How Bob Dylan and George Harrison 'Helped' Olivia Newton-John Land Her First Hit
Years before Olivia Newton-John left her cinematic mark as Sandy Olsson in Grease, the late Australian singer-songwriter already had a number of hits from her first 10 albums.First breaking out in the early 1970s, Newton-John released her debut If Not For You in 1971, a covers album of contemporary artists from the 1960s and early ’70s. The album featured her renditions of the Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster-penned “Me and Bobby McGee,” later becoming a posthumous hit for Janis Joplin, and the title track, which she pulled from Bob Dylan’s 11th album New Morning.Newton-John’s Dylan cover became her first hit, topping the charts internationally, including the U.S. on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, where it spent three weeks. Her tender rendition of “If Not For You” also broke the top 40 of Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 25, and peaked at No. 7 in the UK.
Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/americansongwriter.com
