Let's talk about Olivia Newton John's "Physical"
The biggest selling song of the 1980's.
Was it a real shock when it debuted? If I recall, it was banned from the radio in a couple of cities. These were the days before Madonna, so audiences must have been a little more unaccustomed to a mainstream song so blunt and sexual. Add to that the infamous ending of the music video.
I watched a clip of Olivia on the Merv Griffin show where the music video had its official debut. Karen Carpenter seemed to get a real kick out of the gay subtext.
She premiered her new look at the 1981 Grammys as shown on the link. Very tomboyish, and Adam Ant like.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 26, 2024 3:19 AM
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I was in college when "Physical" was released, and the controversy about it was overblown. There were some pockets in the flyover states where radio stations deemed the lyrics to be too suggestive, so they wouldn't play it. But for the most part, people weren't outraged by it.
I definitely didn't think it was raunchy or too hot for the airwaves. And the video didn't come out until well after the song was a hit. I actually thought the video was stupid even back then, although I did enjoy the hot guys in their Speedos.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | August 25, 2024 8:48 PM
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To each their own R2 but I loved Olivia’s pop era which was too brief
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 25, 2024 11:52 PM
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She almost always was cheerful and certainly light enough to float along on the current of developments in the business.
All with that Australian shamelessness the world seems to like, for some reason.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 26, 2024 12:02 AM
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I would have liked to hear Tina Turner sing it.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | August 26, 2024 12:05 AM
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I think she's tremendous.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 26, 2024 12:07 AM
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Tina was dreaming of being able to land a major recording deal in 1981.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 26, 2024 12:26 AM
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I always loved Olivia and still listen to a lot of her hits. But not this one. I didn’t like it all that much when it came out, but it was inescapable. However, I’m glad that she had such a record setting hit during her career. My favorite songs of hers, post-Grease, are A Little More Love and Twist of Fate.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | August 26, 2024 12:29 AM
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It wasn’t that the song itself was controversial. It was that it was Olivia singing it. She was pushing the envelope in regards to a sexier image with each new project she did. Her then boyfriend and later husband Matt Lattanzi may have had something to do with sexy Olivia. He was very very hot.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 26, 2024 12:32 AM
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He was very very hot
You might say Totally Hot.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 26, 2024 12:35 AM
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I was crestfallen. After the lusty raunch of the disco era, it would have been much more refreshing-or so I thought-for America to get Psychological. When I was but a tot, I fetishized Olivia as my ideal babysitter. I caught nothing but grief from my peers by criticizing Olivia as an overripe tart in “Grease”. I did enjoy her subsequent output to “Physical”, though.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | August 26, 2024 12:56 AM
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R7 Yes I read that Tina's career was in the toilet till 1984.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 26, 2024 3:19 AM
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