LET’S (NOT) GET PHYSICAL

‘Grease’ Star Nearly Passed On Iconic Song for Fear of Ruining Good Girl Image

Olivia Newton-John embraced an edgier persona with her 1981 hit song “Physical.”

Grease star Olivia Newton-John almost passed on her iconic 1981 single “Physical” because of the song’s sexually explicit nature. John Mason—the late star’s lawyer, who represented Newton-John for five decades—wrote a 2025 memoir titled Crazy Lucky where he recounted his longtime client’s trepidation about the song. Mason shared that when the actress initially read the lyrics, she said, “John, I simply cannot do it. I can’t sing the lyrics… Please!” Mason told Fox News Digital that Newton-John “always had what she called a ‘goody-two-shoes’ persona,” in large part because of her star-making turn as Sandy Olsson in the hit 1978 musical-comedy Grease. Mason believed the “edgy” song was the perfect vehicle to help her shed that innocent image. According to Mason, “Physical” was first offered to Tina Turner, who turned it down because the lyrics were a “bit too sexy,” which is how it came to Newton-John. However, the actress was worried the song would alienate her fans. “John, the lyrics have me singing ‘There’s nothin’ left to talk about unless it’s horizontally,!’” she told Mason. But he believed that the risk was “worth it,” and her manager, Roger Davies, agreed. The tune ended up becoming the biggest hit of Newton-John’s career and, according to Billboard, “one of the defining smashes of the 1980s.” “The [music] video is hilarious to this day,” Mason said. “I want to give credit to Roger Davies for getting Olivia to open up and let that happen. But as always, with Olivia as an actress or a singer, she pulled off what she wanted to do in a spectacular way.”