Olivia Newton-John's 1966 debut single and 1971 debut album
You have probably heard the sad news that Olivia Newton-John, the British-born, Australian-raised singer and actress, has died at age 73 after a decades-long battle with breast cancer. Ms. Newton-John famously evolved from a wholesome country music star of the mid-‘70’s into a sexier post-disco pop star of the early-’80’s. Somewhere around the midpoint of that transformation, she co-starred in the forever-popular 1978 movie musical Grease , and she sang vocals on five of the tracks on that movie’s mega-selling soundtrack album. But the singer’s career actually stretches back further in time than most people realize. She recorded her very first single way back in 1966, five years before the release of her 1971 debut album If Not For You . That debut single was released on Decca Records in the U.K. in 1966, and was recorded during a trip to Great Britain which she had won as a prize in a talent competition on the Australian TV show Sing, Sing, Sing . The single’s A-side was a cover o