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69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Look at the press release for this baby! WOW Finally ..., July 26, 2005
This review is from: Olivia Newton-John - Video Gold 1 (DVD)
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2005--
All of the Superstar's Video Classics from "I Honestly Love You" to "Magic," "Hopelessly Devoted To You" to "Physical"
Pop icon Olivia Newton-John was one of the first and most endearing artists of the video generation. Her clips for hits such as "Deeper Than The Night," "Twist Of Fate," "Physical," "Soul Kiss," "Magic" and others became instant MTV staples. Today, many of these highly treasured videos have found a second life on VH-1.
Now, on the heels of a new tour and the June release of her first two-CD retrospective -- Olivia Newton-John - Gold (Geffen/UMe) -- the DVDs Olivia Newton-John - Video Gold I and Video Gold II (Geffen/UMe), released August 16, 2005, bring together for the first time all of the video highlights and biggest hits of this groundbreaking music video artist. Combined, the two volumes include all of her conceptual videos from the Physical, Twist Of Fate and Soul Kiss video collections plus a handful of live videos of earlier hits as well as rarities.
Featured among the 19 selections on Video Gold I are live 1982 performances (shot on her Physical tour) of the early '70s classics "Let Me Be There" (gold, #6, Grammy winner), "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" (gold, #5) and "Please Mr. Please" (gold, #3). In 1978, she starred in Grease, the most successful movie musical in history, and this video compilation contains the video clip version of "Hopelessly Devoted To You" (#3, gold). That same year, she issued Totally Hot, which spun off the pre-MTV videos for the title track, two versions of the gold #3 "A Little More Love" and "Deeper Than The Night." Her 1980 film Xanadu yielded a blockbuster album and the #1 gold "Magic."
Video Gold I also boasts not only the videos for the best-known songs from 1981's Physical -- "Physical" (platinum, #1 for 10 weeks) and "Make A Move On Me" (#5) -- but also those for the album's eight other tracks: "Landslide," "Carried Away," "Recovery," "The Promise (The Dolphin Song)," "Love Make Me Strong," "Stranger's Touch," "Falling" and "Silvery Rain."
Video Gold II presents 20 selections, reaching back to Xanadu with live versions of "Suddenly" and the Top 10 "Xanadu" (featuring ELO), Grease's "You're The One That I Want" (#1, platinum) and '70s fan favorite "Sam" all taped live in 1982. "Heart Attack" (#3) and "Tied Up" appeared on 1982's Greatest Hits. "Livin' In Desperate Times," the John Travolta duet "Twist Of Fate" (#5), "Take A Chance" and "Shaking You" debuted on 1983's Two Of A Kind soundtrack. The 1985 album Soul Kiss contributes its title track, "Culture Shock," "Emotional Tangle," "Toughen Up" and "The Right Moment."
Also seen and heard are: from 1988's The Rumour, "Can't We Talk It Over In Bed," "Reach Out For Me" and the title track; from 1992's Back To Basics, "I Need Love;" and the 1998 #1 Adult Contemporary remake with Babyface of Olivia's double Grammy winning "I Honestly Love You" (gold, #1).
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Before Madonna, There was Olivia!, December 16, 2005
This review is from: Olivia Newton-John - Video Gold 1 (DVD)
Olivia was really the first Queen of the music video. Olivia was the first artist to film a music video for each track on a studio album (Physical)..Olivia was sexy, sultry and made some great dance tracks in the 80s. Like Madonna, she would reinvent herself..In the late 1970's, she came on the scene as an "Innocent Country Girl" and had many hits such as PLEASE,MISTER,PLEASE and HAVE YOU EVER BEEN MELLOW (Which, Surprised me, DOES NOT have a video clip included on the VIDEO GOLD DVDS-I'm sure there is footage of her out there performing this song on a TV show like Dinah Shore, Johnny Carson or Merv Griffin)..Then, with her good girl gone bad role in the greatest Broadway to Film version of GREASE, Olivia used the role to help reinvent herself into a sexy, sultry pop performer with the song A LITTLE MORE LOVE from her TOTALLY HOT crossover from country to pop release..She then starred in the Futuristic Disco movie Xanadu and recorded some of her best work with ELO backing her on the movie's title track, Suddenly and Magic...Then, She moved into the 1980's with the great Physical Album with a new look and utilized music videos to promote the album. She even had a great concert aired on Pay TV (I remember it was on a Pay Station called PREVIEW (This was Pre-cable & Sattelite=now, I'm dating myself), which has clips of it found on these two DVDs. Then, Olivia released Greatest Hits, VOl. 2 with tow awesome tracks TIED UP & HEART ATTACK. Almost simultaneously, I remember Olivia starred with Travolta in the movie TWO OF A KIND and OLIVIA recorded some of her best work for the soundtrack (TWIST OF FATE)=but something, or SOMEONE happened...MADONNA!!!! Madonna was a new face & body that was full of Sexuality and a new sound....Yes, Olivia try to go toe to toe with her with the Sexy SOUL KISS release, but the songs weren't that good (Mostly becuase her best songwriter, John Farrar wasn't in the mix for much new material) and I just remember CULTURE SHOCK just being a wierd song and felt like it was a "shocking" song used out of desperation to compete with the likes of Madonna...The Rumour was kool, being penned by Elton John and so was CAN'T WE TALK IT OVER IN BED=Olivia toned down her sexy image from her SOUL KISS days=she remained sexy, but started to throw in some of her "innocence" again...Later in the 90's, she released WARM AND TENDER, going back to her "Innocence" days...Then, later in the 90's put out a great Hits Package with an AWESOME dance track I NEED LOVE..why she didn't release a full studio album of material like this, I don't know=It surely would have made her come back strong on the dance charts and could have been up there with CHER...Finally, she went back to country and remade I honestly love you....So, from all this, Olivia was definately one of the original divas...she had her time and place and has made pop history with her great music and was an innovative, pioneer with her music videos. I think OLIVIA should do a dance album and use songwriters and producers that have currently worked with CHER & KYLIE MINOGUE == If she did, I feel it would make her a megastar again and put her on top again...Oh,yeah, the DVDs...I WAS PSYCHED when I saw these in the store!!!! IT has 99% of her hits (like I said before, doesn't include HAVE YOU EVER BEEN MELLOW)...But, I has the complete collection of Physical, Twist of Fate & Soul Kiss Videos, plus other promo videos and clips from her OLIVIA LIVE concert from PAYTV..I loved Olivia, I still do and play these DVDs alot.I actually give these DVDs 10 stars!!!!..they are memory lane for me--a time before madonna and the heyday of MTV..Olivia was the original Video Diva!!!!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This fan expected something better... (part I), August 26, 2005
This review is from: Olivia Newton-John - Video Gold 1 (DVD)
I just got this DVD yesterday afternoon and couldn't wait to get back home to watch it and see the insert. I started with volume I and it played all the tracks from volume II! I figured I had 2 of the same discs but realized the problem had to do with the pressing. Although each discs are labelled, coded and packaged as volume I and II, disc 1 contains the other disc's material and vice-versa. This problem should only affect the Canadian editions and will hopefully be fixed, as people buying only one out of the two volumes might not be particularly happy with their purchase!
This comes in a clear Amaray-type case and the booklet has 8 pages, including 4 full pictures. The cover is designed to represent one half of a full picture and, as the result, the artwork for volume I is reversed. The DVD menus are very simple and feature the ONJ heart logo but no Olivia pictures, except for animated previews on the tracks selection pages. The cool thing is that on top of being able to play separate songs and the whole DVD, there's also a playlist feature, giving the option to view them in a different order.
If you think all Olivia Newton-John related reviews should be 100% positive, please stop reading here.
The digital transfer for this single-layer release is very average, at best, and overly compressed. In most cases, it's better than the "20th Century Masters" DVD but very grainy for the live songs, compared to the "Olivia Live In Concert" bootleg DVD from Korea. On the plus side, the audio sounds than on the tapes and the Korean bootleg.
While the audio presents noticeable limitations due to the fact that it's only available in Dolby Digital 2.0, the worse part is the remastering. Instead of using the original audio tracks, they edited the actual album tracks. "Landslide" is the album version, instead of the video mix, and there are no crowd sounds present at the beginning or end of the bar scenes from certain of the "Physical" videos.
Overall, it's great to finally have a lot (though not all) of Olivia Newton-John's videos on DVD but I feel they could've put more effort into it, quality-wise. Also, the live songs should've been released separately as the original "Olivia In Concert", since they're not actual videos and don't quite belong on this collection. While the retail price for this DVD is midline, I would rather have paid more for a better product.
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