In Memoriam: Olivia Newton-John, 1948-2022

Beloved Australian singer and actress Olivia Newton-John has died at her home in California, aged 73.  Despite her personal struggles and sorrows, she brought joy to many millions of people around the world, and though her voice is silent now, her songs will live on for generations to come, I'm sure.

I remember when she started out as an unlikely Country singer in the early 1970s, and went on to evolve in other directions.  I particularly recall going to see Xanadu in the summer of 1980, when I had finally finished my long-delayed bachelor's degree and was starting grad school.  And had just come out of the closet.  

My date for the movie was my summer romance, Prince Charming:  a slim, suave, brown-eyed, mustachioed, very handsome voice major, about my age, whose dark looks were intoxicating, and who was all I could have wanted physically.  He was more experienced than I:  a willing teacher and an eager student.  We fit together very well, I thought, in that pre-plague time when safe sex was not even thought of.  A fairy tale come true . . . 

But it was not to be a Cinderella story, after all.  He broke off the relationship at the end of the summer. I called for a date; he said he was seeing someone else.  I didn't ask why, didn't want to know.  Just cowboy up and move on, I told myself.  Don't mind the pain.

At the end of the decade, I noticed his name in the alumni magazine - "Deceased."  I assume it was AIDS.  I remembered he had said he didn't want to live to be 100.  He didn't even live to be 40.

The Xanadu soundtrack takes me back to that sweet, sensual summer when I was young and hopeful, and it was still possible to believe in magic.  Here are some of my favorites that Olivia sang then.  Perhaps she is still singing somewhere, beyond space and time.

Odd coincidence:  Xanadu was released on this day in 1980.

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