Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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88 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Can't Believe How Awesome This Is, June 19, 2005
After several woefully inadequate Livvy comps comes this Grand Slam from our friends at Hip-O. It's got FORTY tracks, including bunches of songs I never dreamed they'd bother looking for. Finally you can follow ON-J's complete chart progression from sweet country-pop critics' target... to leather-clad (yeah baby) "Grease" and "Totally Hot" pop-rock lust goddess...through chart dominance and chronic headband-wearing with "Physical"...through declining chart fortunes for such goodies as "Soul Kiss" and the Elton John collaboration "The Rumour."
I feared "Gold" would still leave off a bunch of key hits like Donna Summer's entry in this series, but it doesn't. It even goes Beneath the Top Forty to bring us gems including these...
"Banks of the Ohio": Followup to "If Not For You" is not a sweet love song at all, which is probably why it stopped at #94. Listen to the lyrics. How could you, Livvy?
"Something Better To Do": This is an excellent broken-heart song with a great lyric and a typically subtle vocal. A #13 hit the "Magic" and "Back To Basics" sets should have included.
"Every Face Tells a Story": I got this single after seeing it in one of the Billboard books and wondering why it didn't chart higher (#55). Paul Grein's lovingly-penned liner notes opine that the world wasn't ready for a harder sound from our diva. It's not exactly Joan Jett, but it does have a little guitar bite to it. I'm so glad they included it.
"Sam" (#20 in 1977): Actually the other hits discs included this too. It's just really pretty and if you haven't paid it much attention you should.
"Landslide": Intense midchart (#51) followup to "Physical" and "Make a Move on Me" should have done better.
"Heart Attack" and "Tied Up": Thanks Hip-O for including both the "new" songs added to ON-J's Greatest Hits Volume 2.
"Livin' In Desperate Times": Hard-to-find #31 New-Waveish followup to "Twist of Fate" is even more manic than that Top 5 hit. Otherwise available only briefly on CD on the you'd-never-buy-it-anyway soundtrack to "Two of a Kind." Which I see is again out of print.
"The Best of Me": Wow. Never dreamed they'd include this minor (#80) hit duet from David Foster's 1986 solo album on Atlantic. Hip-O, I love you. Probably Foster's only lead vocal out of about a thousand hits he's produced, this love ballad was written by Richard Marx and is also popular among Barry Manilow fans (he does it in concert and put a version on his box set).
"The Rumour" (#62, 1988): I loved this song so much that when I saw it struggle for video and airplay against weaker efforts from ingenues like Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, and Kylie I realized how screwed up the charts and the music business could be. Limiting a song's exposure because of an artist's age is beyond wrong. And it's not like Olivia wasn't still a hottie (as she remains today)! Some of it is sexism as well since Elton John (cowriter/producer/keyboards/backing vocals) was still able to make the top reaches of the chart with the similar (and also great) "I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That."
Olivia's only Top 40 entry not here is "I Can't Help It," a duet with Andy Gibb from 1980 that's available on Andy's hits discs. You need to get and/or keep 1992's "Back To Basics" CD for "I Need Love," a personal favorite that was ignored even more than "The Rumour" four years earlier. An AIDS-aware caution against casual sex, this was produced by Giorgio Moroder and is extraordinary. I still recall Olivia talking about it as a guest on Miami's Y-100, one of the few stations who played it.
I hope you found this helpful. As someone who is almost always disappointed at best-ofs that leave off important stuff, this one has me dancing, literally, figuratively, and 'round and 'round (#82 in 1979). The world is a better place because this CD has been made! Buy it at once!
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Compilation Vindicates The Wait...., June 16, 2005
After all these years of tolerating small incomplete compilations of Olivia's work, this one throws the previously released works into oblivion. The song selection is the most comprehensive of her American releases, the later albums released in her native Australia are not included. Almost all the tracks from her two Greatest Hits packages are here, not included is the self-penned "Changes" from Hits album one. There are other omissions, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from the album "Making A Good Thing Better," "Toughen Up" from "Soul Kiss" that was a video hit, "Take A Chance" from the "Twist Of Fate" soundtrack featuring John Travolta and "I Need Love" from "Back To Basics" that was remixed to 12" and a club hit. These omissions do nothing to deter this package from being what it is, a beautiful testimony to a career of a fantastic singer and all around great person. The song selection is presented in chronological order so we can listen to the growth of her artistry and concludes with her tender re-recording of "I Honestly Love You" featuring an arrangement and backing vocals by Babyface. The recordings in the seventies are numerous because releasing albums every six months was considered normal and was expected by both the label and buying public. Churning out that bulk of material meant that a lot of "trash" was recorded to fill each and every album, given the quality of material here suggests that every album was approached carefully. The liner notes is a well written summary and the Billboard position of each single is listed as well as the album each song is from. The mastering rivals that of the Austrailan version of "Back To Basics," a two disc set that contains all her singles up to the album "Gaia." I must be honest here, I attempted to purchase this set at Media Play because the "Gold" series was on sale for $14.99 and when I tried to find this title in the series I was told that the buyer for Media Play declared this set wouldn't sell and refused to allow his Columbus, Ohio units to carry it, orders could be possible. Fuming, I went to the old standby "Borders" and bought it full-price. The moral?? If you want a title that is not mainstream you know what they say, "Stay Away From Media Play"!!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At Last: A Remarkable Career Retrospective, July 3, 2005
Though not quite the complete box set Olivia's fans have been waiting for, GOLD captures the artist's seminal recordings in unduplicated sound glory and stands as a terrific testament to her singular contribution to popular music. With sterling sound and wonderful liner notes that highlight the singer's incredible career, this collection is a MUST for anyone who ever hummed along to "I Honestly Love You" or worked out to "Physical." From the opening notes of Dylan's "If Not for You" to the final track (a remake of the Grammy winning "I Honestly Love You" with Babybace on backing vocals), this compilation trumps all of Olivia's previous sets by including rarely compiled tracks like "The Rumour" and "Living in Desparate Times" as well as "Fool Country", "Totally Hot" and the stunning pre-Grease releases "Making a Good thing Better" and "Let it Shine."
A few notable tracks are missing - which is why no fan will ever give up on a well-deserved box set - including Olivia's outstanding take on "DOn't Cry for Me Argentina" as well as latter-day gems from more recent productions like "Don't Cut Me Down", and cuts from "2" and "Indigo". Most glaring omission are two wonderful duets: a top 10 hit called "I Can't Help It" with Andy Gibb and the sweeping atmospheric love song "Fly Away" with John Denver, both of which would have served to recognize the artist's ability to wrap her lovely voice around any melody. But this is not a critism per se, and instead a plea for a more comprehensive career retrospective, which we can all look forward to.
GOLD is - simply said - a MUST OWN COLLECTION of one of the greatest voices of our time. This is a soundtrack to our lives, courtesy of the magical angelic voice that IS Olivia Newton-John.
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~ Olivia Newton-John
~ Olivia Newton-John
~ Diana Ross
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by Olivia Newton-John 
