Xanadu (soundtrack) (35th anniversary)

Welcome back to Soundtrack Sunday.

Today marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the chart debut for the soundtrack from Xanadu, a movie that would then hit theatres a month later on August 8th of 1980. The record reached number 1 in Newton-John's native home of Australia, number 2 in the UK, and number 4 on the US Billboard Album chart (with thirty-six weeks on the charts). It also spawned six top 40 singles.

For my full review of this favorite of mine, click here.

Xanadu (soundtrack)

Welcome back to Soundtrack Sunday. This one goes out to one of my Twitter followers (a fellow lover of all 80's music) who shares my immense appreciation for this album.

On August 8th of 1980, Universal Pictures released a film starring Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly and Michael Beck. It is the story of Sonny Malone (Beck), a talented artist who was unsatisfied with his day job of painting larger versions of album covers and longs for something more. Into his life comes a mysterious girl named Kira (Newton-John) who turns out to no only be an artistic muse for him but also an actual muse (i.e. daughter of the Olympian god Zeus). Add to the mix former big-band leader Danny McGuire (Kelly) who is looking for one more big adventure and you get the $20 million dollar musical extravaganza Xanadu.