Olivia returned to Les Dawson's TV show only a couple of weeks after her first appearance there, and yes, she performed Let Me Be There again ! :)
She also performed a cover of The Carpenters' Yesterday Once More in a unusual setting.
In July of 1973, Olivia stopped in UK comedian Les Dawson's TV show to perform two songs : a cover of Don McLean's And I Love You So (which isn't featured on any of Olivia's albums) and what turned out to be her first major US hit : Let Me Be There
Dawson introduces her as "Olivia, Newton and John", before she corrects him. He also tells the audience Olivia is a mind reader, asking her what he is thinking of at the moment. Olivia pauses before calling him "cheeky".
This is one of Olivia's first appearances on US television, if not the first at all. She performed a live version of If from her first album and she duetted with Dean Martin on a medley of Just A Little Lovin' and True Love.
This aired to coincide with the Australian release of Olivia's album Gaia. An in-depth interview with a fantastic rapport between Olivia and her interviewer Ray Martin. Olivia also performed three songs live in the studio : I Honestly Love You, Don't Cut Me Down and No Matter What You Do.
The interview covered most of Olivia's career with some great black and white footage from those early days in Australia. Olivia's 1970 movie Toomorrow came up and Ray sprung a 1969 newspaper interview from New York where Olivia was then filming. She was asked in this if she had any plans of returning to Australia and responded "not just now - this is too groovy!"
The infamous quote from the 70s "if white bread could sing it would sound like Olivia Newton-John" was mentioned. But Olivia just laughed and joked saying that Grease was her chance "To break out - to be brown bread"
Much of the interview was taken up with Olivia's fight against breast cancer and her album Gaia. She also had chance to promote her nature series Wild Life/Human Nature. Ray also mentioned John Farnham and Olivia said how much she admired him and would like to sing with him - a premonition that was to come true; they performed and toured together for the Main Event tour in 1998!
A wonderful interview - Olivia was at ease joking and laughing throughout.
Summary taken from Only Olivia.
This was most likely filmed at the same time as the footage aired the week before in the same show. Olivia performs Magic from the Xanadu soundtrack in a black outfit.
Olivia's second appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She performed Have You Never Been Mellow and Follow Me live. There's also a short interview where she discusses awards and her success in the US.
Olivia came 23rd in the UK's best selling artists. This was based solely on on single sales, Olivia having sold 6,493,006 copies which include her Grease number 1 singles. Olivia gave an interview for this and her friends Didi Conn (who played Frenchy in Grease); Cliff Richard and Bruce Welch commented.
The interview included clips from Grease, her Physical video, her appearance in the early 70s movie Getaway with Cliff and a 70s Country Roads performance. Olivia also commented on fellow chart toppers the Bee Gees and Kylie Minogue (a fellow female Australian entry). Olivia complimented the Bee Gees on their great songwriting and how talented and pretty Kylie was.
Olivia had her own TV special in Australia to promote her duet album (2).
The special featured live performances of her duets with Billy Thorpe, Tina Arena and via technical wizardry the late Peter Allen (using footage of Peter in concert from many years ago).
John Farnham also made an appearance bringing with him a Sandy 1 doll from Franklin Mint which Olivia swapped for a John Farnham doll.
This is bascially the same program as Souvenirs Souvenirs. Some differences are notable though, especially some of the music clips, and a bit of the interview, conducted my Maria Shriver.
John Farrar also makes a short appearance to discuss his songwriting.
Olivia co-hosts this with Wolfmann Jack to promote her Xanadu movie. Olivia opens the show with Magic dressed in a nifty white shorts combination. Her costumes for this are spectacular without being garish - pure class. This also features a rare performance with The Tubes of Dancin'. This was specially filmed and this version isn't in the movie Xanadu. Olivia plays all the three singers in the girl band which must have taken some choreography.
Cliff Richard is there to lend support for Suddenly. There's lovely renditions of Suspended In Time (Olivia sheds a tear or two) and a grown-up Don't Cry For Me Argentina. All the songs are mimed. During the show Olivia is delighted to learn that Magic has reached the number one slot!
