Olivia Newton John Was Pure Magic in 1980

Presto, chango, ala-kazaam! Today's we'll salute Magic Day. Hope you give a damn. Okay so that's not Capital City Comedy Club worthy but at least your groans let me know I have your attention, however brief that might turn out to be. From 1978-1982 I don't recall there being a female vocalist whose star shone quite as brightly as one of Australia's Down Under wonders, Olivia-Newton John. Sure the likes of Donna Summer, Alicia Bridges, Anita Ward, and Gloria Gaynor lit many a '70s music lover's fire but it was our Livy who really turned heads starting with her numerous hits off of the movie soundtrack to Grease. Once 1980 came into focus Olivia was back with another movie role, the curious but certainly affectionately imagined Xanadu. The movie didn't excite the vast majority of the viewing public but the soundtrack made real headway. Chief amongst those cuts was "Magic". Even today if you take a listen you can sense steam rising upward from where she's singing. I'm not sure of another femme quite as capable of inciting naughty bedroom wall poster fantasies quite like she did. Olivia sings like some female version of Moses on the mountain, tablets of erotic arousal in her mitts. She's well versed in the fine art of purring out her lyrics. The movie centers on a rolling skating Muse who inspires a young artist type in need of an inspiration to lift his career prospects. The delivery is sweaty, self-assured, and doused in all the elfin pixie dust one could possibly bear to handle. Each guitar lick, each bass strum, each exquisitely timed drum tap, each orchestral string just dramatic enough to raise eyebrows is dealt out with a heavy emphasis on getting your buttons loosened, your tight jeans unzipped, and your jones for pillow talk accelerated. I'd take her hand, as she commands. She'd be able to pry me out of my introvert's shell long enough to follow a dream. I'm drawn to the ever burning fire in her eyes. I do believe I'm magic.Nothing can stand in my way. The guitar which lubes the lusty patches at the bridge is very much suited to the woman of mystery role Olivia played in the movie. Her character's a curious little minx but you've got to get inside her head because so much about her begs to be discovered. No two ways about it, the production values here are astounding. This song couldn't possibly have been a flop. At that point, in August of 1980, it was her biggest Billboard hit staying at the top slot for 4 weeks. I'd say it's no small exaggeration that "Magic" was the catalyst in assuring that Xanadu wasn't an all around artistic flop. The song blows your doors off. No wasted energy. Each thinly veiled wink is executed in the name of getting your pulse racing. Before Cyndi Lauper and Madonna rushed in to corner the market on eccentric and sexually curious, respectively, Olivia Newton-John was the reigning queen of visually stunning. She would go on to earn a place in the pantheon of unshakable workout music with "Physical" which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 starting in late '81. "Magic" certainly helped her upward trajectory from budding star to goddess among goddesses. It was a gripping experience listening to her pull rabbits out of her wide load hat.