collection

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It's true: nice to have an ONJ Xmas CD, but I couldn't get passed Kenny Loggin's whining on the 3rd track. Ugh: add to this Vince Gill and Clint Black and this CD has just become a drag. I'd love to have an Olivia Christmas CD that was just her.

Olivia Newton-John is always a great and nice voice to hear so this compilation of christmas songs is OK for me. I would expect something better from her, I mean a special christmas album with new recordings under the directions of a great producer. Not the case, this is just a nice and low profile CD that you can add -without any problem- to your season music collection.

Boy oh boy, I was very excited to see this album in the store. I was just thinking a few years ago that ONJ should release a Christmas album. I rushed home with my treasure to find it was lacking ONJ golden touch. The songs that she decided to place on this album, could have been better. She has too many duets, of wich is fine, but I want to hear her only. I am used to hearing a wide range of christmas songs froim each artist. ONJ seem to stay on the heavy more seriouse songs,{I.E. silent night, ave maria, and O holy night] Dont get me wrong I like those songs but I prefer more upbeat songs like Winter Wonderland, Do you hear what I hear??, and Jingle Bells. I hope that she records another Christmas very soon.

Yes, It may just be repackaged from 2 years ago, but for the price, and for Olivia not recording any new Christmas songs, I'll take it! I'd listen to her sing the phonebook if I had to.
She does an amazing job with the difficult, and much attempted, "Ave Maria", and though the collection of songs here are from various different sources, including a Kenny Loggins TV Christmas special, the audio quality is top notch and they sound like they belong together.

While it would have been nice to get some new material for the reissue of this CD, i agree with some reviewers that the songs do work seamlessly and don't sound like they were gathered together from different sources-and i'd prefer they are all on one CD anyway so I CAN just pop in one single Olivia Christmas CD. My favorite track is by far "Christmas Never Felt Like This," a song that was originally recorded for a benefit compilation CD in the mid-90s, and clearly had the most production value put into it (most of these tracks do sound like the 'live' recordings they are, and had little post-production).

NOTE TO OLIVIA FANATICAL COLLECTORS: Olivia does a solo rendition of "Away in a Manger" on a christmas collection called "Cooking Christmas." it's out of print, but you can still get it used here on Amazon.

Olivia has a vocal gift that she doesn't always share with us as often as we'd like, which is why we long-time fans know enough to grab any Xmas offerings she tosses our way. Her voice is soft, beautiful, and soothing, but sometimes--as is the case with her rendition of "Ave Maria"--she sounds a bit uncomfortable. I'm not especially fond of the duets, particularly that goofy version of "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" in which she seems to want to mimick Shirley Temple during the mid-section.

Other than that, all the songs with just her on them are lovely, and the two standout tracks, the lovely smooth jazz feel of "The First Noel" and her beautiful rendition of "Silver Bells" with the London Symphony Orchestra make this collection a more than worthwhile purchase.