In 1996, she and Travolta scored an airplay hit with “The Grease Megamix.” In 1998, she scored with a new, country-edged version of “I Honestly Love You,” co-produced by Foster and Tony Brown. Newton-John’s last three hits on the Hot 100 (or the Hot 100 Airplay chart) were new twists on her old hits. Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Houston and a new generation of female stars took over. But then, rather suddenly, her run was over. Newton-John landed her 15th and final top 10 hit on the Hot 100 in January 1984 with “Twist of Fate,” from the film Two of a Kind, in which she reunited with Travolta. All three received Emmy nominations in technical categories. Newton-John also headlined a series of TV specials for ABC, including A Special Olivia Newton-John, Olivia Newton John–Hollywood Nights and Olivia Newton John: Let’s Get Physical. She also sang an uncredited backing vocal on John Denver’s “Fly Away,” a lovely 1975 ballad from Denver’s Windsong, a No. In addition to her aforementioned team-ups with Travolta and ELO, she teamed with Andy Gibb for the Barry Gibb-written ballad “I Can’t Help It” (1980), Cliff Richard for “Suddenly” (also from Xanadu) and David Foster for “The Best of Me,” which Foster co-wrote with Jeremy Lubbock and a pre-fame Richard Marx. Several of Newton-John’s Hot 100 hits were collaborations. He singlehandedly wrote five of Newton-John’s 15 top 10 hits: “Have You Never Been Mellow,” “You’re the One That I Want,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “A Little More Love” and “Magic.” He also teamed with Tom Snow to write a sixth, “Make a Move on Me.” It was written, as were many of her hits, by John Farrar, an underrated songwriter who perfectly understood Newton-John’s voice and appeal. Newton-John’s follow-up single, “Have You Never Been Mellow,” also topped the Hot 100. Three other women - Anne Murray, Linda Ronstadt and k.d. Newton-John was the first female vocalist to win Grammys for both country and pop. It went on to win Grammys for record of the year and best pop vocal performance, female. In 1974, her elegant (critics invariably said “melodramatic”) recording of “I Honestly Love You” became her first No. (She also received CMA nominations that year for entertainer of the year, album of the year and single of the year.) But there were detractors too who felt that she and John Denver were pop artists who were invading their space. She won several major awards for country - a Grammy for best country vocal performance, female for “Let Me Be There,” an ACM Award for most promising female vocalist of 1973 and a CMA Award for female vocalist of the year for 1974. She also sang with the group Toomorrow in a British movie of the same name. She sang with Pat Carroll as Pat & Olivia. At age 16, she won a talent contest trip to England. 26, 1948, in Cambridge, England, but was raised in Melbourne, Australia. The film soundtrack spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and wound up with a Grammy nomination for album of the year. Newton-John also starred with John Travolta in the blockbuster Grease, which was the top-grossing film of 1978. 1 with Tapestry (1971) and her follow-up, Music (1972). The former Brill Building songwriter turned solo superstar hit No. At that time, Carole King was the only other female solo artist to achieve that feat. She topped the chart with both If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974) and her follow-up, Have You Never Been Mellow (1975). In 1975, she became just the second female solo artist to land back-to-back No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Physical,” which was only the second song in Hot 100 history (following Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life”) to log 10 weeks at No. She won a Grammy for music video of the year for her 1982 collection “Olivia Physical.” She was only the second artist to win a Grammy for video, following Michael Nesmith for “Michael Nesmith in Elephant Parts.” She was also one of the first artists to have significant success in video.
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