We have Muzak at work, constantly piping music into The Store. I usually don’t pay a great deal of attention to it, though I do rather like our current “classic rock/hits of the 70s and 80s” mix that we have going on. I never thought that I’d hear “Come On Eileen”, the official pop anthem of overalls-wearers like myself, on a daily basis, but there it is.
Yesterday, though, I had to stop and listen, because it was a song I hadn’t heard in many years. I’m still stunned that this song turned up on our Muzak mix. It’s never, to my knowledge, been a hit. It comes from one of the goofiest musical movies ever made: Xanadu, which was supposed to be a big star vehicle for Olivia Newton John. Somehow, when they made this movie–about a roller-disco dance club called Xanadu–they managed to entice Gene Kelly to appear in it. I remember reading later that Kelly was disillusioned by the production and the filmmakers’ lack of knowledge of what went into making musicals; I suspect that Kelly, who was in his late 60s at the time, was hoping for a throwback to his beloved genre. Alas.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever watched Xanadu all the way through, but I suspect that nowadays it would inhabit the same kind of space as flicks like Battle Beyond the Stars: movies that aren’t really good, but are better than their reputations for being bad. I know that Xanadu has become a kind of cult classic, and that the soundtrack (which included ELO, one of my favorite bands and a major source of listening in recent years) produced some well-known songs that were huge hits on the European charts. But even so, I don’t recall the title song ever getting much by way of airplay at all…and yet, there it was, playing away in a retail grocery store in 2022. What a world.
Here’s the movie’s last number. The actual Olivia Newton John song starts about 3:30 in this video, but those first three minutes are worth watching just for the sheer goofiness of it all. Enjoy!
Because music. There were three top 20 songs from the Xanada that featured ON-J:
Magic, 4 weeks at #1 pop
Xanadu with ELO, #8 pop (and yes, I heard it on the radio, not nearly as much as Magic)
Suddenly with Cliff Richard, #20 pop
Also, ELO had two more hits
I’m Alive, #16 pop
All Over the World, #8 pop
No, I never saw the movie. But, for 1980, I was impressed by the number of people of color in that scene.
TODAY’S JEOPARDY (12/1) in a category all about Remembering ON-J. The $1,000 clue: Olivia called it an amazing experience working & dancing with this legend on “Xanadu”, which would be his last film. Picture of her and Gene Kelly. NO ONE RANG IN.