Olivia Newton-John (born 26 September 1948) is an English-born Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Her music has been successful in multiple genres including pop, country, and adult contemporary, and has sold an estimated 100 million records, making her one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease, which featured one of the most successful soundtracks in Hollywood history. (More from Wikipedia)
Janis Ian’s biggest hit song “At Seventeen” (1975) and the accompanying album, Between the Lines both reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles and Hot 100 Albums Billboard charts, respectively, with much less drama than had befallen “Society’s Child”. What’s more, Janis Ian won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance – Female that year, beating out Linda Ronstadt (whose breakthrough album Heart Like a Wheel had been nominated), as well as Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy.
(January 2014)
Several other major artists have launched their careers with Bob Dylan songs, Olivia Newton-John (“If Not for You”), the Turtles (“It Ain’t Me Babe”), and Cher (“All I Really Want to Do”) among them. Cher’s hit version of “All I Really Want to Do” had to compete on the charts with the Byrds’ version of the same song, “All I Really Want to Do”. Additionally, Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band have salted their albums with mostly obscure Bob Dylan songs since their third release, As Is (1966).
(March 2015)
