I'd never heard of The Rave-Ups prior to finding a sealed copy of the record. I was out of town and had popped in at a record store while the wife was clothes shopping, this happens a lot. It was a strange little shop that was squeezed into an alley entrance, and the stock was piled into the corners in a system only the owner seemed to understand. Despite it being cramped, it was fun poking around. I didn't find anything on my list, but the owner seemed determined to find something for me ... and he would rummage around while we were chatting about stuff, and he'd pop his head up occasionally and show me something he thought I might like. He managed to get a fair pile going, so I figured it was best that I just look through what he was stacking up. He had managed to get my measure pretty quickly as most of the records he'd pulled out were from artists I was aware of, and thankfully I had a lot of what he was showing me, but there were a couple that caught my attention.
As a kid there was something pretty special about Olivia Newton John. Ten year old me would song along to the radio, belting out the chorus to "Let Me Be There" and all was right in the world. It also wasn't the only song I would sing along to. There were others too, and it was weird that this country singer was such a big deal. Of course, when I saw her album covers she was so pretty. Yeah, that's a little embarrassing now to think about, but hey it is what it is. Of course this was all before thing changed when Grease was released. Oh make no mistake there was something wicked about "Evil" Sandy in her black pants, but the music ... it was, it was, unthinkably horrid. HORRID. Of course time has softened my opinion on the movie, and the soundtrack, but at the time. This was the forbidden period, and the disco stuff, and then the workout videos were too much. However, this era, this early chapter before things went south, was magic. Now, with all this gushin