VIBES
SOUNDTRACK
Vocal Song Tracks
Xanadu featured the following songs:
Click/tap highlighted track names for full Soundtrack release info
Artists are linked if they appear in other featured movies.
Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia Newton-John
Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia Newton-John
Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia Newton-John
Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia Newton-John
Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia Newton-John
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia Newton-John
Drum Dreams
Electric Light Orchestra
You Made Me Love You
Fool Country
Opinion
Stupendous Soundtrack! Defined 1980! It has recently been remastered and is greatly improved. Use our media guide.Update Us
Song Trivia
Rewind Archive
John Farrar had been Olivia Newton-John’s record producer since 1970. He has also written some of her biggest hits, including two Oscar-nominated songs from 'Grease' (1978) as well as a worldwide top-ten hit single from her eleventh studio album that same year.John and Bruce Welch co-produced Olivia Newton-John’s first record. Their first single, a Bob Dylan tune was a hit in the U. S. and England in 1971. John started to produce Olivia’s records on his own in 1972 and the album released in May 1974 containing a further two hit singles was certified double platinum. Farrar got a Grammy as producer.
Farrar wrote and produced some incidental music for Xanadu plus five original songs for the film – "Dancin," "Magic," "Suddenly," "Whenever You’re Away From Me" and, of course, Olivia's personal all-time favorite, "Suspended In Time"
Thanks to Michael And Mike Martin
Three songs were available as B sides of singles from this movie, but not on the sound track. "Drum Dreams" was the long intro from the club opening sequence and was only available on the B side to the single "All Over The World". "Fool Country" was the B side of "Magic" and was one of the songs played in the club, hald being heavy metal. "You Made Me Love You" sung by Olivia is the b-side to the 7" single release of "Suddenly" peformed by Olivia and Cliff Richard. The song is heard in the film while Danny is talking to himself about getting old and remembering when he used to perform in the '40s. This is just before the "Whenever I'm Away From You" number in Danny's house.Thanks to Steve Lewis
The film features the title theme song, "Xanadu," which is the only song in history beginning with the letter 'X' to break into Billboard's Top 40.Rewind Archive
Xanadu, the movie, may have been a film flop, but Xanadu, the soundtrack, was a huge hit for both Olivia and the Electric Light Orchestra. For years, Jeff Lynne, the lead singer of ELO, disavowed his work on Xanadu. In interviews about how he came up with the title song, Lynne has said he was instructed to use the word "Xanadu" as many times as possible. Mission accomplished as he's said that he used the word "Xanadu" 27 times in the song. In recent years, Lynne has acknowledged the merit in his Xanadu work and in fact recorded a new version of Xanadu a few years ago with his lead vocals instead of Olivia's.Rewind Archive
Xanadu and Magic were both top 5 hits. Olivia has said in interviews that "Suspended in Time" is her favorite ballad of her repertoirre. She performed Suspended in Time for the first time live during her 30-year anniversary concert series.Thanks to Gary
Xanadu was ELO's only number 1 selling record. The original album came with 8 free postcard scenes from the movie.Thanks to Barry Freiman
While ELO did the bulk of the non-Olivia music in the film, the "Dancin'" scene where the two male leads consider the type of club they want, features 80's rock band, The Tubes, in a duet with Olivia. Originally, the 3 women lip-synccing for Olivia in the "Dancin'" scene were originially supposed to be 3 Olivias with different colored hair -- but the expense of doing a 3-way film split was too high, given the already high expense of the "aura" effects for Olivia and the other muses.Thanks to Rusty Wyrick
The song Xanadu appears in the movie 3 times (in the space of perhaps 10 minutes). The first time the song ends, definitively, in a minor chord. The second time the song ends in a major chord, with Olivia singing notes in a descending scale. The final version is over the end credits, again with the minor-key ending.The minor-key ending, to my knowledge, was never available on any released recording.
Next: The Instrumental Music
Instrumental Score
Primary Composer(s): Barry DeVorzon, John Farrar
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1980 Universal Pictures
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