This is a Christmas video of Olivia Newton-John from 1965, and there is something weird sounding about her voice.
I can’t tell whether it’s the fact she was so young, or is it the audio is distorted, or that she is singing with an accent. She usually sounds fairly American on her records.
Here’s the video on Christmas Time Down Under
So do you think there is something “off” about it, or just the fact she was young or whatever?
I think she was just young.
Sometimes if you play a PAL video in an NTSC country, where the frame rate is slightly adjusted from 25fps to 30fps, the pitch of the audio will change. That may be at play here, during the capture or playback process. But in this case I think it’s probably the age of the clip and the youth of Olivia.
I think what makes it sound a bit odd is that she has an English accent, not Australian or American. That’s not surprising, since her father and mother were both English. She must have switched to an American accent as her career developed.
I never thought of the PAL to NTSC things.
I wasn’t aware she had an English accent, I knew she was English, but she moved to Australia when she was little. She sounds like other Aussies to me. Does she have an English accent today?
Another thing that I think threw me off was how strong her voice is. She popularized that “breathy” kind of singing (As in “Have You Never Been Mellow”) and she doesn’t sing like that on this video nor on her early stuff.
The English accent thing is new to me. Thanks for your help guys
When Olivia Newton John was at the height of her popularity, I was a teenager and she was a blonde goddess. She had one of the most beautiful girl-next-door faces I’ve ever seen. Right up there with Grace Kelly.
This is what she looked like back then: Olivia Newton John Ca 1975
Now it looks like she’s had a little plastic surgery, and it doesn’t suit her well. She looks good for her age, but just… different.
But she had a great voice. Like Karen Carpenter, she was never given much critical acclaim during her peak because she came along at a time when music was supposed to be ultra-cool and edgy, and anything that smacked of middle-of-the-road got savaged by the critics. But her voice is just gorgeous.
So let me ask you, do you think there is a difference in her voice in the video?
It’s recognizably her voice. It sounds like it might have been recorded on equipment that wasn’t perfect stable in timing - it has a little pitch warble in it that sounds artificial. It could also have been processed with an analog reverb. Another possibility is that it was slightly sped up to match pitch with the background singers or the background music which may have been recorded at a different time.
I think it’s just an old recording that used some old-time processing. Nothing particularly strange about it.
Nope, nothing strange.
I listened to some more of her old, old stuff and I think Giles hit it right. I think what was throwing me off was her accent.
What is going on in that video? Some kind of Christmas sweatshop staffed by Aussie teens?
Here’s another early one where Olivia tried a different singing style. Sounds a little like Dusty Springfield. It takes a while for singers to develop a signature style.
They’re making Christmas pudding 