So who wrote it? Well, fourteen years ago, I found myself stuck in traffic in George Street in Sydney behind a taxi bearing a big ad for Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz – The Peter Allen Musical.

This, however, was a blockbuster - our new dame's first Number One in America and Canada (and Sweden) - and it was written by Australia's most successful pop songwriter: Unfortunately, most of her greatest hits were written by either UK songwriters (including our friend Don Black) or US songwriters ( Grease). So it seems appropriate to pick a Newton-John smasheroo for our Australia Day Song of the Week. (I'm having a run of bad luck at the bookies, but I'll bet on Dame Kylie before the Twenties are out.) We all love Livvy, not just for the early stuff but also the luster of her presence in the more recent undoubted Australian cinematic masterpiece A Few Best Men. I am not generally in favor of knighthoods for rockers, but, since they seem de rigueur, I'll take Dame Olivia before most of the alternatives. The future shows up so fast in Oz that it's already Post-Australia Day in Australia, but the national holiday takes longer to work its way around to my neck of the woods, and the great merit of our tardy overseas jubilations is that they don't seem to be afflicted by the paroxysms of self-loathing, virtue-signaling and guilt-tripping with which the Aussie media now observe the occasion (which may be why my old chum Julie Bishop is celebrating the day from the safe distance of Earl's Court).Īnyway, this is the first Australia Day since Olivia Newton-John pulled off an impressive double: in the Queen's Birthday Honours last June, she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen's New Year Honours a couple of weeks back, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Andy Williams released a version in 1974 on his album, You Lay So Easy on My Mind.Happy Australia Day to our readers Down Under. The song won Newton-John both the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 17th Grammy Awards. 11 on its '40 Most Softsational Soft-Rock Songs' list. It also appears in the musical about Allen's life, The Boy from Oz. The song was written by Jeff Barry and the Australian composer Peter Allen the latter recorded it around the same time on his album Continental American. Released on the Long Live Love album in the United Kingdom by EMI, it was eventually released on the album If You Love Me, Let Me Know in the United States on EMI Records. I Honestly Love You was arranged and played on by Alan Hawkshaw who received the American Academy of Arts & Sciences best arrangement 1974. The song was Newton-John's first number-one single in the United States and Canada.

'I Honestly Love You' (first released in Australia as 'I Love You, I Honestly Love You', per its chorus) is a worldwide pop hit single for Olivia Newton-John in 1974.

Olivia newton john i honestly love you