Music Break Weekend: 1978's 'Olivia!' With Abba & Andy Gibb

There was a time when music specials were a standard part of the primetime television landscape. Once you had a hit or two, you cranked out an hour-long special with some musical guests and a few creaky "comedy" sketches. But the best part of these specials were inevitably the live performances. 

One of the best examples of this comes from the 1978 special "Olivia" This nearly 20-minute segment is the entire musical performance from the show and it includes songs from host Olivia Newton-John, Abba and Andy Gibb. Newton-John delivers flawless performances of "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)," "Have You Never Been Mellow/Please Mr. Please" and a haunting version of "Hopelessly Devoted To You." ABBA sings some of their biggest hits, including "Take A Chance On Me" and "Dancing Queen." But female leads Frida and Agnetha have zero charisma and the vocals are shaky at times. Due to his young death, Andy Gibb is forgotten by most music fans. But here he delivers solid performances of hits like "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" and a funktastic "Shadow Dancing."

Unlike a lot of YouTube video, the footage is crisp and is in stereo. That's thanks to the show's original sound engineer, who posts under the name ArgoWho. Here's his explanation of where the footage comes from and why it sounds so amazing:

ONE OF A KIND - FIRST GENERATION AUDIO. This is the concert segment IN TRUE STEREO from the 1978 special "Olivia!" Just prior to shooting this segment with a live orchestra, the audio guy asked if I would like a stereo feed of the sound. Of course I said yes and fed two three-quarter inch VCRs with the special feed. Stereo TV was not available widely until the mid-1980s. After completion of the special, I manually synced the 2" master of the show to my ¾" master and, viola, a stereo version of the concert with Andy Gibb, ABBA, and Olivia! Shot just days before it aired, the ABC-TV special "Olivia!" was the marathon of all television specials I edited while in Hollywood. For 36 nonstop hours, director Steve Binder (my all time favorite) and the post-production crew dashed toward an unbelievable deadline and beat it. This is the entire concert segment. The air version begins at 3:01 and ends prior to "Thank you for the Music" (which was used for closing credits). Please select 480p and full screen (and don't forget headphones!); the quality is matchless!

 

I've also included a link to the entire special, although the sound quality isn't nearly as impressive.