"Very often the things that you're most afraid of are the things that you really need to just go for," Dame Olivia Newton-John said in a 2021 interview with Today. "It's one of my most successful records, and I never would've dreamt that could've happened."
She was referring to the tremendous success of "Physical," the blockbuster song that made her one of the biggest pop stars of her time and won a GRAMMY for Video of the Year in 1982.
"Today the lyrics are like a lullaby, don't you reckon? But in those days…," the singer lightheartedly explained of the sexually charged sentiment of the track. "I remember listening to it and going, 'That's a really great song,' and didn't really tune in to what it was about. And then when I recorded it, I started to panic, and I called my manager and said, 'I think I've gone too far with this song. It's just too much.' And he said, 'Well, it's too late love, it's taken off everywhere.'"
Then, a plan was hatched: If a video was released depicting Newton-John exercising, then the lyrics could be interpreted in a more G-rated fashion. The scheme worked, and "Physical" shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed there for 10 weeks, making it the single the biggest hit of the 1980s.
But the success of "Physical" was only one impressive chapter of a generation-spanning career, cut short on Aug. 8 when the superstar died at 73 in California. "Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer," a statement from her husband, John Easterling, read.
For Newton-John, the numbers speak for themselves: 5 No. 1 hits, 14 gold albums and sales north of 100 million copies. What's more, Olivia Newton-John won four GRAMMYs and received 12 GRAMMY nominations overall. (In addition to "Physical," she took home trophies for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "I Honestly Love You" in 1975, and Best Country Vocal Performance, Female for "Let Me Be There" in 1974.)
In her wake, Newton-John leaves behind a world of admirers inspired by her fearlessness, talent and longevity. "Since I was 10 years old, I have loved and looked up to Olivia Newton-John. And, I always will," the singer Kylie Minogue wrote on Twitter. Mariah Carey — who was also influenced by Newton-John as a little girl — remembered getting the chance to perform with the star in Australia, calling her "one of the kindest, most generous and lovely people I've ever met."
"Olivia Newton-John was a beloved artist and an inspiration to many," Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. "Her music both on and off the screen will be forever cherished by our community. She will be missed dearly."
Elton John shared a similar sentiment, calling Newton-John "a beautiful voice and a warm and loving friend," while her Grease co-star John Travolta gushed, "Your impact was incredible." Singer Dionne Warwick said Newton-John simply was "One of the nicest people I had the pleasure of recording and performing with."
In fact, Warwick served as an early inspiration for Newton-John, who cited her along with singers Joan Baez and Nina Simone as a few of the vocal powerhouses she looked up to as a child herself. But while the Britain-born, Australia-raised singer knew she had a passion for performing, she initially did not pursue it professionally.
"I don't know if wanting to be a performer was a conscious thing," Newton-John explained on 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show' in 1998. "But [as a child] I was always dressing up, and doing shows, and singing and writing songs and poetry all the time… I loved to sing."
A turning point came when she was hanging out in her brother-in-law's coffee shop. "I'd just sit there next to the guy who was singing on stage," she recalled to O'Donnell. "He invited me up one night and I started singing along with him and it kind of went from there."
She decided to enter a singing contest in her native Australia at just 15 years old, belting out the Broadway classic "Everything's Coming Up Roses" — a performance that helped her not only win the competition, but seal her superstar fate.
Initially, Newton-John cemented an image as a sweet young singer with country twang, making her American TV debut on 'The Dean Martin Show' in 1972. Throughout the '70s, she released hit after hit, many of them heartfelt and melancholy ballads, including 1974's GRAMMY-winning "I Honestly Love You," and 1975's GRAMMY-nominated "Have You Never Been Mellow," all sung with a purity that embodied both her voice and image.
It was an inherent innocence that famed producer Alan Carr noticed. In the late '70s, Carr was sitting on the rights for a long-gestating '50s-set musical, originally intending to cast Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. At the time, Newton-John had minimal movie-star aspirations, telling the New York Times in 1978, "I wasn't desperately looking for a movie and always felt when things are right they will happen. I'm a fatalist so I just sit back and wait."
But once Carr met Newton-John at a dinner party thrown by the singer Helen Reddy (of "I Am Woman" fame), he noticed her inherent it-factor, telling the NYT that he was "knocked out" by his then-28 year-old dinner party companion. "I told her immediately she was everything a movie star should be."
The movie Carr cast Newton-John in was, of course, Grease. In 1978, it became the highest-grossing musical-film ever at the time, and the second-best selling album of the year. The soundtrack was nominated for a GRAMMY for Album of the Year in 1979, with Newton-John's ballad "Hopelessly Devoted to You" also scoring a GRAMMY nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female (it also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song).
But no matter how massive her movie stardom — whether in Grease or the 1980 cult-fantasy film Xanadu — Newton-John never let her Hollywood success overtake her recording career. Though her onscreen roles did help usher in a new image: In a few short years, she went from playing the innocent '50s schoolgirl Sandy to a sultry pop star in the form of "Physical," a groundbreaking song in both the nature of its salacious lyrics and trailblazing music video (which would become a hallmark of her fame in the 1980s).
Along the way, Newton-John also transformed into the confident performer she dreamed of being when she was a child. "In the old days, I was just too nervous to have a good time. It may not have shown, but leading up to when I went out on stage, it was always very nerve-wracking," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2008. "Now I really enjoy it. I guess [that's the result of] experience and aging. Nothing much more can happen, so this one's gonna have fun! Let go, right? Let go and enjoy yourself."
Newton-John released 26 albums throughout her five-decade run, releasing her final solo LP in 2008 and three collaborative projects in the 2010s: Christmas albums with Travolta and Australian star John Farnham in 2012 and 2016, respectively, and an uplifting project with Beth Nielsen Chapman and Amy Sky in 2016.
In later years, Newton-John would become a passionate advocate for cancer awareness and research, as she battled the disease on numerous occasions since 1992. She also launched her own successful charity, the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund.
Above all of her career achievements, it was her artistry as a singer that she held in the highest regard. "I [consider myself] a singer who acts," she said in 2015. "I just enjoy it. Singing is a part of me. Music is a part of who I am. I can't do this forever, so I am enjoying every minute that I can still do it."