The pairing is complete nostalgia. There is no other reason
that John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are together for a Christmas album
aside from the fact that they were both cast together in a small little movie
musical called Grease over thirty
years ago.
Grease has
flourished since its first run on charm alone. How else can you explain the
impossible plot of an Australian immigrant-who is hot off an innocent summer
fling with a local gearhead-as she navigates the social landscape of high
school with a collective of sexually active girls, headed by a 34-year old
Stockard Channing?
As the main characters in the film, Olivia and Travolta
aren’t particularly compatible on screen and their voices don’t blend together
all that notably during their duets. Regardless, they have managed to become
the biggest selling duet in pop history and their presence in Grease completes the film’s campy homage
to 50’s B-movies, giving all of that aforementioned improbability a free pass.
How these characters managed to ride Greased Lightening up
through the skies and endured for so long is pretty remarkable, so the idea of
both of them returning together to perform Christmas music isn’t completely out
of the realm. Unfortunately, when one doesn’t properly attend to the execution
of such a reunion, what you get is a record that’s more acknowledged for its
weird aftertaste than musical notoriety.
I won’t even mention the cover, because it’d be like
bitching about how Kraft Macaroni and Cheese tastes nothing like a homemade
batch of the gooey comfort food. This is truth in advertising, and the only
thing that would make the cover of This
Christmas more awesome is if Travolta sported a cheesy seasonal sweater.
As hard as it is to be polite about the cover art, I simply
cannot get away from all of the tabloid overtones when Travolta takes over the
resistant role of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” We’re all accustomed to Olivia’s
occasional glimpses as the sexual aggressor (Shake Shack, anyone?), but to hear
Danny Zuko put up a fight to Sandy’s advances thirty years after the fact makes
for a perfect hushed whisper of “Beard!”
There are other laugh-out-loud moments within This Christmas that are much less
juvenile, but equally surreal. Like the part during “I’ll Be Home For
Christmas” when Barbara Streisand pops in for a verse for absolutely no reason
at all.
Speaking of guest cameos, there are tons of ‘em. From
another brake-slamming appearance (this time with James Taylor on “Deck The
Halls”) to a not-so-subtle nod to the Scientology folks with some
ivory-tickling from Chick Corea, John and Olivia bring a whole slew of friends
to join in their Christmas spirit and it’s as sincere as you pretending to
think the gag gift you get at work during your department’s holiday party is
funny.
There’s octogenarian Tony Bennett who drops in for “Winter
Wonderland,” if you count having your verses recorded at a completely different
studio during a completely different session as “dropping in.”
ONJ brings out longtime musical partner John Farrar for the
record’s lone original track “I Think You Might Like It.” Farrar was responsible
for many of Olivia’s biggest hits, and he served as both the writer and
producer for “You’re The One That I Want,” the hit single that propelled the
pair into the record books.
Farrar’s latest tune for is being called the sequel to that Grease classic, and it’s hard to dispute
that claim since it follows nearly the same chord progression under the guise
of some light country swag.
 |
| Check out the shoes. |
Clearly, I’m not the man who should be reviewing This Christmas because I’m overflowing
with cynicism at every turn.
So I ask my wife, who often fills the house with a bit of
Christmas singing of her own during the holidays, to offer her opinion of the
pairing. Suddenly, I find her singing along with This Christmas, causing me to consider that maybe it is my jaded
outlook that’s causing me to be so dismissive of this holiday collection.
When I ask her if This
Christmas has caused her spontaneous outburst of seasonal caroling, she
admitted that it wasn’t the quality of the songs that prompted her singing, but
just the familiarity of the material.
Indeed, the selection doesn’t stray to far from the
obligatory set list that every holiday record seems to cull from. Case in
point: ONJ has now selected “Silent Night” for every single Christmas album she
has released.
This Christmas is
the perfect holiday record for anyone who has been waiting since Two Of A Kind for the return of John
Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Beyond that, This Christmas is another run-of-the-mill collection of uninspired
holiday classics featuring a bunch of questionable guest appearances and two
longstanding friends who can’t seem to get away from those hallowed halls of
Rydell High.
An extra star has been added for this release as all
proceeds from the sale of This Christmas go
to the artist’s charitable foundations.
This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise.
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