Studio Album · No. 6
Clearly Love Songwriting Credits by Olivia Newton-John
Produced by John Farrar · Engineered by Tony Clark, Alan Rouse
Holds writing credit on 0 of 11 tracks
Authorship Breakdown 0 / 11 documented
Scored across the 11 tracks with documented writers, by whether Olivia Newton-John carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 11 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
Clearly Love is an interpreter's album, not a writer's. Olivia Newton-John does not carry a single writing credit on the record; her contribution is her voice and phrasing. The dominant creative name is producer and arranger John Farrar, who shapes every track and also wrote two of them, 'Something Better to Do' and 'Sail into Tomorrow.' The rest of the material is sourced from a spread of outside songwriters, including Mickey Newbury, Labi Siffre, Linda Hargrove, and the Berglund-Phillips team who supplied both the title track and 'Just a Lot of Folk.' The record even reaches for two well-known covers, Eddie Cochran's 'Summertime Blues' and the Scott-Russell standard 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother,' which underlines the point: this is a curated collection performed by Newton-John, with her name sitting outside the writers' column entirely.
Clearly Love is the seventh studio album by Olivia Newton-John, released on September 30, 1975, and produced and arranged by her longtime collaborator John Farrar. It arrived at the peak of her mid-1970s run of country-pop success in the United States, following a string of crossover hits. Newton-John writes nothing on the record; every song comes from an outside writer, with Farrar himself supplying two of them and handling the arrangements. The album leans on soft country-pop and adult contemporary material, from the Labi Siffre song 'Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying' to a cover of Eddie Cochran's 'Summertime Blues' and the Hollies standard 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.' Two singles carried it: 'Something Better to Do' and 'Let It Shine,' both of which reached number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London and mixed at AIR Studios, it is a pure singer's record built around Newton-John's voice rather than her pen.
Track Listing & Credits 11 tracks
| # | Title | Lyricist(s) | Composer(s) | Producer(s) | Performers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Something Better to Do
#13
|
John Farrar | John Farrar | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 2 |
Lovers
|
Mickey Newbury | Mickey Newbury | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 3 |
Slow Down Jackson
|
Michele BrourmanKaren Gottlieb | Michele BrourmanKaren Gottlieb | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 4 |
He's My Rock
|
Sharon K. Dobbins | Sharon K. Dobbins | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 5 |
Sail into Tomorrow
|
John Farrar | John Farrar | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 6 |
Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying
|
Labi Siffre | Labi Siffre | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 7 |
Clearly Love
|
Diane BerglundJim Phillips | Diane BerglundJim Phillips | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 8 |
Let It Shine
#30
|
Linda Hargrove | Linda Hargrove | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 9 |
Summertime Blues
|
Eddie CochranJerry Capehart | Eddie CochranJerry Capehart | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 10 |
Just a Lot of Folk (The Marshmallow Song)
|
Diane BerglundJim Phillips | Diane BerglundJim Phillips | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |
| 11 |
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
|
Bob Russell | Bobby Scott | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John (Lead Vocals) |