The Sideman Behind the Late Olivia Newton-John
Stars, even of her magnitude, simply don’t do it alone.
To say that Olivia Newton-John who passed away in 2022 was an icon, an artist, a beauty and an exemplary humanitarian would be an understatement. She radiated such warmth and wisdom in her music and her too-few movies that she became the world’s girlfriend, sister, daughter all rolled into one gifted woman.
But for anyone knowledgeable about the artistry and mechanics of the music and entertainment businesses where Olivia held court for decades, it will not come as a shock to learn that stars, even of her magnitude, simply don’t do it alone.
They are aided by, for lack of a better appellation, their sidemen (or women) — gifted song writers, producers and arrangers who hitch their talents, energies, and creative wagons to someone of Olivia’s early star promise. The resulting magic can be captured by a microphone. And a spotlight.
Unfortunately, the work of these extraordinary collaborators often remains obscured, disconnected in the minds of the fans from the superstar they love. Such pivotal sidemen often remain well behind the curtain, stage left.
THE SIDEMAN
In the career of Olivia Newton-John, one such talented sideman emerges.
John Farrar. Look him up.
You’ll find that he is an Australian music producer, songwriter, arranger, singer and guitarist. He played with several musical groups as a gifted instrumentalist. He produced albums of his own musical efforts. Somewhere early in Farrar’s musical bio, things turn electric and wonderfully symbiotic when Farrar connects with a young Olivia Newton-John.
It began, as it commonly does for new musical talent, with a “cover,” a new version of a previous song associated with other past singers. “If Not For You” was a Bob Dylan original, and not necessarily the sort of thing you’d expect from the soft, sensitive Newton-John musical persona. But as produced by Farrar, Olivia burst the boundaries of simply a “cover” leading to her first album also produced by Farrar.
Didn’t hear that song?
American audiences might not have known much about this clean-though-sultry singer from down under since we had minimal access to the Aussie import, but the next Olivia-Farrar collaboration changed that.
Here’s the first verse:
“Maybe I hang around here a little more than I should;
We both know I got somewhere else to go.
But I got something to tell you that I never thought I would,
But I believe you really ought to know…”
I’ll bet you can finish the song —
“I love you; I honestly love you.”
It was the simplest of refrains, and the title of Olivia’s first smash hit single. Written by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen and produced by Farrar, the song went on to become a number-one hit in America winning a Grammy as Record of the Year in 1975.
To be a young man going through adolescence and hearing Olivia sing the song was, of course, to have the course of your nascent romantic fantasy life forever altered. Ok, and grown men and middle-aged men. You get the picture.
Which is not to say that women and girls were unaffected by the emergence of this lithe, lyrical Aussie singing star. Ever since Helen Reddy’s groundbreaking “I Am Woman,” the musical landscape had been seeking another voice, not to shout the emancipation that Reddy had so effectively proclaimed years before, but simply to embody it, to live it.
In John Farrar’s hands, Olivia was to be that voice.
In writing, arranging and producing for her, and with the help of some key collaborators Farrar achieved something remarkable — he created a sonic envelope for Olivia to careen into the hearts and minds of listeners looking for an authentic voice of the “new woman” of the world.
A QUESTION OF GENRE
Just what was Olivia’s musical “genre?”
You name it. More scholarly articles than this one have been written on that topic. Early on Olivia’s eclectic song choices ranged from Folk to Country to Soft Rock. She could even have been listed in Adult Alternative had the genre existed when Olivia was charting her course through her hits in the 70's.
In 1974, Olivia was awarded the Country Music Association’s “Female Vocalist of the Year,” over no less competition of Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. The award angered a lot of country music purists so much so that in 1976, the Association of Country Entertainers (“ACE”) was formed specifically to exclude certain crossover artists from exploiting their beloved genre. Specifically, Olivia. The exclusion failed when traditional country artists spoke out welcoming Olivia, even, yes, writing country songs to honor her. ACE is no longer active.
And so the genre-busting Olivia, with Farrar as writer, producer or arranger and often all three, continued an on-again, off-again collaboration that led to most of her greatest hit recordings throughout the 70’s and 80’s, including “Let Me Be There,” “If You Love Me, Let Me Know” (both written by John Rostill), “A Little More Love,” and “Magic” (both written by Farrar).
Another of John’s hits for Olivia, “Have You Never Been Mellow” (’75), seemed to pose the provocative question: would a gentleman offer a joint to a lady of Olivia’s classy stature?
Later would come Olivia’s risqué hit, “Physical,” as written by Steve Kipner and Terry Shaddick and produced by Farrar, which managed to simultaneously blossom both Olivia’s persona and another phenomenon — a then-two-month-old “Music Television” or “M-TV,” where the music video of “Physical” became a mainstay.
Along the way, Farrar had become Olivia’s main producer, guiding her through hit after hit album — “Olivia” (with Bruce Welch), “If You Love Me, Let Me Know,” and by this time in her career, “Olivia’s Greatest Hits” (1982).
DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’
In some of the songs that Farrar wrote for Olivia, he cast her in the role of the intelligent, supportive girl-by-your-side who encouraged, even exhorted you (the listener) to rise to your full potential, that she somehow saw something in you that no one else did.
In “Don’t Stop Believin’” (not the Journey song of the same name), Farrar clothes Olivia in this familiar musical garb of the supportive and taken-for-granted girl belting out a musical affirmation for her “man.”
“You never chase your dreams, they find you;
Love, I know you; If you need love, it finds you, too;
Although you sail alone and free, I’ll follow in your wake,
And pray one day my heart you’ll take…”
Seriously, what red-blooded male wouldn’t take Olivia’s heart if offered so sweetly? The world took Olivia into theirs.
GREASE
But what about “Grease,” you ask?
“Grease” of course was the word, and the title of a Broadway song-performance piece with the thin narrative skein of 50’s rock-n-roll nostalgia. After its Broadway run, the show naturally led to a movie adaptation sale.
The history of “Grease” is rife with a number of cultural myths about its making, beginning with the title song, widely believed to be a Bee Gees song. Barry Gibb did write the title track. But that’s Frankie Valli, of “The Four Seasons,” doing the singing. “Jersey Boys” notwithstanding, it was one of Valli’s biggest hits, #1 on the Billboard “Hot 100” Chart for two weeks.
Strike down one myth. Here’s another — according to cultural mythology Olivia Newton-John was a shoo-in to play the central role of “Sandy” to John Travolta’s “Danny.”
Strike two. While producer Allan Carr and director Randal Kleiser were keen to cast this fresh face from down under, Olivia herself had grave doubts about her negligible acting experience and being able to handle the dramatics called for. It was she who called for a screen test with Travolta which quickly settled that problem with, pardon the expression, major “Tra-voltage.” As the world would later learn, Travolta and Olivia had palpable chemistry onscreen.
And that leads us to the third myth about the movie — that all the songs in the movie are from the hit Broadway show production written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.
Three strikes, you’re out.
There were significant problems adapting the stage (and stagey) show to the motion picture screen, one of the problems being the songs. They were clever, oldie-but-goodie concoctions, fine onstage with the physical action and dance. But new, more dynamic songs were needed for the big screen.
Having solved the problem of Olivia’s accent by revising the show’s book to have Sandy an emigre from down under, this song problem now fell to Olivia herself to solve.She did so by calling in her old friend, John Farrar.
Now, I’ll wager that, excepting “Summer Nights” and the title song, if you tell me one song you remember from “Grease,” it will likely be a John Farrar song fashioned perfectly for the show, and for Olivia.
First off, the original Broadway show had a single duet between the two leads. “Summer Nights” appears fairly early. Farrar was charged with creating another duet, basically a “show closer,” and did he ever. According to Farrar, the song was relatively easy for him — “You’re the One That I Want,” with its bouncy, raucous up-tempo beat, cements Danny and Sandy together perfectly. It is simply impossible to imagine “Grease” without it.
Not so easy was the other song for Farrar, perhaps because he instinctively knew that Olivia’s success in the movie, never a sure thing, depended upon it.
“I spent the longest period writing the lyrics of any song I’ve ever written,” Farrar reflected later. “Every thesaurus and every rhyming dictionary I had, just trying to really make it work properly.”
What Farrar fashioned out of whole cloth, and whole notes, is a stunner, an all-out torch song from Sandy to Danny — “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” Both a showstopper and a program song, the song perfectly balances power ballad with its narrative requirement to move the plot forward.
Director Randal Kleiser recalls that, when John Farrar played a demo of the songs for the assembly of producer, director, and Olivia, Kleiser had his doubts — the songs seemed to him more “country” than “rock and roll.” After a short silence, Olivia announced that she “loved them!” Admittedly not a music guy, Kleiser wisely assented. None at the time could have known how important those two songs would become, for “Grease” and for Olivia.
Apart from “Summer Nights” and the title tune, Farrar’s two songs were the only ones to become bona fide chart-topping hits. Farrar even stepped in as Producer of the “Grease” soundtrack album (along with Louis St. Louis, Barry Gibb, Albhy Gluten and Karl Richardson). It became the 2nd highest-selling album of the year only behind that other Travolta-starrer “Saturday Night Fever.” “Grease” remains among the most successful soundtracks ever produced.
The runaway success of “Grease” launched a virtual industry of road show and regional productions all over the nation and internationally. Ironically, some regional and school productions choose not to pay the additional performance rights to Farrar’s songs for the movie.
One can only imagine the disappointment of audiences. And why not? Can you imagine staging “My Fair Lady” without Eliza singing “I Could Have Danced All Night?”
CURTAIN, STAGE LEFT
In later years, John Farrar and Olivia drifted away from their successful partnership. Farrar went on to work with other superstars including Cher and Irene Cara, of “Fame.” But Farrar’s lasting testament will likely always be connected to the career of Olivia Newton-John.
Or perhaps his testament is “not” being connected to Olivia. Because such pivotal sidemen as the great John Farrar often remain behind the curtain, stage left.
