OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (UK)

Born: 26 September 1948
Died: 8 August 2022 (aged 73)

Born in Cambridge in England, Olivia grew up in Melbourne, Australia. She was the granddaughter of Max Born, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize, and the daughter of Brinley Newton-John, an MI5 officer who worked on the Enigma project during World War 2. Brinley is credited as taking Nazi leader Rudolph Hess into custody after the war. Olivia started out singing in an all-girl group called Sol Four when she was just 14 years old. She started making a name for herself on Australian radio and television going under the name ‘Lovely Livvy’. When she won a talent shown on Australian TV, she used the prize money to travel to the UK where, in 1966, she recorded her first single, ‘Till You Say You’ll Be Mine’, a cover of a Jackie DeShannon song. This, however, did not prove very popular and the world had to wait 5 years for the next Newton-John single which was a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘If Not For You’. Instead of using Dylan’s arrangement for the song, Olivia rather used the one George Harrison had recorded and this would give her her first hit as the song went to 7 in the UK and 25 in the US. Since then she has seen 5 US chart toppers and 3 UK chart toppers. The 5 US chart toppers included, ‘You’re The One That I Want’, her 1978 hit with John Travolta from the film ‘Grease’. Interestingly, Olivia’s sister, Rona, would marry Jeff Conaway who played Kenickie in the film. In total Olivia has managed 37 US and 30 UK ones.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
21-May-1971	If Not For You	1 (1)	10
04-Feb-1972	Banks Of The Ohio	9	9
06-Sep-1974	If You Love Me (Let Me Know)	1 (3)	20
29-Nov-1974	I Honestly Love You	5	10
22-Apr-1977	Every Face Tells A Story	5	9
21-Jul-1978	You’re The One That I Want	2	18
27-Oct-1978	Summer Nights	9	7
26-Sep-1980	Magic	5	9
19-Dec-1980	Xanadu	20	1
13-Aug-1982	Physical	11	6
26-Nov-1982	Heart Attack	4	12
23-Dec-1983	Twist Of Fate	5	16
		Total hits	12
		Total weeks	127

Biggest climber awards	6
Star rater climbs	12
Biggest fallers	8
Weeks with oldest in the charts	3
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	22
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	12
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	126
Top 30 points ranking	13
Top 20 points ranking	14
Top 30 points	2699
Top 20 points	1451

‘You’re The One That I Want’ and ‘Summer Nights’ were duets with John Travolta and both from the film ‘Grease’. ‘Xanadu’ was a duet with ELO and from the film ‘Xanadu’. ‘Twist of Fate’ was from the film ‘Two Of A Kind’.

Olivia would have the tied highest hits count for any female act (equal with Barbara Ray) and the tied 11^th highest overall. Her weeks count was the 3^rd highest for a female act and 17^th highest overall. She had the highest points total for any female act, using both a top 20 and a top 30 points basis.

She was 1 of 5 women who saw 2 number 1 hits. No woman managed more than 2.