Olivia Newton-John, “Physical” (American TV, 1981)
To avoid controversy in the early 1980s, all you had to do was shift the focus of your little sex pop song to the bright synthetics, bunchy leg warmers, and happy-go-lucky headbands of the burgeoning workout movement. That’s what Olivia Newton-John did, as she displays on this episode of “Solid Gold.” Not only did\ the marketing gag guarantee multiplatinum rack-ups of the Physical album, but Newton-John was now a part of a movement. If she was still releasing music in the mid-1990s, she would’ve found a way to do a swing music album. — Johnny Loftus
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