Olivia Newton-John biography 2022

  

Olivia Newton-John biography

Olivia Newton-John was born September 26, 1948, in Cambridge, UK, and grew up in Melbourne, Australia.

She was the granddaughter of Max Born, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize, and the daughter of Brinley Newton-John, an MI5 officer who worked on the Enigma project during World War 2. Brinley is credited for taking Nazi leader Rudolph Hess into custody after the war.

Olivia started out singing in a girl group called Sol Four when she was just 14 years old.

She started making a name for herself on Australian radio and TV under the name ‘Lovely Livvy.’ When she won a talent show on Australian TV, she used the prize money to travel to the UK, where, in 1966, she recorded her first single, ‘Till You Say You’ll Be Mine, a cover of a Jackie DeShannon song.

The world had to wait 5 years for the next Newton-John single, a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘If Not For You. Instead of using Dylan’s arrangement for the song, Olivia used the one George Harrison had recorded, and this would give her her first hit as the song went to 7 in the UK and 25 in the US.

Since then, she has seen 5 US and 3 UK chart toppers. The 5 US chart toppers included, ‘You’re The One That I Want, her 1978 hit with John Travolta from the film ‘Grease.’

Interestingly, Olivia’s sister, Rona, would marry Jeff Conaway, who played Kenickie in the film. In total, Oliva has managed 37 US and 30 UK ones. 

Died August 8, 2022, in Santa Ynez, California, USA.


last updated October 2022