Soundtrack (Electric Light Orchestra & Olivia Newton-John)-Xanadu (1980)


 

Artist: Soundtrack (Electric Light Orchestra & Olivia Newton-John)

Title: Xanadu

Label: MCA

Format: LP

Cat: MCA 6100

Year of Release: 1980

Country and Year of Edition: US 1980 Repress Gloversville Press

Sell Price: $7.99 5/29/24 VG/VG+

Discogs Last Sold: 5/27/24 VG+/VG+ $8.00

Low:$0.87 G+/G+

Median: $6.18

Average: $9.20

High: $45.00 NM/NM

Current low price: $6.00 G+/F, $6.90 VG+/VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 26

Have/Want: 1888/139

Where Sold: White Cloud, MI

Time it took to sell:  2 years

Where and When Purchased: Facebook marketplace lot a couple year ago around $4

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B-

Sad To See It Go: No

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan. A stately pleasure-dome decree"-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Mass media had some deep thoughts for this kitschy roller rink movie that came out in 1980 when I was 10.  After taking the soundtrack out of the library later that year, I got a used promo copy that I sold years ago for around $15.  I bought this copy in a lot of $3/$4 records a few years back with the idea I'd flip it.  This time around I only got $8 but it was in a $40 order.

I liked this motion picture in it's day, so why not write about it on my 54th birthday?  I like it less now, but I know it cold.  Sentimentally I wanted to give it an A but as the ONJ side wore on, the songs became less tolerable.  Yet, I know them inside out, so I have to give it that level of respect.  Her mega-hit "Magic" that I never really liked much opens the record and the drug store duet "Suddenly" with Cliff Richard follows.  The weirdness comes next with The Tubes joining on "Dancin'."  I started to get really bored around the ballad "Suspended In Time."   Then Gene Kelly also shows up on the side closing "Whenever You're Away From Me."

Fortunately things pick up on the ELO side of the album, which is probably why I bought it.  The hits were the side opening "I'm Alive" and "All Over The World" as well as the grand finale title track duet of ELO meets ONJ.  The deep cuts are "The Fall" and "Don't Walk Away."  Xanadu, both song and film, was a tribute to industry and the permanence of the roller rink.  Nothing "cool" about it, but I find Jeff  Lynne less annoying producing a pop hit than his late 80's/early 90's rock efforts (Petty, Harrison, Wilburys) that were great despite of him.

Open your eyes and see.



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