OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

I received the CD "Making A Good Thing Better" by Olivia Newton-John in the mail on Friday.  This is a 1998 issue of an original 1977 album.  It was the only American release I lacked by Olivia on CD until then.  I bought the original LP in the late eighties but it was sent to me in the album cover for her 1975 album, "Have You Never Been Mellow" (one of my more unusual purchase stories).

"Making A Good Thing Better" brought Olivia closer to more of a pop sound than she ever recorded up to that point, though commercially it didn't fare as well as previous albums reaching #34 on the album chart (Billboard).  Part of the apparent new direction includes a version of  "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita" which was probably her most ambitious effort while still in the country crossover phase.  She did remain true to her regular formula with covers of Johnny Cash's "Ring Of Fire" and Johnny Rivers' "Slow Dancing" (recorded as "Swayin' To The Music" by Rivers).

The only single was the title track which fared worse than the album reaching #87 on the pop chart (Billboard), which is personally a shame as it's one of my favorite songs of hers.

Olivia would reach the pinnacle of her career with "Grease" the next year, establishing her as a versatile recording artist.  "Making A Good Thing Better" is one of those underrated albums that deserves revisiting to remind people of an amazing road to that success.