Olivia Newton-John wasn’t very keen about getting “Physical.”
The Aussie singer and actress, now 61, has revealed that she originally tried to stop her infamous 1981 single and video, “Physical,” from hitting the airwaves. Newton-John — who shot to fame in the 1978 movie musical Grease — feared that the song and Grammy-winning video, both shot for her album of the same name, would ruin her wholesome reputation.
In an interview with The Miami Herald on Tuesday, Olivia remarks: “I didn’t want to do it! I told my manager, `Let’s not put it out’ but he said it was too late, it had already gone to radio and was 10 weeks at No. 1. I wasn’t sure about doing Grease, either. Funny how things turn out.”
The producers agreed to set the video in a fitness gym filled with rotund men to steer viewers away from the song’s sexually-suggestive overtones, but Olivia’s attempts to tone down the song seemed only to exacerbate the problem.
“I said, ‘Let’s make it about a workout – I don’t want it to go the other way,’ and yet it worked more in its favor!” she recalls.< em>“Everything I did against it seemed to help it. I insisted on wearing my clothes in the shower and then they said, ‘It was so sexy when you showered with your clothes on.’ In retrospect, it’s hilarious.”
“Physical” — which was censored and banned by several radio stations across the US –became the biggest-selling single of the 1980s and the most popular track of Olivia’s career.
In February, Billboard Magazine ranked “Physical” one of the “Top 50 Sexiest Songs” of all time.
The song and video will be parodied by Olivia on an upcoming episode of the smash FOX series Glee, airing May 4.