Pop Queens

Last month I wrote pieces on two of the biggest-ever queens of pop, for Rock and Roll Globe, which I’m sharing here in case you missed them.

Early in the month, I eulogized one of the giants of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Olivia Newton-John. What a career she had! 5 #1 Hot 100 singles, and another 10 top 10s besides those. Not to mention 22 top 10s on the Adult Contemporary chart, including an astounding 10 #1s - seven of which were consecutive.

And if you think about the twists ONJ’s career took, she really was the natural predecessor to Madonna: from country folkie (her first hit was a cover of Dylan’s “If Not for You” to mainstream pop artist, taking a bit of a turn with Grease and then sexing things way up starting with Totally Hot, before of course the Physical phenomenon. (That said, don’t sleep on her mid-late ‘80s, as I point out in the piece; I particularly love her take on John/Taupin’s “The Rumour.”)

Almost precisely when ONJ’s career started to fade - her final top 10 single was in 1983 - Madonna’s was heating up. (The latter first hit the pop top 10 in ‘84, with “Borderline.”) Chances are you know that story, of course. But what you may not know is her history on Billboard’s Dance Club/Play chart, which she first made in late ‘82 and first topped in early ‘83, and which she’s hit #1 on an absurd 50 times. (No one’s ever topped any Billboard chart, in any genre, that many times.) Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones is a triple-disc celebration of that milestone, and it’s definitely worth your time, even if I have some issues with it. Separate the wheat from the chaff - and there’s definitely both, but oh, what delicious wheat - and you get a sensational collection representing her rich dance history. The run of her first decade-plus, especially, is fairly un-toppable: “Physical Attraction”! “Into the Groove”! “Vogue”! “Deeper and Deeper”! “Bedtime Story”!

Obviously, without Madonna there’s no Gaga, no Ariana Grande, or any of their ilk. But without Olivia Newton-John becoming the biggest female solo artist of the ‘70s, Madonna’s career may have had a very different trajectory. And heaven knows that, whether in Grease and Xanadu, or across MTV, both of them knew the importance of dancing - for inspiration. C’mon.