Olivia Newton-John - Hollywood Nights (1980)

Here's a really interesting, entirely unreleased album by Olivia Newton-John. It's an American TV special she did in 1980 called "Hollywood Nights." It features some songs she never recorded on any album, as well as duets with an impressive bunch of guest stars: Cliff Richard, Elton John, Andy Gibb, Gene Kelly, Tina Turner, Peaches (of Peaches and Herb), Toni Tennille (of Captain and Tennille) & Karen Carpenter.

By 1980, Newton-John had become a worldwide superstar, mainly thanks due to her starring role in the 1978 movie "Grease." In 1980, she was due to have her second big starring movie role, in the movie "Xanadu." That movie would get released in August 1980, and it would turn out to be a flop, although the soundtrack by Newton-John and E.L.O. would be a big hit. This hour-long TV special was broadcast in April 1980, and seems to have served as kind of a warm-up for the movie. It featured one song that would be in the movie, "Suddenly," and also featured Newton-John duetting with Gene Kelly, as would happen in the movie, but with a different song. (Kelly, a star from a much earlier era, was 68 years old at the time.) They sang the classic song "Makin' Whoopee," but with totally different lyrics, an update called "Makin' Movies," which was all about the movie business.

But while there were those teasers about the upcoming movie, mostly the special was just a showcase for Newton-John's talent, and especially to sing duets with many musicians she liked. Probably the highlight is a version of Elton John's classic song "Candle in the Wind," mostly sung by Newton-John but with Elton playing piano and singing some towards the end. He also got to promote his new single at the time, "Little Jeannie," the only song here without Newton-John's involvement.

There were some even more unexpected songs. She started the show with a cover of "Hollywood Nights" by Bob Seger, which is a song she otherwise never performed or recorded. She also did "Heartache Tonight" by the Eagles probably for the only time ever, with Tina Turner, Peaches, Toni Tennille and Karen Carpenter all taking lead vocals at various point as well. And "Oh Boy" by Buddy Holly was another song she otherwise never did, done here with Cliff Richard, Elton John and Andy Gibb also taking turns with the lead vocals.

I cut out about five minutes from the special. That was all non-musical stuff, mostly jokey segments with actors Dick Clark and/or Ted Knight. Trust me, that's not the kind of thing with high replay value. But if you feel you're missing out, you can find the entire video of this special on YouTube. 

The special was a mixture of songs performed in front of an audience and songs done earlier in some studio without any audience. I have no idea when or where each part of it was recorded, only that it was broadcast in April 1980. I found out that tidbit from this nice fan website, which includes lots of screenshots from the special, as well as a link to the YouTube video of the whole thing:

Hollywood Nights Special 

This special is unreleased and it is very likely to stay that way, due to the difficulty of getting the legal rights to all the guest performances. But now, here, at least it's available as an audio album for the first time. 

This album is 42 minutes long 

01 Hollywood Nights (Olivia Newton-John)
02 Deeper than the Night (Olivia Newton-John)
03 Hopelessly Devoted to You (Olivia Newton-John)
04 A Little More Love (Olivia Newton-John)
05 talk (Olivia Newton-John)
06 I Can't Help It (Olivia Newton-John & Andy Gibb)
07 talk (Olivia Newton-John)
08 Oh Boy (Olivia Newton-John, Cliff Richard, Elton John & Andy Gibb)
09 Suddenly (Olivia Newton-John & Cliff Richard)
10 talk (Olivia Newton-John & Gene Kelly)
11 Makin' Movies [Makin' Whoopee] (Olivia Newton-John & Gene Kelly)
12 Gimme Some Lovin' (Olivia Newton-John)
13 Candle in the Wind (Olivia Newton-John & Elton John)
14 Little Jeannie (Elton John)
15 talk (Olivia Newton-John)
16 Heartache Tonight (Olivia Newton-John, Tina Turner, Peaches, Toni Tennille & Karen Carpenter)
17 I Honestly Love You (Olivia Newton-John)
18 Hollywood Nights [Reprise] [Instrumental] (Olivia Newton-John)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7Mv22RSn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fdqwk48Vi5S9n15/file 

I made the cover art out of two screenshots from this TV special. I took one screenshot for the words at the top, which were apparently neon signs in front of the building. But at the point in time, Newton-John was relatively small in the overall image, standing on the street. So I went to slightly earlier in the same scene, when her head took up most of the screen, and imposed that on top, using Photoshop.