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The first duet | recorded with Olivia Newton-John was Don't Move Away. She had sung backing vocals for me on tour, and this was a chance to give her the exposure she deserved. It became the B-side of Sunny Honey Girl, which was my first single of 1971, released at the beginning of another | 3-week series for BBC television. Hank and Una were again resident guests and Hank presented his new group Marvin, Welch and Farrar, through whom I'd met Olivia. Peter Gormley was now managing Olivia too, and her first single If Not For You — a Bob Dylan song — was produced by Bruce and John Farrar and became a big hit in both the UK and in the States.
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| established a close friendship with Olivia that added a special warmth to our duets on the series — | still love to sing with her — and | think viewers wished coupledom upon us. We both played a prank on a radio DJ by phoning him from a hotel room late one night, and, not surprisingly, that helped to fuel rumours.
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Then Olivia rang up and said, ‘Hello, this is Olivia Newton-John!’
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Olivia and | had some great times together and I’m still very fond of her. | suppose it’s because we never got involved that we can sustain a solid friendship and when we see each other, even though we hug each other like crazy for about ten minutes, there’s no romance to revive. | feel totally comfortable with her and | would like to think she feels equally at ease with me. We had some great laughs making the sketches for the TV show in the seventies and since then have enjoyed singing
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Left: April 1970 at Kingsway Hall in London, speaking and singing to a Christian audience. Above: With Olivia Newton-John.
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The first duet | recorded with Olivia was Don't Move Away. | still love to sing with
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In June Olivia, Hank, myself, Bruce Welch and John Farrar, got together again to join many stars including Petula Clark and Frankie Vaughan in a London Palladium tribute
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Later in the summer, Olivia accompanied me to the festival of the Rose d'Or in France to receive an Ivor Novello Award for outstanding service to British music, then in August the gang — Olivia, Marvin, Welch, Farrar and | filmed Getaway with Cliff —a special programme for BBC. We also appeared in a three-week variety show at the Palladium which broke all records for pre-booked tickets, and not long afterwards we set off on a tour of Britain.
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On stage in the mid-seventies, behind Olivia and me you can just see (from left to right)
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Wirral-based vicar Roy Barker handing over My next Cliff Richard Show, a television series, was in the first three months of 1972 and a cheque for Tear Fund to Bill Latham, was minus Hanky who thought two series were enough, and Una who was expecting a baby. Dandy Nichols took Una's part (she played Una's mother in the hit TV comedy Till Death Us Do Part) and Olivia became a resident guest. The New Seekers had been selected to perform the UK entry for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest and they played a song each week, from which viewers selected Beg, Steal or Borrow (and we won second place again).
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A musical/comedy/thriller film called The Case was a new venture for BBC2 television — very interesting but not very successful. | co-starred with Olivia Newton-John, comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor and two stars famous in Scandinavia (the film was part-financed by Scandinavian TV companies). Then came my last single of 1972, A Brand New Song — it was the first record | made without Norrie Paramor and my first not to make the top thirty. When Norrie retired from EMI and moved to Birmingham to conduct the Midland Light Orchestra, David MacKay took over on the production of my records — he was great to work with and | was mystified by the single's cold reception; | had really believed that A Brand New Song was hit material. However, it flopped well and truly so | knew | had to review the direction of my recordings, but | remained reluctant to emulate in any way the glam and glitter flavour of the charts at that time.
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Sunny Honey Girl/Don't Move Away (with Olivia Newton-John)/I Was Only Fooling Myself
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A little musical surprise involving a great friend was the opportunity to record a song with Olivia Newton-John. The Xanadu film project took off for Olivia, who got to dance with Gene Kelly. The film’s musical score was mostly composed by Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra and John Farrer included a string of hits. For one of the tracks for the film | recorded a duet, Suddenly, with Olivia and it was released as a single. Following her appearance in the smash-hit film Grease, Olivia had become popular all over the world and in Xanadu she was seen on screen singing many other great songs, while Suddenly was only heard as part of the sound track. Nevertheless our duet made the Top Twenty on both sides of the Atlantic and stayed in the British charts for seven weeks.
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To have such famous personalities express their views about faith — including Kenny Everett, Olivia Newton-John, Dave Lee Travis, Mike Read and Adam Faith — gave support to my conviction that my Christianity is widely acknowledged and accepted by friends and fans. Phil Everly agreed to appear and | thoroughly enjoyed performing with him when we sang All | Have To Do Is Dream and When Will! Be Loved together. Phil said such fantastic things about me that | wasn't
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Olivia Newton-John played the part of Cathy Earnshaw for the Heathcliff album; it - was remarkable reunion for her because she’s known John since she was |6 and used to sing with his wife Pat, including vocal backing for me in the early days. Making the video for the album was a real pleasure. | had no problems looking into Olivia’s eyes, nor she into mine, as we already had an affinity and that really counts when you're trying to bring out some kind of emotion.
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In the middle of the Stage was a two-way revolving platform which worked very well for a number | sang with Olivia Newton-John. We'd stand shoulder-to-shoulder, looking out at the audience in opposite directions so that as we revolved people always had one of us facing them — that was a great new experience.
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