Xanadu (Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra song)

June 20, 1980

Xanadu is a disco - pop song by Olivia Newton-John with Electric Light Orchestra. He was part of the soundtrack of the film of the same name.

History

The song was written by Jeff Lynne and recorded in late 1979/Anfang 1980 in Musicland Studios in Munich. Newton-John sings the lead vocals, Lynne contributed backing vocals and provided for the instrumentation.

The song had previously been recorded as a demo and sent to the film producers. The scenes were then rotated to the not yet perfect demo. Later had the rhythm of the actually recorded songs to be aligned with that of the demos, so that the finished piece more suited to the movie scenes. Therefore, the rhythm is not quite perfect, but this is not noticeable to most listeners.

The song reached # 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, Germany and Austria. In the U.S., the song reached # 8 on the charts. It was the first record that begins with the letter X Song, who came there in the charts and stayed until 2001 ("X " by Xzibit ) the only one.

More versions

In 1996 the song was covered in Australia by Kirsty K. in a dance version that made ​​it into the local charts. In 2009, the Scottish singer-songwriter Sharleen Spiteri on a version for her second studio album The Movie Songbook. The single reached number 71 on the British charts. More versions among others originate by Dannii Minogue or Lightspeed Champion.