Olivia Newton-John - Back to Basics: The Essential Collection 1971-1992
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Free Music Notes for Back to Basics: The Essential Collection 1971-1992
Free Music Review: Good pop
Hit: 4 Stars
A good collection of Olivia's classic pop songs, along with 4 newly recorded ones. "Deeper than a river" is a Diane Warren song, not a bad song, but I don't think it's one of Diane's best. The rest of the songs are culled from 8 of Olivia's previous albums. Of the new songs, my favourite is "I want to be wanted"...a lovely ballad. It's too bad her comeback didn't happen as expected, but at least we have this album.Free Music Review: Probably only worth getting for the new songs
Hit: 3 Stars
When looking at Olivia Newton-John's career, one must look at it from the perspective of her as a vocalist. You aren't going to find a lot of songs where Olivia is going to be the songwriter - and you aren't going to find her playing a lot of instruments. Olivia does what she does best - provide some outstanding vocals. Therefore, Olivia is going to have a strong reliance on good songwriting and good supporting musicians. What a lot of people probably don't remember is that when Olivia started out as a vocalist in the 1970s, she came up through the Country and Folk Music ranks. Olivia's crossover into a mainstream/pop artist would coincide with her film debut in the movie-version of "Grease". That film would establish her as a Superstar. However as fast as Olivia's Star rose, she would fall into oblivion by the end of the 1980s. However, Olivia's successful career has resulted in some nice collections of her vocal work. One such collection is "Olivia Newton-John: Back to Basics - The Essential Collection 1971-1992". It serves as a reverse chronology of Olivia's work starting with 1992 and going back to her early days as a Country artist.
There are two things that set "Back to Basics" apart from many of the other Olivia Newton-John compilations that are available today. For starters, it contains four new recordings that are unavailable on any of the other greatest hits sets. The other thing is that this compilation goes in reverse chronological order. Normally I prefer my Greatest Hits collections to have the tracks arranged in chronological order. This allows me to see how the artist has progressed and evolved over time. "Back to Basics" does the reverse. While I still would have liked to have seen this in regular chronological order, I found the reverse order to be an interesting twist. It fits very nicely with the title "Back to Basics".
"Back to Basics" isn't the most complete collection out there. While it does contain some nice songs, there are some very good Olivia songs that are missing. The songs I would have liked to have seen included are: "Don't Stop Believin", "Let it Shine", "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother", "Come on Over", "Take Me Home Country Roads", "Me and Bobby McGee", "Don't Cry for me Argentina", "Heart Attack", and "Make a Move on Me"
As mentioned, there are several other Compilations out there. The following lists some of the more popular compilations. Here are some important notes when looking at these compilations:
"Greatest Hits": This collection contains 12 songs covering all of the albums before "Grease". The songs on "Back to Basics" that precede the "Grease" songs are all included on this collection"
"Greatest Hits 2": This collection contains 10 songs from "Grease" to "Physical". While "Back to Basics" contains 7 songs from this period, "Greatest Hits 2" doesn't contain "Deeper Than the Night" or the duets with John Travolta - "You're the One that I Want" and "Summer Nights".
"Magic - The Best of Olivia Newton-John": This is a 21-song set that covers Olivia's career through 1983's "Twist of Fate" (the point where Olivia's career went into decline). All of the songs on "Back to Basics" (with the exception of the four new tracks) are contained on this collection. In addition, this collection contains the "Grease Mega Mix" that gained popularity a few years ago.
"The Best of Olivia Newton-John": This is a 18-song collection that goes deeper with Olivia's early work (i.e. early to mid 1970s songs).
As mentioned while this is not the most complete collection, it does contain four new songs by Olivia. I wouldn't do "handstands" for these new Olivia songs, but they aren't bad. Olivia gets some help from some industry "names" for these songs:
"Deeper than a River": This song was written and produced by Diane Warren. You can hear the maturity in Olivia's voice on this light pop-ballad song.
"Not Gonna Be the One": This is another light pop-ballad song. It almost has a 1990s Bee Gees feel to it.
"I Want to Be Wanted": This song is kind of a throwback song to Olivia's Country Music days. This song features a Pedal Steel Guitar giving a real nice country feel to the song. Robbie Buchanan, a well-known studio musician keyboardist is on this track as well.
"I Need Love": While not a total "Dance Song", this song has a definite R&B/Dance feel to it. To some extent - there even is a bit of Funk to it. Much of this is due to the fact that Giorgio Moroder is the producer of this song. Surprisingly, I found this to be the strongest of the four tracks. Olivia pulls this off well.
I was glad this song contained "Twist of Fate". While this song did mark the beginning of Olivia's decline, it is a Synth-Pop song and showed how Olivia came full-circle from her Country/Folk days of the early 1970s.
The liner notes are in the fold out fashion. One side opens up with a big picture of a 40something year old Olivia. The other side contains pictures of the albums from which each of the songs came from. Each of the song contains some brief credits. The four new songs contain the songwriting and production credits. While I did like the reverse chronology that is done on this collection, I felt "Back to Basics" was incomplete compared to what I could get on the "Magic" collection - in spite of the fact that this collection contains four new songs. Overall, if you are looking to get started with an Olivia Newton-John compilation, I'd recommend going with the "Magic" collection. I'd look at the other three collections if you are looking to go deeper with some of Olivia's greatest hits. I'd only look at this collection if you want to check out the new songs - or if you can get it a value price.
Free Music Review: Most of the Big U.S. Hits, Some Filler
Hit: 3 Stars
Not exactly a comeback, since its single "I Need Love" stiffed on the charts in 1992; still, many of her most popular U.S. hits are here, and those seeking the best will find them on this CD. We'll all have to wait for a more complete compilation that includes the hits "If Not For You," "Something Better to Do," "Let it Shine," "Let Me Be There," "Come on Over," "Don't Stop Believin'," and a slew of other pop hits from 1980 - 85 that do not appear here.Free Music Review: Back to Basic: The Essential Collection "71-"92
Hit: 3 Stars
This is a great collection of Olivia's work. She is so talented. She has proven to be truly an asset to the music world. However, I strongly believe she has been very overlooked by an American audience. I wish we could hear her more on the radio and see more of her on the big screen or TV. I am glad we are now able to get imports of her music. Her songs really move the listener, set the mood, and take us back with this CD collection. A must for all of her fans!