Track Listing

1. Deeper Than a River
2. Not Gonna Be the One
3. I Want to Be Wanted
4. I Need Love
5. Twist of Fate
6. Physical
7. Magic
8. Deeper Than the Night
9. Little More Love
10. You're the One That I Want - Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta
11. Summer Nights - Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta
12. Hopelessly Devoted to You
13. Please Mr. Please
14. Sam
15. Have You Never Been Mellow
16. If You Love Me (Let Me Know)
17. I Honestly Love You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28973 in Music
• Released on: 1992-06-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
She started her career as an inoffensive pop singer who sang of the benefits of getting "mellow" ("Have You Never Been Mellow"). Her transformation into a brazen aerobics sex-throb with "Physical" is as radical as what happens to her character, Sandra Dee, in the movie Grease. Three cuts from which ("Hopelessly Devoted to You," "You're the One That I Want," and "Summer Nights") are featured here. Add a few other hits, "A Little More Love" and "Magic" and you've got a full spectrum view of what she can do. From syrupy ballad queen to workout addict, she got it on the radio. --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

An exellent introduction, but not an essentials collection.
The biggest problem with Olivia Newton-John's catalog is out of the albums are out of print. Only two of the nine albums, not including soundtrack, from the pre-Physical period are still available on American catalogs. BACK TO BASICS gives us the golden nuggets from Olivia's career. Most of the biggest hits of Olivia's catalog are included "Physical", "You're The One That I Want", "Magic", "Have You Never Been Mellow", and "I Honestly Love You" are included. Unfortunately, BACK TO BASICS is not an essentials collection due to the fact that many major hits "Let Me Be There" and "Make A Move On Me" and important songs "If Not For You" are not included. In order to make the album a true retrospective collection you would need songs that demonstrated where Olivia was at the time "Come On Over" is every bit as important a song in her catalog as "Sam". Impressive performances like "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and "Suddenly" (a duet with Cliff Richard from XANADU) are overlooked. In order to make it a complete package there should have been at least one song from each album present. The four new songs belong on this package. "Deeper Than A River" is beautifully produced and arranged and Olivia's voice is magnificent. "Not Gonna Be The One" has classic vocal styles and is sung by a musical master. "I Want To Be Wanted" is a vocal performance equal to many f her best love songs, you can hear the emotion in her voice. "I Need Love" is a revival of her days of PHYSICAL, TOTALLY HOT, and SOUL KISS. "Twist Of Fate", "Deeper Than The Night", and "Summer Nights" make their first apperances on American Hits albums. BACK TO BASICS is the perfect collection for Olivia introduction because it shows how varied her career is. For longtime fans, its a good collection, but the original Austrailan versions are ore comprehensive and complete.-MATT COKER

Olivia and life
I have always loved Olivia Newton John as a singer and actress. A little more love touched my heart and I honestly love you , I still listen to the song everyday. When I first heard I honestly love you , I contacted the radio station to dedicate it the person I loved and always will. Love does not go away. Thanks Olivia!

A great slow-dance album!
[One CD, with a running time of 60:42.] This is a collection of seventeen songs by the talented Olivia Newton-John. Thirteen are old favorites, and four are brand-new songs (Deeper Than A River, Not Gonna Be The One, I Want To Be Wanted, and I Need Love). This album was released to relaunch Olivia's career, but a bout with breast cancer cut the tour short (thankfully Olivia has overcome the cancer).

When my wife gave me this CD, I was disappointed that some of my favorites were not included. However, listening to this wonderful album showed me that it is different than I expected. This is a wonderful collection of songs to slow-dance to - A Little More Love being always great for this, and I Honestly Love You being the best! Summer Nights is a little too fast for slow-dancing, but it is a fun tune to dance to anyway.

My little kids actually enjoy watching us dance to this CD. So, turn the lights down low, pop in this CD, and dance.