also starred Marvin, Welch and Farrar. By this time, Olivia had also followed up her initial chart success six months earlier with another smash hit, a contemporary reworking of the traditional American country song ‘Banks Of The Ohio’.
The song was as old as the hills and was first recorded way back in 1936, but Olivia’s catchy version brought it up to date, helped by some resonant bass vocal refrains from Mike Sammes. Peter Gormley was a country music fan and Olivia felt entirely comfortable when it was suggested she record ‘Banks Of The Ohio’. She had frequently included the song in her set list on her club engagements and it had always gone down well. She was, moreover, well acquainted with country music after listening to the Tennessee Ernie Ford LPs she had, as a child, found nestling between her father’s opera albums.
‘Banks Of The Ohio’ entered the UK Top Ten at a time when ‘If Not For You’ had also started to make a dent in the charts in America, where the great Bob Dylan even professed approval of Olivia’s version of his song. ‘If Not For You’ finished up as a creditable Top Thirty US hit and also made the charts in South Africa, Ireland, Canada, Israel and across the Continent.
Hard on the heel of her hits, television, too, was now beckoning in a major fashion. Olivia had already made a guest appearance on Cliff’s BBC-TV series It’s Cliff Richard! earlier in the year where she’d been so nervous that Cliff held her hand to stop her shaking when they duetted together. But now, buoyed by the confidence of an international hit record, she was ready for bigger things and she was signed up as a resident guest star on Cliff’s new thirteen-week BBC-TV series, It’s Cliff Richard! . Cliff’s show, which started in January 1972, became required family viewing and the weekly TV exposure for Olivia helped her to secure a third consecutive UK hit with a cover version of George Harrison’s ‘What Is Life?’.
In addition to appearing in Cliff’s TV show, Olivia was also starring in the West End in a revue called Paris To Piccadilly with French singer Sacha Distel. She had her own fifteen-minute solo spot in the show, joined in the half-time finale, and later sang a duet with the French charmer.
Distel was strikingly good-looking and regarded as a sexy heartthrob in Britain. He had gained quite a reputation as a lover after embarking on a high-profile affair with French screen sex kitten Brigitte Bardot. In the UK, Sacha came to prominence when he had a Top Ten hit in 1970 with ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head’ and, although he didn’t sell huge quantities of records in Britain, he was always a popular performer and an interesting guest on any TV show. He sang well, played guitar, oozed Gallic charm and melted English female hearts with his obvious sex appeal and his soft French accent.
Olivia was only too aware that the audiences who turned up to the show at the Prince of Wales Theatre were predominantly female and were there to see sexy Sacha. The adoration emanating from the stalls for the chanteur was almost tangible. Despite her hit records, she had to accept that she was very much a minor addition on the bill. ‘At first it was frightening to go out and see so many women looking at you,’ she told Australian Women’s Weekly . ‘I mean, they could hate me. Women in an audience can get very resentful towards female artists on stage.’
Then one night, at the end of March 1972, Olivia arrived home, unusually past midnight, after appearing in concert, and coolly announced to Bruce she was breaking off their engagement and that their five-year love affair was over. Bruce was not only devastated, but also nonplussed. He’d had no inkling that anything was amiss between them. He pleaded with Olivia to give him some sort of explanation. According to Bruce, she was unable to do so, and the more he tried to prise the reason out of her, the more she clammed up. All she made
The song was as old as the hills and was first recorded way back in 1936, but Olivia’s catchy version brought it up to date, helped by some resonant bass vocal refrains from Mike Sammes. Peter Gormley was a country music fan and Olivia felt entirely comfortable when it was suggested she record ‘Banks Of The Ohio’. She had frequently included the song in her set list on her club engagements and it had always gone down well. She was, moreover, well acquainted with country music after listening to the Tennessee Ernie Ford LPs she had, as a child, found nestling between her father’s opera albums.
‘Banks Of The Ohio’ entered the UK Top Ten at a time when ‘If Not For You’ had also started to make a dent in the charts in America, where the great Bob Dylan even professed approval of Olivia’s version of his song. ‘If Not For You’ finished up as a creditable Top Thirty US hit and also made the charts in South Africa, Ireland, Canada, Israel and across the Continent.
Hard on the heel of her hits, television, too, was now beckoning in a major fashion. Olivia had already made a guest appearance on Cliff’s BBC-TV series It’s Cliff Richard! earlier in the year where she’d been so nervous that Cliff held her hand to stop her shaking when they duetted together. But now, buoyed by the confidence of an international hit record, she was ready for bigger things and she was signed up as a resident guest star on Cliff’s new thirteen-week BBC-TV series, It’s Cliff Richard! . Cliff’s show, which started in January 1972, became required family viewing and the weekly TV exposure for Olivia helped her to secure a third consecutive UK hit with a cover version of George Harrison’s ‘What Is Life?’.
In addition to appearing in Cliff’s TV show, Olivia was also starring in the West End in a revue called Paris To Piccadilly with French singer Sacha Distel. She had her own fifteen-minute solo spot in the show, joined in the half-time finale, and later sang a duet with the French charmer.
Distel was strikingly good-looking and regarded as a sexy heartthrob in Britain. He had gained quite a reputation as a lover after embarking on a high-profile affair with French screen sex kitten Brigitte Bardot. In the UK, Sacha came to prominence when he had a Top Ten hit in 1970 with ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head’ and, although he didn’t sell huge quantities of records in Britain, he was always a popular performer and an interesting guest on any TV show. He sang well, played guitar, oozed Gallic charm and melted English female hearts with his obvious sex appeal and his soft French accent.
Olivia was only too aware that the audiences who turned up to the show at the Prince of Wales Theatre were predominantly female and were there to see sexy Sacha. The adoration emanating from the stalls for the chanteur was almost tangible. Despite her hit records, she had to accept that she was very much a minor addition on the bill. ‘At first it was frightening to go out and see so many women looking at you,’ she told Australian Women’s Weekly . ‘I mean, they could hate me. Women in an audience can get very resentful towards female artists on stage.’
Then one night, at the end of March 1972, Olivia arrived home, unusually past midnight, after appearing in concert, and coolly announced to Bruce she was breaking off their engagement and that their five-year love affair was over. Bruce was not only devastated, but also nonplussed. He’d had no inkling that anything was amiss between them. He pleaded with Olivia to give him some sort of explanation. According to Bruce, she was unable to do so, and the more he tried to prise the reason out of her, the more she clammed up. All she made
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