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A Celebration In Song |  | Artist: Olivia Newton-John Friends
Label: EMI
Category: Music
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £4.95
as of 23/11/2009 02:18 GMT details
You Save: £11.04 (69%)
New (25) Used (1) Collectible (1) from £4.95
Seller: village-music-world-usa
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 60816
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 5099922727428
ASIN: B001BS3H1E
Release Date: August 18, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Right Here With You (with Delta Goodrum) | | • | Find A Little Faith (with Cliff Richard) | | • | Courageous (with Melinda Schneider) | | • | The Heart Knows (with Barry Gibb) | | • | Everything Love Is (with Jimmy Barnes) | | • | Isn't It Amazing (with Sun Ho) | | • | Never Far Away (with Richard Marx) | | • | Sunburned Country (with Keith Urban) | | • | Reckless (with John Farrar) | | • | Angel In The Wings (with Jann Arden) | | • | The Water Is Wide (with Amy Sky and Ryandan) | | • | Beautiful Thing (with Belinda Emmett) |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Most pop-oriented ONJ album in years! August 3, 2008
B. Carr (UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
A solid collection of mainstream pop duets between Olivia and a roster of big international names: Cliff Richard, Barry Gibb, Delta Goodrem, Richard Marx, Keith Urban, Jann Arden and Olivia's long-time producer, John Farrar. This is probably the most pop-oriented new studio album Olivia has produced since the late 80s, and so is likely to find favour amongst fans who remember those days with fondness.
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br /The song choices are very strong, and offer a pleasing variety which showcases Olivia's vocal talents very well. A particular highlight is "Reckless", a track originally recorded on John Farrar's eponymous 1980 album, and a song that fans have wanted ONJ to record for years. Here, she adds her vocals to Farrar's original recording, giving the track a heady, timeless feel. This one wouldn't be out of place on her "Physical" album.
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br /The Barry Gibb and Cliff Richard duets are similarly classic ONJ fare, and the beautiful acoustic "The Water Is Wide" (a 3-hander with Amy Sky and RyanDan) and the ethereal "Angel In The Wings" (with Jann Arden) are likely to become new favourites.
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br /Also contains the rousing "Right Here With You", a power-ballad duet with Delta Goodrem and the theme to Olivia's recent charitable Great Walk To Beijing 2008, which raised thousands for her Melbourne cancer treatment centre.
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br /Don't let a prejudice against charity records deter you from experiencing a very high-quality, inspiring, and perfectly executed pop gem from one of entertainment's evergreen performers.
popular music September 13, 2009
Mr. K. Bridge (manchester england)
a must have album for any ardent fan of olivia newton-john.
br /this is a superb album of duets with olivia singing with various friends.
Olivia and her friends hit the spot September 12, 2008
Stuart A. Smith (Edinburgh Scotland)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
A Celebration In Song
br /A Celebration In Song finds Olivia in great form vocally and together with her friends she has put together a stong set of thought provoking songs.Anyone who has been through difficult times recently whether emotionally or physically will find something to relate to in these wonderful lyrics.
br /The highlights are Find A Little Faith with the timeless Sir Cliff Richard - Olivia and Sir Cliff have performed together many times and always blend well , Reckless with John Farrar takes Olivia back to her Physical era and has John's production stamp all over it - wonderful to hear these two making music together again even if it is John's original track with Olivia's recently added vocal. Angel In The Wings is lovely , something I think we can all relate to and beautifully sung by Olivia and Jann Arden.
br /A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to Olivia's Cancer and Wellness project so it's all for a good cause too.
br /I guess you realise I'm a huge fan - Well done Olivia
 It's for charity. May 29, 2008
bobby morrow (United Kingdom)
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
It seems that most of Olivia Newton-John's releases of the last few years have either been for charity or are part of something else she's trying to sell. Don't get me wrong, they've mostly been very good. It's just that it would be nice if she found a batch of songs she liked and made a 'proper' album, that's all.
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br /That ACIS is as good as it is, we should probably be grateful for, because it doesn't sound like that much effort has gone into it's making! Take the inclusion of two tracks from her shocking 2002 Aussie duets album '(2)'. I mean, considering the many wonderful duets O has recorded over her lengthy career, why were these, two of the worst tracks on the album, chosen? Keith Urban, once one of the hottest names in country music, once, I said, joins O on the loathsome 'Sunburned Country', a startlingly badly written 'homage' to their homeland, rendered even more ludicrous by their both living in LA most of their professional lives! the horrid thing lasts nearly 6 minutes and is poorly performed by O and Urban.
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br /'Never Far Away' with Richard Marx is even worse. A vile, tuneless, warbly monstrosity that never kicks off in it's seemingly endless 4 and a half minutes. I mean, if she was going to pinch songs from '(2)', why didn't she pick the Darren Hayes or Human Nature ones? They're at least bearable.
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br /Amy Sky, more of a life partner than songwriter to Olivia these days, produces the album and has written some of the songs. Her only vocal performance is on the traditional 'The Water Is Wide' with Olivia and RyanDan. It's a bit of a mish-mash, no focus at all, just too many trembly voices on one song. Sky contributes 'Angel In The Sky', for Olivia and Jann Arden. It's pleasant enough but like much of the album, cliches rain down like confetti. There's much talk of 'not giving up', 'finding faith' and 'walking on', the latter a reference, one amongst many, to the Great Walk To Beiijing, which O recently completed in aid of her Cancer Centre Appeal.
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br /Melinda Schneider, a name new to me, gives us 'Courageous' (told you!), a lovely song made even better by her sweet voice. It's awful to say, but when Olivia joins her on the second verse, she actually spoils it! It sounds like Olivia recorded her part on the Great Walk, so hoarse and flat she sounds. Her 'walk ons' on the chorus are pitifully weak.
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br /She's in better form with Cliff on 'Find A Little Faith'. They've always worked well together and this is actually one of their better efforts, believe it or not. Her duet with Barry Gibb, 'The Heart Knows' is Bee Gees by numbers, though, and the song sounds like it's been cut short for some reason.
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br /'Reckless' with John Farrar has long been a fan fave and a song we'd hoped Olivia would cover. Now she has and it's... OK. Certainly not bad, but like much of ACIS, there's something missing.
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br /Two of the brighter moments come in 'Isn't It Amazing' with Sun and 'Right Here With You' with Delta Goodrem. The former is the sweet pop Olivia used to rule at and the latter, cliches to one side, is one of the few duets here where the artists really blend together and put their backs into it.
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br /And that's largely it. As I said, it's probably better than it has to be, and it's certainly better than '(2)', but it would be nice if next time Olivia took a little more time and care. I appreciate there was limited time in putting this out along with the walk, but Olivia really shouldn't be skimping on her talent this way. And do a proper album now, please, Olivia!
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