"Now we are here, in..."

Guilty Pleasures #2

Xanandu - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

"A place, where nobody dared to go"!

Forget the dodgy movie, I really love this collection of songs. The first five tracks written by John Farrar, feature Olivia Newton John with Cliff Richard, Gene Kelly and The Tubes chipping in, and the second five, written by Jeff Lynne, are performed by the Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia hitting the high notes on the title track.

When it came out in 1980 I was a big ELO fan so I was naturally drawn to it. However, I didn't buy it at the time due to my dislike of the sugar sweet pairing of ONJ and Cliff. Earlier this year I finally succumbed to temptation and bought the damn thing. Wow! What a feel good album! There were at least six singles taken off it surrounding the film's release and that's an indication of how good it is. I'm thinking that now perhaps the time is right for Xanadu to be resurrected as a West End musical. I'm sure that the mixture of Big Band and Rock music, dancing and 80's cheese factor would make it a smash hit - "All Over The World" (groan).