Caroline Sullivan 

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John: This Christmas – review

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John's Christmas album is more tasteful than you might expect – marginally – writes Caroline Sullivan
  
  


John Travolta's sleevenotes reveal that, on discovering You're the One That I Want had become the best-selling pop duet in history, he and Olivia Newton-John decided to celebrate as anyone would: by making a Christmas album with guest spots by Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett and James Taylor. The potential for schmaltz here is great, but it bobs along tastefully, even when Cliff Richard turns up. Bennett dominates Winter Wonderland, and Streisand is lustrous on I'll be Home for Christmas. Travolta and Newton-John themselves sound unfeasibly young and earnest, except when they steer Baby It's Cold Outside in a toe-curlingly "sexy" direction. One newie, I Think You Might Like It, is deeply strange: nothing says "festive" like a country hoedown that features Travolta crooning about his private plane.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*