I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton John

I Honestly Love You

1974

Olivia Newton-John

If You Love Me (Let Me Know) wasn't the only single released from the album...and it wasn't the highest charting single either...not by a long shot.

Ask just about any true Olivia Newton John fan what their favorite O.N.J. Song is and the song featured in this post will probably be their reply. Liv pulled away from her Country sound on the album's fourth track with a slow, soulful love ballad about a young lady telling the guy she loves how much she loves him, even though both of them are with someone else. And while she was at it she created what would become her signature song and cemented her place in ours hearts as America's Mid-Seventies Sweetheart.

I Honestly Love You was penned in a collaboration between American songwriter Jeff Barry (Liza Minnelli’s hubby for a while) and Australian singer/ songwriter Peter Allen. It wasn't written for liv...but it was sent to Liv's producer John Ferrar as a demo tape. In fact, it was one of many demo tapes he'd been sent, and he just happened to pick it out of the crowd. Liv...and her millions of fans...are truly glad he did.

As I noted above, many of...I'll even say the majority of...of Liv's fans consider 'I Honestly Love You' to be her best effort, and proved it when they took the song to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 5^th, 1974...just a scosh over five months after it's release on April 28^th of that same year. While we were at it, we made it Platinum with a little over two million copies sold. (Remember, this was before CDs and digital sales. All of the sales were on vinyl. And yes...I had the album.). The song also snagged the Grammy for Record Of The Year and Liv took home the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Liv's soulful voice, telling her forbidden love how she felt about him, crooned sweetly from radio speakers all summer long, multiple times an hour. Trust me when I say a few million guys imagined she was singing sright to them when she sang it. Mid summer in the mid-Seventies? The US...specifically the kids in the US...really loved Livvie.

'I Honestly Love You' will pop up occasionally on Oldies stations...never often enough, though, and it's always a treat when it does.

So enjoy! I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton John.

First bonus...Liv performs 'I Honestly Love You' live on the Andy Williams Show in September 1974, just before she topped the Hot 100 with it.

Second Bonus...When you perform your signature song with the accompaniment of the signature symphony orchestra of your home country...you are an icon. Olivia Newton John performs 'I Honestly Love You with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2012.